Selling

I've just been reading an interesting discussion on CLAYART* email about selling on Etsy.  Some potters evidently are doing well--especially if they are offering those "Make your Rent" kinds of things that sell for around $20.00.

Even though it rankles me to do it too, I have also make those little kiln-fillers for sale. I'm not saying anything about individual's potter's choices. I'm speaking for myself totally.

As a matter of fact, it always amazes me that a lot of show patrons will buy several little things like this when, at the end of the day, they could have spent the same amount and come away with a single treasure.

Anyway, back to the discussion.

It seems that I've heard this kind of sales song before. Those who make the "Make your Rent" stuff and work out a simple plan are doing okay. But, like shows, it's patchy. And, it seems, the fees for listing, and other special features can add up in a hurry.

Shows offer space at a price. Shows attract buyers. Artists set up booths and sell their work and if they are lucky, they make a profit. Seems like the same thing happens with sites like eBay and Etsy. The venue is offered, artists make stuff and the promoters are the ones who really make the money.

There must be a better way.



*CLAYART is an international discussion group open to potters, suppliers, etc. of all things clay. If you want more details, comment and I will send you the information. I learn something new every time I read it.

Graphics Design - Logos

Well, I've been rather busy. 

We are in our winter location and I've been working on designing the new logo for a Wiki page for CLAYART.   

CLAYART is a worldwide clay artist's and a clay associated discussion email group that has been active for over 15 years. It began as an idea during a yearly National Conference for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) convention. I will explain NCECA and CLAYART further in future posts. But sufice it to say the internet email part of CLAYART is undergoing big changes at the moment. 

One of the new changes was the creation of a wiki page. My part was to design a tiny, easily-recognizable logo to mark the upper left-hand corner of the site. 

Being completely new to the designing of tiny wikis, I have been on an intense learning curve. 

I don't have sophisticated computer design software, but I have had an undergraduate series of courses in computer design which I took just because they were available to me. And I discovered that through Apple Pages, I can do a limited amount of black and white work. 

Warning:  Some Graphics Geekdom follows--

The catenary arch design was made by stretching a black circle into an oval, then overlaying it with a white oval, adding a thick horizontal line to connect the bottom of the arch and suggest the floor of a kiln. 

I blocked the bottom of the ovals with a lineless rectangle placed below the "bottom of the kiln" line and layered over the top (brought forward) of the oval shapes. That blocked the bottom sections of the ovals from view which is equal to erasing them. 

The teapot was made by manipulating black and white ovals. And the handle to the pot is made the same way by layering a white oval over a black one. 

The body of the pot is another black oval, with another white one imposed to suggest a lid. The lid knob is a standard shape available from the menu and layered over the black and white ovals (brought forward).

The whole design is on top of a black rectangle, which was sent to the back. This creates the top 3 borders of the logo.

The lettering at the bottom was lifted from a tiny graphic I had squirreled away and used on this blog some years ago. 

This is fine for a tiny wiki, but when I wanted to enlarge it to a huge file for use in other ways, that's where the trouble began. All the enlargements resulted in shaggy, pixelated lettering. 

I finally ran the whole thing out of my printer at page-size and, using a fine marking pen, smoothed up the letters one by one. Like, taking-off-your-glasses, sticking-you-nose-to-the-page making-pixels-go-from-squares-to-smooth-edges smoothing. 

More later---

Written later than the above versions.  Sorry for all the changes after the initial posting. On re-reading the first ones, I realized I could write a clearer description of the geek graphics.

CeramicArtsDaily.com

This new site looks like a good resource. I joined and elected to receive the glaze book, (what a stunner of a cover!) but if you go further into the site, there are two other choices--I'm assuming these are alternates and that all the books are not offered at once; only the choice of one download-able per subscription. The cover of the 33 Tried and True Glaze Recipes (pictured) is enough to make any potter salivate.

(Except that my printer went "BIORK" when it got to page 17 and kept wanting to reprint everything from the start all over again. Oh, you infernal machine of little brain capacity!) Had to resort to printing every page individually, but it was worth it.

