After a stressful day of feeling conflicted and worried about our situation, here is the plan for action:
Since I have a weekend free, lots of pottery, lots of traffic AND the weather looks good, We're going to have a weekend sale.
As an added bonus, Morgan cut the lawn yesterday, so things are looking pretty good out there. The tent will go up later today, the signs will go out tonight and we'll set up the tables. It'll be great!
In the meantime I've just finished my morning blog-read..I follow about 50 potters blogs. Most of the time it's very inspiring to see what my fellow potters are up to. Sometimes I see new forms or finishes that inspire me, sometimes I see a marketing idea that inspires me. Sometimes I see the struggles. Most of them are pretty good about not putting too much of that in. This one potter, and I know I have mentioned him before is living a fairly idyllic life. I want my life to be as balanced as his seems to be. His name is Joe Bennion and he is living in Spring City, UT. I've been following his work off and on for about 10 years. I found his-->
blog today <--to be particularly inspiring since he was talking about the balance between work and play.
Now onto production. Last night Rowan and I discussed the idea we hatched about a year ago to move into more kitchen and food oriented items for our sales at home and perhaps some of the galleries. Items like Berry Bowls and Butter Keepers, tumblers have become part of what we do, now we're going to add garlic bakers, garlic jars, brie bakers, and maybe chicken bakers to the list. She wasn't so keen on the chicken bakers, but I read about them fairly often so I'm going to make a few and see how it goes. If I ate chicken, I'd want to try one out. I also have a request for some Chip N Dips..so what the heck..I'll do a few of those too. Don't get me wrong..I am NEVER going to be a straight production potter, I pay attention to too many details for that. I feel like I've finally thrown off the aesthetic of the one of a kind, every detail perfect, and thought about, meditated on and finally executed piece which is promptly admired and locked behind glass, to one where the piece is designed, thought about, executed well, looks beautiful and most importantly is put into everyday use by a customer. I want to make pieces that touch people in their daily lives. Pieces for touching, using and enriching daily life.
This is my plan and goal.
That said, it's time to get busy and make some pieces.
Got a lot done today in the studio, a board and a half of mugs, trimmed all the wee bowls and got a bisque kiln unloaded, pots signed and waxed with help from Ro and Mari. Mari is visiting from NJ and it's really nice to have her here.
