Summer Sales

So I'm coming out of a school semester with a lot of product from my ceramics class. I have one more load to fire and then on to the summer sales. I have been thinking about it and I'm going to sell from my front lawn first, kinda like a yard sale only better. I live on a highly traffic'd road and I learned from a potter in Wisconsin years ago that if 1,000 people cross your business a day that he's found he could sell enough to be successful. I might not get 1,000 people crossing my house in a day but I really think I'll be able to sell enough to make it worth the effort...

Honestly this is quite an adventure for me. I've never had any formal training in running a successful business or even selling my wares. All I have is common sense and the feeling in my gut that I can do it. Is that unreasonable? I don't think it is. Even if the front lawn pottery sell doesn't work I know that my wares are able to be sold and worthy of admiration. It's an invigorating feeling having worthy art and it is a long time coming. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it turns out...

I've been thinking again...

So every now and then I come up with some new fandangled idea in my head that I just can't shake. Usually my wife humors my endless jabbering of what I intend to do but never get around to doing... This time I'm really going to do something with my idea!

One issue that I've had for some time now is taking good professional looking pictures of my pottery. I saw somewhere that I could make a light box out of a cardboard box and that seemed to work alright but the box began breaking down quickly and now I need something a little bit stronger. So I found a program online called Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com) and I began tinkering with it. This is what I came up with! It's made from wood and you place a sturdy, neutral colored poster board inside as the backdrop (most poster boards are 22" wide, thus the dimensions) and shine a light down through a white sheet to create the soft light. I made it 18" deep because my work table is 2' deep and I wanted some play room when I place it on the table. Honestly, the deeper the better as far as function goes. As soon as I can I'm going to be making this and I'll let you know how it turns out... Wish me luck!!

So I successfully fired up my kiln the other day, I forgot to take pictures of it before and afterwards... Next time I guess. It always feels like Christmas waiting for the kiln to cool off. I go to school in the morning and then rush to the kiln to check the temperature which usually blinks at something around 1000 + degrees. Then from there on I am checking every half hour just waiting to have it blink under 500 so that I can crack the lid and see my prizes. This time it was all worth it! I got some beautiful ware out of the firing (praises to the kiln gods!) and I have two pieces that I just entered into my school's yearly art exhibit.