I think they're ahead of the game here; much more of our interaction in the future will be through electronic networking and we're only seeing the beginnings of it. CLAYART, the email ceramic discussion group, is/was a pioneer in the establishment of a professional network. After all, artists are the ultimate cultural hunter/gatherers. We are sensitive to influences of our time; many times much more so than the general public. We are usually either at the front of the wave, 'way ahead of it or the creators of the wave in the first place.

From all I read about marketing in Europe and the U.S., social and commercial networking will become a huge part of our lives. With accessibility becoming more portable through hand-helds and future devices, we will become connected in many new ways. I already do a good bit of my shopping and almost all of my correspondence electronically. For the past 6 months I've been reading blogs pretty heavily and although there's a lot of stuff out there I'm not interested in, there's a heck of a lot more out there I would have never have had access to and people I wouldn't have ever, ever found.

It now makes a whole lot more sense to have my own web page to market & sell work. I've already gotten my electronic toes wet (zzzzttt Bad metaphor) selling to a niche of buyers. It has been surprisingly successful. The future may be a combined blog and selling site.

It's not a matter of Either/Or. It's AND. The electronic connection is just another enhancement and opportunity.

But Seriously, Folks

Pictured; Sea Star Mugs








The below list has been circulating around potter's groups for some years and yes, it does make it look like you're only dealing with one mug instead of in reality, multiple pieces of work. When I make mugs or bowls or anything in groups, I always make extras just in case some quirky thing happens and one sticks to the kiln shelf or I drop it on the concrete because it burned my fingers while trying to unload my kiln too fast. (Yes, I am learning to be more patient.)

The Real Point: There is very little understanding about the process of making things by hand. Meeting the general public at shows makes that very apparent. The whole complex of skills it takes to make anything by hand? Most people haven't a clue. Sure, I'd say 99% have seen a potter throwing on a wheel or will tell you they saw "Ghost". Throwing is just one tiny part of making pottery. Occasionally, someone will tell me they took some classes or had done pottery before. These are kindred souls who really understand.....

"How long did it take you to make that?" is a question artists are always being asked. There are any number of responses that spring to the tongue and twitter the mind. You could go the James McNeil Whistler route and say, "All my life." But that seems a big flip and you're likely to turn the questioner off Big Time. Some people are trying to equate the answer with Time X Hourly Wage = Reasonable Cost. But I can tell you right up front, if potters charged even the minimum wage for what they do, nobody could afford to buy handmade work. If you start enumerating steps as in the process list for a mug, you will see an immediate eye-glaze and an equally fast drift-off. They don't really want to know.

What I recognize is this: The customer is trying to make contact with you. And the "How much time?" question is really an opener, since they don't know the technical stuff and therefore can't ask a technical question. A good artist-salesman (unfortunately, we must all become that if we want to keep making art) doesn't have to answer the question directly. I usually answer with another question like, "I'm curious. What is it about the piece that attracted you?" It's a great non-threatening response and a way to get to know the person who is interested in what you're produced.

And they're curious about the person who makes the art. After all, it is rare you get to meet the creator of any art on a one-to-one basis. Museums are not run by artists, unfortunately, and rarely are galleries. Shows seem to be fading. Some artists still do them, but most of the time it's a whole lot of work for very little return. Artist's costs are going up yearly. Many shows have changed and lost their edge, becoming a 'free entertainment outing for the family' kind of event. It can be very discouraging to spend 4 demanding days in a booth surrounded by your best work watching plastic-looking-garden-art-bubbleblowers go by in the hands of customers. It can be a real heartbreaker.

With the advent of cheap goods flowing into the marketplace, the artist's niche is getting smaller and smaller. So where does the artist go? They join co-ops, open their studios to the public, join groups, get a webpage. I don't care for co-ops because of the requirement to be on a sales floor-type schedule. I do only one or two shows each year just because I like the particular shows and enjoy being in touch with customers and getting valuable, immediate feed-back. But I'm going more and more into the direction of selling on the internet and seeking out galleries.