Some reasons why I love pottery
I think there’s a ton of reasons why to love pottery but I’m not writing a novel so here’s my short list.
1. Creating – my favorite part.
There is something about ripping a lump of clay out of the bag and making it into something, anything. There are plenty of times that I go into my space to create something intentionally. Other times I decide on the spot. It’s the freedom to make what I want. During this last making phase I had a blast making some little robots. I made 5 of them. All of them ranging in size. I cannot wait to see them fired but I have a feeling I’ll keep making them. They do make me smile and I think they’ll make other people smile too. I have little things around my desk at my full time job, and I can just picture one of them up there to brighten my day.
2. Glazing – This is a bit of a love/hate. When I make a piece, sometimes I will have some glazing ideas in mind. Other times I just create and worry about the glazing when I sit down to glaze. The downside of waiting until I glaze is I will stare at the piece for easily an hour and run through what I have and what combination of glazes I can use. Or what techniques I can use on that piece. When I glazed the robots I mentioned above, it gave them so much character. It’s amazing to see a piece come together.
When you glaze a piece it’s a bit tricky because what you see when you put on the glaze is not what you get what you take it out. It’s always a bit of a gamble if it all pays off. Did I put enough on? Too much? Will the glazes play nice together? The amount of time it takes to glaze everything is kind of the part I hate. Otherwise I do like it when a good plan comes together.
3. Opening the kiln is like Christmas Morning. It’s a little celebration. Usually, the kiln is still a little warm. Once you can prop the kiln lid open all the way you get to look at the top shelf. If the top turns out, then there’s a pretty good chance the rest did too. You just must hope if a glaze runs, it stays on the piece and not hit the shelf. If the glaze hits the shelf, then you better grab a hammer and a chisel. Kiln wash is a huge help if that happens. Luckily, I think I’ve dialed it in enough that I don’t worry as much anymore.
I am always looking at the color of the glazes. Each time you fire it, it’s relatively the same. The colors can change slightly. There are multiple factors for this. It can be a matter of glazing, but it can also be or where it is placed in the kiln. The tempature it cools at may change it’s look. Ultimatly when I pull something out of the kiln I’m in a constant state of discovery.
I really enjoy looking at the pieces one by one. For some of these pieces you spend hours working on them. So, to see them completed it is really cool. I like sharing what I work on. I love that there are other people out there who enjoy seeing the process or the finished piece. It’s also really fun to do art events or have a chance to sell your stuff. It’s so fun to see someone smile or enjoy your work.
4. Selling my work
At first, I thought I’ll just be happy if people stop by and look at things. Then I thought, how cool would it be if I sold a few things! Then I thought what if I sell like one thing? That felt a little soul crushing but lucky I sell enough that it’s worth doing for sure. I can’t keep all of it! Pricing can be really hard but like I said, you spend hours with a piece, and I don’t feel it’s totally realistic to charge by the hour. If I give myself $15 an hour and the project takes 8 hours to do, that’s $120 and I’m not including the materials or packaging. So, I price to what I think will move. If I have it priced higher, I’m less likely to budge on the price. If things are selling too fast, I can raise the price a little. It’s a delicate balance and I’m always learning. I have heard from so many potters that it’s their least favorite part and it really doesn’t get any easier. I have had some wonderful people buy my pieces and they say the nicest things. That always feels really good and I’m really trying to get better at taking a compliment. I have a Holiday Market coming up Nov 17th at Beaver Island Brewery. It’s from 5-8pm. Come stop by and say, “hi” and have a dam.fine.beer while you’re at it!
