Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Three Days at FMP

Yesterday:

• Processing photos
• Listings on Artfire, Etsy, and Shop FMP
• Organizing receipts for the Tax Man. 
• Deposit consignment checks

Today:

• Studio time! Stoppers for cruets, S&P shakers, and mugs
• Studio clean up: dreary but has to be done.
• Order shipping supplies
• Pay propane and clay bills

Tomorrow

• Sort, price and pack pots for Bangor Floral, a new consignment outlet
• More studio time! More shakers, and is that a teapot itch I feel?

A New Idea for Etsy

You may I know I have a love/hate relationship with Etsy. I really love the idea, but hate the cult-like feeling in the forums (I know, I know, I could just stay out of them!), the time suck, and most of all, the lack of sales. I got a brainwave this morning, looking fondly at my husband's dark head on the pillow. You see, we met online, at Cupid.com to be exact. Though I am no raving beauty, I was in demand simply due to the ratio of men to women on dating sites, which is about 13:1. How would I choose to whom to respond? All of them seemed to enjoy romantic evenings at home and long walks on the beach, and also going out dancing. They were all interested in their pets and good friends and listening to music. Then I came to Doug's profile:

Hobbies: Jumping off things, & wondering why my car is suddenly really loud.
Favorite activities: Watching the wind push daisies around. Banging nails. 
Not interested in: Buying a bunch of stuff. Debt makes you old fast.

See what I mean? He stood out like a live man in a row of corpses. He wasn't too worried about scaring someone off to let his personality show. I answered him, and the rest is history. 

I decided to try and apply that lesson to online retailing. In the listings for which I don't have five photos to fill all the slots, I am putting in photos of something unrelated: a sheep from Straw's farm near Watershed, my cats looking out the window, a rusty gear. And a note saying, the sheep hasn't got anything to do with it, I just like the photo. Or something like that. 

I thought it was brilliant, so I posted it in the Etsy forums. Guess what? Everybody very very kindly said it was a stupid idea. Which only proves my point.

Well, no it doesn't. But there's this: I can't sell any less from my Etsy shop than I already am. Might as well try something different!

Photo Shoot

In winter the conditions for photographing pots are brief and fleeting at my house. Except for the smallest pots, I shoot in the south-facing living room during the perhaps three hours (at most) of daylight that the sun not at too acute an angle to cast even light. I hang the backdrop where my TV usually sits. It's kind of a hassle to get all set up, so when I do it, I try to shoot a lot of work. 

I used to only get pots photographed once a year. I'd set aside one or two good pots out of each firing, and then choose about a dozen to take to Peter Lee, when I was in St. Paul, or, later, to Jay York in Portland. I would still use a professional to take the shots if I were still applying to art fairs, but just for Etsy (and Craftgawker!), I find I can take an adequate photo myself. It's all in the right tools:

The graduated gray background I got for around $45 from Photo Tech, Inc. The camera is relatively old, an Olympus c-750, 4.0 megapixels. Five or six megapixels is standard in cameras made now, but I find that this serves just fine for my purposes. Importantly, it has a remote setting, so you don't have to touch the camera to activate the shutter.  Until I learned how to use it, every single pottery photo I took was ever-so-slightly out of focus. You can get them on Ebay for a couple hundred dollars. After destroying two of the cheapest available tripods in a few months just through ordinary use, I finally, just today, went the next step up: $3 more. (I told you I am cheap, didn't I?) This one is so much better! The legs adjust infinitely and it has a teeny-tiny bubble level under the camera, so you can make sure you are shooting, well, level. 

I spent the entire sunlit part of the day shooting today, formal shots and a few in-use, which always look contrived to me, but they are kind of fun to set up. Here are a few of my results:

Casting My Bread

I've made one more resolution for 2010, that falls into the "good Karma" category. I am participating in microlending through Kiva, a microloan program targeting poor entrepreneurs in the developing world. I've chosen to direct my cash to this guy, a potter from Tajikistan. 

When I am scrambling around trying to decide if I should put off the oil or insurance bill, it's hard to remember that by most of the world's standards, my husband and I are crazy-rich. We have 1500 square feet all to ourselves, and a fifth of an acre. And a car, that pretty-much-always works. We have all the clean water we can use, coming out of taps right in the house! And if there is sometimes too much month left at the end of the money, and we have to eat more rice, lentils, and potatoes than I might wish, at least we never, ever fear not having enough to eat. Because all that is not true for most humans on the planet, I have been wanting a way to help. But because I am somewhat impoverished by American standards, it always felt like I didn't have enough to spare. I love Kiva for eliminating that excuse: I get the money back!! and for a small amount, I am able to help in a long-term way. 

For months now I have had a good feeling about 2010. Great things are going to happen this year! And I can help. 

My Favorite Obsession...

...continues into the new year. Happy 2010, everyone!
Also, I started a new page for wholesale customers. Not much there yet, but it's a start.

Goal Setting 2010

I feel like crap. Not literally crapulent, as I didn't drink much last night, being the designated driver, but I like typing the word.  I just feel the kind of head-achy and run down I always feel when I don't get enough sleep. I am blessed and cursed with an internal chronometer which does not allow me to sleep past 5:30, regardless of my bedtime. So my first resolution for the New Year is, get some damn sleep.

Beyond that, more of the same seems to be in order. It will take a continuing effort to prioritize studio work over dust-wildebeest-elimination and Harry-Potter-re-reading, but that effort proved worthwhile last year.  Some specific goals:

1) I have a connection to a Portland gallery that may be willing to mount a show of my sculptural work. Deadline for that prooposal is January 18, so I need toget cracking putting images together. 

