Touched by an Angel

One of the joys and challenges of atmospheric firing are the surprise additions by the kiln. In every firing there will be a couple of pieces which the kiln gods singled out for special attention with a splash of green or brown or gray soda glass. This occurs when the soda vapor glaze builds up on the underside of a kiln shelf to the extent that it finally gives in to gravity, and a drip of it falls off, often onto a pot.
Sometimes it will be bubbly or fizzy, and brittle: in those cases, the piece is obviously a second or refire. I used to call any kiln kiss as a flaw even though I always admire them, but I've changed my mind about it. In December I unloaded a large bowl from the kiln, with a bright aqua drip of soda on the interior. Instead of relegating it to the seconds shelf, I composed a tag for it which began, "This piece has been kiln-kissed..." with a brief description of what caused the mark. That bowl got a lot of attention and sold before its "perfect" companions.
So now I will be labelling all my kiln-kissed pieces (the ones that are not functionally compromised) as such. I may even charge extra for them, since they are by necessity a rarity. I could cause more by not cleaning my kilnshelves, but that would result in far more loss, as most soda glaze drops are not of the smooth sort.
This load produced four of the kiln gods' favorites, an unusual lot. It feels more honest to tell the world the irregularity is what makes them special, and if I'm lucky maybe the world will agree.

Newborn Pots

After unloading I spent an hour or so shooting, before the angle of the sun got too low for good light. Overall a good firing, with no disasters. Some of these pots will be heading for Kennebec River Artisans, some to Summer Island Studios, and some I will hang onto for Jay York to photograph. (Jay is an excellent photographer and an all-around good guy. His website, unfortunately, is confusing, slow, and too clever by half. But believe me if you use his services you won't be sorry.)

My intention is to start applying to fairs in this cycle and though my shots are adequate (most of them...) it's probably wiser to have a pro do take the shots for jurying. The early-deadline events I may have to either skip or take my chances with my own photos, as I have neither enough work or enough cash to hire Jay just yet.

Anyway. I am excited about this batch.

Brrrr!

Taking a break from unloading the kiln to put myself around some hot cider. It's colder than it looks out there! On the upside, from what I can tell so far, there are none of my signature mishaps in this load: no broken kiln shelves, exploding wadding, collapsing bag walls, or random shattering. Maybe I am running out of things to f-up?

Seriously though, the colors look good on this first layer. Gonna go put some thermals on to unload the rest.

Website Update

I had an idea to create a "bargain" page on my new website, because I have so many pots that for whatever reason just don't belong displayed with my larger body of work: some are seconds, some are class demos, some are the by-products of sketching three dimensionally; and some have just been kicking around too long and I am tired of looking at them. I just finished posting the first item to it today. Boy is that a fiddly pain in the ass! I guess I've been spoiled by blogger. I assume I will get better at it, at least I hope so; because as things stand I just spent half the day to create a listing that, if successful, will net me about enough for a six of Smirnoff Ice.

If you feel like testing out links for me, check it out here: www.finemesspottery.com.
Click "Shop," and then "bargains" at the bottom of the page. If you click on the image of the soda bottle, it expands to a listing with a Paypal button.

The hyper-focus aspect of my attention deficit disorder is in full swing, so I may be in web-building mode for a while. Fiddly pain in the ass it may be but it's always fun to learn something new.

Overthink it

...or, just think it?

I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. Case in point: the just-passed Week of reflection. I love the Week of Reflection, and, as every year, I am tempted to declare this the Year of Reflection. But I know from past experience that the charm will wear off; I am more a Fortenbras than a Hamlet, which is why I needed the Week in the first place. Sooner or later you need to commit to an action and implement it.

That does not mean that thinking is done for the year! Case in other point: these bowls. I am trying to design a cereal-size bowl for one of two lines I plan to offer this year (more on that later.) I threw several, thinking I knew what I wanted, but they were not quite right: too stiff and boxy, the Paul Bratter of bowls. The next I threw more mindfully, and though it is similar to the first, it struck me as prissy and tentative. Call that bowl Felix Unger, to stick with the Neil Simon theme. The third I threw thicker, allowing for bolder, more generous facets. This bowl is secure in its masculinity! Let's call this bowl Elliot Garfield. Assuming I still prefer "Elliot" after trimming, he joins a previously designed mug in the Lodge line of ware. The other line is to be called Cottage, and will feature curvier shapes and lighter colors; a more feminine look. BTW, am I the only one who thinks of pots as gendered?

