Marian Williams, Author at Marian Williams Pottery

NCECA HERE I COME!

Pretty excited! Only six weeks til NCECA National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts! I’m booked – hotel, flights, and registered.

There is sooooo much cool stuff scheduled that I’m sure that I won’t be able to see/do even half of it, but I shall try! One of the highlights is the Resource Hall – man! the shopping! for potters it is shopping heaven!

I’m taking several mugs to the Cup Sale and hope to buy a few for myself.

If any of you are going, let me know and perhaps we can organize a meet up somewhere???

Til then…keep potting.

Marian

Pottery Blues – Do You Ever Get Them?

Creation Inspiration Musings

Today is one of those days.

When you ask yourself, “What the hell am I doing?”

And then you say, “This work is all CRAP!!”

And then there is more self-depricating chatter in your head and you just head to the house – no clean-up, just get the hell out of there!

I don’t know if it was the heat, Monday, the humidity, Monday, Me, Feeling Ugly, or what, but I definitely went straight to Funk City.

And that is after reading Big Magic!!

Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book is amazing! and this is the kind of shit she talks about throughout the book- guess I need to go back to chapter one and start again.

Anyway, if you haven’t read it, do it! It’s great and really good for all of us potters.

Ok, tomorrow is another day, I’ll get my attitude on straight and hit it again.

Big Magic on the way!

Marian

Pricing Your Work…A Follow-Up

How To's Musings Selling

I received some great advice, some valued sympathy, and some great suggestions in response to my blog post, Pricing Your Work.

Lori Watts, of Fine Mess Pottery blog and Fine Mess Pottery website, gave me the greatest comment that I’d like to share with you.

From Lori:

OH BOY DO I HAVE THOUGHTS!! Before I was a full time potter, I was a receptionist. It has always amazed me that, by dint of compensation, my ability to answer the phone politely is more valuable than my skill as a potter.
$35 is definitely not too much for a mug! But I know what you mean, I used to dicker myself down all the time. I stopped doing it once I established for myself an equation on which to base pricing, as opposed to just how much I think it seems like it “should” be. I worked backward: determined how much I needed to make, and then divided by how many pounds of clay i use in a year. My prices went up but I make more money. I just put the pots out there, with the prices, and never apologize or explain. If it’s not to self-promotory, here are the links to the two posts while I was working out my equation.

http://finemessblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/pots-by-pound.html
http://finemessblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/pots-by-pound-part-ii-valuable-input.html

i am working on a third one, in my head, called The Life-Changing Magic of Doing the Math.

Thanks Lori – such awesome advice. It’s a struggle for all of us!

Keep the Faith,

Marian

How To Spiral Wedge And Throw On A Pottery Wheel- A Demonstration by Tetsuo Iwashita

How To's Videos

In July, 2010, I visited Mashiko, Japan. It was a public holiday and few of the studios were open or working. We happened into Tetsuo Iwashita’s studio where he graciously gave us a tour and threw a pot for us. Here is a link to the video:

How To Spiral Wedge And Throw – A Demonstration by Rob Barron, Gooseneck Pottery

How To's Videos

On a visit to Rob Barron’s studio, we got to see his wonderful woodfired pottery and he treated us to a demonstration of wedging and throwing.

How To Make Coffee With A Ceramic Pour Over – Video

How To's Tutorials Videos

One of the items that I’m making now is a Pour Over for making coffee. It is a 3 piece set – a funnel, mug and wooden holder.

I’ve created a video to explain how to use this pour over system.

Pricing Your Work…Thoughts.

How To's Musings Selling

I just returned from dinner at a local Chinese food restaurant where my husband and I shared a main and entre to the tune of $35.00. Not an unusual price for this sort of meal.

This is a meal that is consumed in about 30 minutes and will be GONE by tomorrow.

I’ve priced my mugs at $35.00 and actually wondered if that was too high.

My mugs are handmade – thrown individually – glazed with my specially developed glaze, fired twice, then decorated further with decals and gold lustre and fired a third time. There is no way that the price can be completely calculated, but it would be high – not even counting the time that I don’t even charge for…

This mug can be used multiple times, give great enjoyment and is aesthetically pleasing.

So why don’t people see that value?

We all constantly pay for meals in the $50-70.00 range and don’t think any thing about it.

But paying $50-70.00 for a plate is considered expensive…why??

I’m sure you each have had these same thoughts…I just needed to vent today.

Peace out.

Marian

How To Spiral Wedge By Malcolm Greenwood

How To's Videos

Here’s Malcolm Greenwood demonstrating the process of spiral wedging your clay. He’s the master!

Setting Up An Online Store

Events Top Slid

My online store can be found at marianwilliamspottery.bigcartel.com or by going to my website marianwilliamspottery.com and hitting the “Shop” tab. Happy shopping!

Sounds simple, right? Well, it has taken waaaaaay more time than I expected! But I’m almost there.

First, I had to chose an ecommerce site builder. Thank goodness my daughter, Liz, is an absolute guru at online marketing (does it for a living) and she guided me to BigCartel.com – mainly for its features, ease and simplicity.

It is expressly set up to accommodate the needs of artists.

The other must have is good photos. Liz is also a great photographer and helped me make the most of my camera and lighting set up. Taking four to five good shots of each piece/product is essential for your store.

After adding the photos, writing an About page and an FAQ page, I was almost done.

The next step was to figure out the shipping costs. I went to my local Australian Post office and they were super helpful and gave me all the info that I needed. However, this is still a tricky issue. Packing costs, insurance, and postage all add up to a crazy high sum. But that’s the cost of shopping online and customers know that.

My other dilemma is pricing – it’s tricky – so I’m doing my best to get a fair price for my work, but also sell it!

It’s now ready and I’m pleased to present to you my online store at:

marianwilliamspottery.bigcartel.com

Please tell me what you think. I would love your honest feedback.

Good selling to all,

Marian

Markets or Online Shopping? Setting Up An Online Shop

Events Pricing Selling Top Slid

I’m setting up an online shop!

The last market I attended was a disaster (for me).

I set up a great booth, kept my prices high (or where I want them to be), and sold about $200.00 worth of product – not good enough for the amount of effort. But the traffic was not great and there were so many potters that I was one of many and most of the other potters had put out their “seconds” to clear out their studios at really reasonable prices.

I think it’s a mistake to sell at low prices- just to clear out goods- it gives the buying public the message that pottery is “cheap”. ‘Nuff said- I could go on, but I won’t… I’m just not going to play that game anymore.

So…I’ve decided to forgo further markets and do an online shop.

I know that this is going to be risky and I’ll have to build a clientele, but I think I’m ready to give it a try.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Happy selling!

Marian