2) I do seem to have a minor obsession with salt & pepper shakers lately. My history suggests that I may not remain obsesssed, but will probably always enjoy making them, so I am going to develop a wholesale line, just of S&P shakers, right now. They are small, and very easy and relaxing to make, and I get such joy out of the precious little finished products. Also, not many artists are making them; fewer still handmade from start to finish. 

3) The kiln! I haven't forgotten the kiln, though there will be no building on it until spring. I don't know if it will get done this year, either -- my house needs a roof. But I will continue to peck away at it, buying a hundred bricks here and a hundred there, unitl I have the materials amassed. 

4) Finally, hard head wins the day over magic beans; the IPTOG stays. I am making this a concious choice, as it still has a part to play in stabilizing our household income. I could feel myself drifting away from it, almost sabotaging myself at work, in perhaps an unconcious attempt to take the matter out of my own hands; but quitting (or getting myself fired!) would be foolish at this point. Really, it isn't that bad; it's just that I can think of so many more interesting things I could do with that 20 hours per week. 

I'd love to hear your goals and resolutions!

The Half-Day of Reflection

What was supposed to be the Week of Reflection turned into the week of interjection. viral infection, and house of correction. (Okay, not that last, so much -- but it is the blue moon, and the last day of the Noughties. Anything could happen.) Usually I take the last week of the year to consider what worked and what didn't over the last annum, and to decide on a course for the next. I've got to squeeze all that into a few hours now, and still have time for the party tonight! Just kiddding, I know that the calendar is an artificial construct, and that next week can be the Week of Reflection just as effectively.

Still, might as well get a start on it. One thing that I did right this year was to create a spreadsheet to record income and expenses as they happened. My income is so spotty as to seem random: checks arrive, or else they don't, and once they are deposited, who remembers where they came from? I do keep the physical reciepts for expenses, so I see the totals at tax time, but it's much more helpful to see them month-by-month. Taxes will be much easier this year, and I can see where the money is going, where it's coming from, and where it's not coming from but could be.
I haven't been in the studio much this week, either. I need to, if only to get some photos up here. Blocks of text just are not doinf it for me.

On a side note, I got very excited about a headline I read: Neolithic stoneware found in Southern Tibet. Wow, I thought, that is huge! How did they fire it? Who knew they had the technology to reach such high temperatures in the Neolithic period? Yeah, well, turns out they are just talking about stone tools. Important, yes, but nothing to change our understanding of the whole period. Rats.

One For the Magic Bean Buyers

“If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer.
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire,
for we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!” -- Shel Silverstein
I am a dreamer, yes, but a dreamer with an extraordinarily hard head; which inhibits me during magic-bean transactions. Tom Robbins once wrote, "You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans." I'm always all, "But I might need this cow! Do those beans come with any sort of a written guarantee? Anyway I never purchase magic off the internet, it's unwise."
It's the week between Christmas and New Year's, my favorite of the year; a time for quiet reflection and for planning. One of the things I ponder is the best direction to take Fine Mess Pottery. The plans that I made last year worked out well: I made more stuff and as a result I sold more stuff. I can't help but wonder how far I could push that equation.  If I trade my cow - the IPTOG - for the magic beans of full-time self-employment, how high might that beanstalk grow?

Advice From a Pro

Speaking of sales, or the lack thereof, Minnesota potter Bob Briscoe once told me, "If you?re in your studio every day, making the best pots you know how to make, there's no point in asking if the work is the problem." (Potters reading this will probably already know of Bob Briscoe [if not, here's the link], and will know sales are not a problem for him, so naturally it was me we were talking about.) I'm proud to say Bob owns a few of my pieces. He was very kind and supportive of me when I lived in Minnesota. I took his advice to heart, and though I may have trouble bragging it up, I never question whether my work is good. I also do not change what I make in an effort to sell more, as, in my experience, that only results in less good ware. No deal.

I recently asked the advice of another pro: a guy who has made his living, and a very good one, selling insurance products. We talked a bit about the difference between sales, marketing, and promotion, and that was helpful and thought-provoking; and then I asked him for one concrete, immediate thing I could say to improve my acumen. Here's his suggestion, good for when you are gallery-sitting or at an art fair:
You know how you always ask customers, "Can I help you?" and they say, "I'm just looking"? That's usually the end of the conversation, or you might just say, "Let me know if I can help you find anything," or whatever. My friend suggested that instead, I should respond, "I've got something to show you." And then show them something. They probably won't buy it, but maybe they will then tell you more about what they are shopping for. In any case a conversation has started.

I haven't had an opportunity to try this - my next gallery-sitting day is the 3rd of January - but I plan to take it for a test drive. If any of you use this, come back here and let me know how it went.

Marketing for Shy People

It must be my Yankee upbringing; I have a hell of a time doing self-promotion. I can read all the books in the world about marketing and sales, but it doesn't silence the little voice telling me that blowing one's own horn is tacky and crass. With that in mind, I have brainstormed a list of potential slogans that seem modest enough to sneak by my inner critic. Let me know what you think.
Fine Mess Pottery: It doesn't suck!

Minnesota version: Fine Mess Pottery: It could be worse.

Fine Mess Pottery, because, why not?

Fine Mess Pottery: Producing fine stoneware since you were playing with little cars. (Whaddaya think, too aggressive?)

Beats a Sharp Stick in the Eye.

And, finally:
Fine Mess Pottery: Because you gotta buy 'em something.

I dunno -- still needs work

Thrown, Cut, and Assembled Oblong Bowl