Web Building for Amateurs, Coherently This Time

Here's a quick synopsis of some of the tools I found useful (or not) Winners and losers:

• Winner: California Fonts! You know how almost all of the standard fonts are either dull or illegible? California Fonts has your answer in the form of hundreds of fun, free downloadable fonts. I ended up not using the ones I downloaded because after doing battle over the publishing and then the images, I didn't have the heart to figure out why my text was not showing up; but probably I just needed to upload the font to the server. It's a fun site to click around; there are hundreds of fonts in the category "Retro" alone. Other categories have names like Eroded, Groovy, AntiLoop. Here's one called "Spa Fon."

• Winner: Picnik! If you want to incorporate a funky font, you can do it in Picnik, and just make it part of the jpeg.
  
• Loser: WebMatrix. Just, no. If you don't know what you are doing, it's not the program for you.

• Winner: Komposer. Free, WYSIWYG, and very flexible: not, as many web-building tools are, just a collection of templates into which you can plug your images and information. I don't think it came with any templates, which could be a drawback if you were looking for the easiest route. Drawbacks: The Help Section was pretty unimpressive. (Loser.) Also, when it uploaded images, it coded them with a complicated address pointing the where they were located on my desktop. I had to go into the HTML source code and change the name of image file to just "whatever-the-name-is.jpg." This sounds hard to do but it is not. Kompozer has a known issue in the form of its publisher, which seems to simply not work - a serious flaw! I thought that I was just doing it wrong, but a visit to the forums indicated that this had been pinpointed as a weakness. (Loser.) To address this:
• I downloaded Filezilla, which served the publishing function. I thought it had problems, too, but that really was just me. In actuality it worked like a dream. Winner!

• Network Solutions, my web host, has a lot of really useful tools for publishing also. It actually turned out to be the easiest solution for uploading, as I could skip all the host-address and FTP://ftp shit. Winner! That stuff was way too hard to find, though, and not, strictly speaking, free, as I am paying for the hosting through them, and paying for the domain name - and it is considerably more costly than other domain name registries such as Go Daddy.
• Winner: Doug! and me. Now I can quit hassling him to updated my website, and take over the procrastination function myself.
  

Kompozer, WebMatrix, and One Other I can't Recall the Name of

P.S. Happy ending!This is a pretty whiny post, but it has a happy ending. Check out the home page: www.finemesspottery.com The links don't work yet (except the one to this blog, but you already know how to get here) but I am on my way!
Note: if you still see the old site, reload your page. Your computer may be drawing on your cache.

More later, if you can stand it.

The following post falls between and rant and a pity party. If you are not in the mood for either, maybe skip this one.

I think I mentioned that I downloaded free web building software called Kompozer? Before I did that I downloaded a free web builder called Web Matrix, which I found to be so confusing that I gave up and looked for other freeware.

Now, keep in mind that I don't know much about web building. I've never done it before, so me saying that WebMatrix is confusing should in no way be taken as criticism of the program. Possibly someone who had the first miniscule, solitary clue would find it delightful to use. But that ain't me, so, moving on. Kompozer, on the other hand, has a very desirable quality: WYSIWYG. (Say it out loud, it's fun.) What You See Is What You Get. You build a document, not unlike creating a word document, and Kompozer translates your intentions into HTML code, which is the language computers think in, when they think about the web.

I built a very nice home page. Simple, with a photo for a background and a row of links on the right hand side. I sure would love to show it to you, but I can't for the life of me get it to publish. The instructions in the help menu are limited and confusing; they basically say:

1. Create document
   
2. Publish it.
   

Thanks! Thanks tons! If I knew how to do that I wouldn't be reading the Help Menu.

Oh, I'm just whining. It's like throwing, I'm sure; no one is born knowing how to do it. My usual words to live by are, "How hard can it be?" and while this attitude has served me well - most things are far easier than you think they will be - once it a while, the answer is, "pretty fucking hard." Occasionally the answer is "impossible, given current resources of time, energy, and brainpower." I don't think this is one of those times, but I may not have any hair left by the time this project is done.

Oh, the one I couldn't think of was Filezilla. I thought it was the solution to my problems - and it still might be. The file in question is now in the server directory...but it isn't on the web, anywhere. And why would it be? I couldn't see how, in Filezilla, I was supposed to tell it where to publish.

Gah.

Firing the kiln today, the last one of 2011. (Thanks, Captain Obvious!) Unloading Wednesday.

Visual Appeal: Lessons from the Donut Shop

For Christmas I received, among other things, a Dunkin' Donuts gift card. (Thanks Mom!) It reminded me of something that's been tickling my brain ever since I wrote the post about the chocolate covered pretzel sticks. I mentioned in that post that my first job was at Dunkin' Donuts, and I used to amuse myself by trying to make the donuts look as appealing as possible.

What started tickling my brain then, and finally entered my conscious thought this morning as I chose a boston creme and a chocolate coconut, is this: what I was doing was visual merchandising.

Much of what worked to sell donuts could be explained as an indictor of quality. A even coat of sugar was appealing to people perhaps because it appears to have more sugar than a patchy-looking donut. Or maybe it made the donuts look fresher and less man-handled. The same could be said for smooth, shiny frosting. But other qualities were less evidently related to donut-enhancing qualities: Why are jelly donuts more appealing if all the little dots of jelly peering out of the fill-holes are pointed in the same direction? And why, if you only want two, are you more likely to buy from the tray that has 20 identical donuts on it, than the one that has five?

I don't have an answer to that but nevertheless I know that it's true. There is something about abundance that makes people want to take home part of it. Which makes me think: might we sell more mugs just by displaying more similar mugs together? When I make mugs I might make twenty or thirty more or less the same, but when I glaze and fire I try to get variety in the kiln. Maybe I would be better served to fire similar things together, so that on the retail shelves, mugs stay with their cohort.

I have seen first hand how effective visual marketing is: I could predict - nay, manipulate - what people would buy before they walked in the door. And my experience is one tiny shred of what visual marketing entails. Might be worth learning more about, if a person wanted to work smarter instead of harder.

Just a thought.

Java Wadding

In my infinite quest to replace expensive grog in my wadding, this firing I am following the suggestion of a fellow blogger and potter going by the name Newfoundout Potter. I am using coffee grounds. This suggestion appeals to both the frugalista and the tree-hugger in me: reuse! recycle! Coffee grounds are essentially garbage. We were using them in the compost pile but believe me there are plenty from this house to go around. Our compost is more acid than ideal, due to the preponderance of coffee grounds. Ooo, bad thought: our compost also sometimes smells like vomit, due to its great acidity. Let's hope my wadding does not also come to smell like vomit! That might be a deal breaker. For now, though, the wadding smells nice.

I did find that I had to use more grounds than grog to get the consistency that I want; whereas the original wadding recipe called for 2:2:1 Kaolin:Alumina:Grog, the coffee grounds version is closer to 1:1:1.

It's a weirdly warm day in Central Maine; the thermometer hanging on the deck says it's 50 F. A nice kiln-loading day.

OT: Check out my new profile photo! Turns out the same lighting set up to avoid shadows while photographing pots does a good jobs of filling in crow's-feet.

Two-Oh!-Won-Too

Boy do I have big plans for 2012! New product development, new marketing strategies, new ideas, and fresh looks at old ones. here are a few goals, in no particular order:

1. Buttons. This was a suggestion months ago from fellow potter-blogger Sue Pariseau, and I got started on designing a button, but then got busy with orders and Christmas stuff before I got a design I really like. I am scrapping my first mold - the design just isn't working with what I have learned since making it. I know, right? it's a button. Cut a circle, drill a couple holes, and get on with your life. But it turns out that a really good button needs more thought (weight, hole quantity and placement, how the design works with the holes, what about the back, blah-blah-blah.) The world doesn't need any more mediocre buttons, so I pushed back production until I have time to do it right.
2. Vessel sinks. I've been asked by a former schoolmate and Facebook connection to design a vessel sink for production. I've put this off, mostly because I am intimidated by the technical aspects (unlike buttons. I want to state for the record that I am not intimidated by buttons. I just have high standards.) To push past this, I set a deadline with him, as an internal deadline doesn't mean much; I blow by them left and right. But I hate disappointing other people. I plan to have a design or two to show him by February 1.
3. Cabinet and drawer hardware. Like buttons, these will help me utilize kiln space more efficiently. I have made such things before, but I want to standardize the shape and size, perhaps with a press mold. Or a slip mold? Remains to be seen.
4. New shapes, new glazes, new takes on old ones.
5. Take a set of shots to apply to art fairs. Is this on my list every year? Can't remember, and don't want to. But this year I am ready, in terms of production capacity, to take on a top-shelf show or two. Can my own photos get me in? One way to find out.
6. Wholesalecrafts.com It's an investment, for sure, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. If you've had a less-than-stellar experience with it, now would be a good time to share that story.
7. Website. My husband built my site, finemesspottery.com, in 2005. That's almost 7 years ago, for those keeping track. While I was and am grateful for it, it turns out there was an element of "impress-the-new-girlfriend" in it; it hasn't been updated in all that time, because he doesn't really like web designing, in part because he uses a Cro-Magnon version of Fetch. It's extremely fiddly and tedious, and not remotely WYSIWYG. He's not especially interested in web building, period, so he's not up for downloading or learning a more intuitive software. But that's okay, it's not his job, anyway; that would be me. So I've downloaded a free webbuilder valled Kompozer. My hope is to have a site that I can easily update, and provide seamless links with this blog and will Paypal; looking at the beginning of March for that to be up and running.
8. Just kicking Kickstarter around. It seems some of the projects on this list would fit into Kickstarter's mission, and funding would help during the development phases.

What's on your New Year's list?

Prospero Año Nuevo y Felicidad!

In Spanish it is customary to wish friends a prosperous new year, as opposed to a happy one; although the intent, I'm sure, is the same. I'd love to have a prosperous year, as I'm sure you would, and to that end, I want to think a little about what defines prosperity for me.

• Feeling awesome = prosperity. I've had the unusual luxury of the house to myself for four days*, purchased for me by my poor dog, whose chronic back injury made travel ill-advised. (He is now on a muscle relaxant and pain reliever, and is much improved, thankfully.) Because Doug was away, and because I had been given a Hannaford gift card, I went hog wild in the produce department and stocked up on greens and nuts and avocados and fruit and yogurt, stuff that is usually out of the budget, and which Doug would not eat anyway. This should not surprise anyone, but I feel so energetic! No more running out of gas at 2 pm. I need to find a way to do this all the time.
• Feeling awesome, part II: Yoga! I know this, I've been knowing it, but I get busy and forget. If I spend some time doing yoga every day, I will feel better, have more energy, and be more limber; all around I feel more like my younger self. Yoga is free! I can say I don't always have time, but I'm not going to say that; something else will go instead. How 'bout, I replace half an hour online reading news and politics (not the most relaxing activity) with a half hour of yoga. I think that will contribute to a prosperous year.
• Financial prosperity, of course, makes other kinds easier. For me financial prosperity would just mean enough to pay bills, eat well, have some fun, and not worry. Health insurance would be nice, too. I am percolating a plan for this. I am shooting for more than just-barely-enough; it would be nice to have some breathing room. Frugality is sort of my hobby; we are pretty resourceful, and not really into "stuff," luckily, but I'd like to have a little bit to save. More on this plan later.
  
• A wealth of ideas: Thoughts of sculpture still flit into my head, but such ruminations are like birds: if you don't feed them, after a while they stop returning. I may not, in fact, have time to devote to sculptural projects, but it may also be a question on allowing the ideas to gain momentum. I also feel like sculptural ideas inform functional ones, so creative aspects of my functional work can be nurtured by not letting the sculptural thoughts wither on the vine. To that end, I am going to start keeping a sketchbook to grab those fleeting thoughts and images.
• Love, love, love: may not be all you need, but what's all the rest, without it? I've got the good relationship thing (really: Doug is the bestest) but sometimes am too lazy to make the effort to spend time with friends and family, especially since I am an hour (at least) away from everyone. Will try to fix this in the coming year. Scrabble parties, and 80s Night at Bubba's Sulky Lounge. Let's do this.
  

*Actually four days is too much. I got lonely. Three days once in a while is nice, if only for the coming-home moment.

The Week of Reflection

I have a personal tradition: I call the week between Christmas and New Year's the Week of Reflection, and I try to spend it thinking back on the past year, understanding the events and giving them context. I look at where I am, and how my life is, and think both of blessings and how I would like my life to be different; and mapping out the steps between where I am and where I would like to be.

This year I have a huge honkin' lot of blessings, and my life is closer to my ideal than it has ever been before.

2008 was the first year I blogged the Week of Reflection, and boy, have I come a long way since then! This calls for a song:



Unrelated but amusing: one line of lyrics goes: "Pescado mojado me encontre." My Spanish is not good, but I think this means "I found wet fish."

And so begins the Week of Reflection, Two-Zip-Won-One.