The Struggle with $$$$$!

This was something I came across a couple of years ago when I was surfing the web for some advise on pricing pottery.   This is an on going battle for me, and I believe when starting off, it is something that everyone struggles with.  I'm finally getting a grasp on it, but on occasion I still have my doubts.  I thought I'd share some words of wisdom from someone who has experience in the life of being a potter.  I believe she makes some valid points and has helped me understand, hopefully it will shed some light on others who are struggling. Enjoy!

random thoughts on pricing and making a living

Ellen Currans on thu 29 jul 10

Just my opinion and it applies only to functional pottery I know very little about ceramic art or sculpture. Pricing is local. The same mug by the same potter can be sold for more money in some places than it can in others: big, more sophisticated cities versus small towns; college connected, long running craft fairs versus Saturday markets; in a highly regarded gallery versus your own back yard sale. Work by a well known potter will sell for more than very similar work by new potters. It takes time to be known and for your work to have a following. Mugs sell themselves once you have learned  how to make a good one that people love and simply must have for every cup of coffee, even when it is in the dishwasher. Selling well has a lot to do with making pots people want to buy.  (Just think about that for awhile.) In tough times they have to REALLY want to buy, and usually they want something they need or can really use, or that lifts their spirits in some undefinable way.

You are not obligated to price your work to support the prices other potters may be asking. If you are a beginner your work probably isn't worth the higher price anyway. Perhaps their $40 mugs aren't worth $40 either. Be a bit humble in pricing at the beginning and raise your prices as your work justifies it. It is really hard to lower prices on the same work when the public has become accustomed to certain price points. Earlier purchasers will feel cheated, and others will wonder why you are underselling your own work. 

Making lots of (well thought out) pots and selling them is the key to making better and better pots. There is nothing wrong with selling beginning work to people who want to buy it. We do not live in a society that supports us while we break up everything we make for years and years. Keep working on your skills so that you become the potter who can easily make many pots efficiently and quickly..., rather than just the few we all hover over as beginners. Very few potters make big money or become famous, but many have managed to make a good life. Expect to live carefully and frugally. Appreciate spouses, partners, friends and family who support what you are doing. Learn as much as you can from those with skills to teach you because the more you can do for yourself the less money you will need to pay out for services.

Older potters are not looking down on beginners when they give advice about making your own clay and glazes, or learning to weld. They are sharing with you hard won information that has made it possible for them to succeed. We are all free to go about our clay life as we wish. Make our own or buy glazes, stop for a $3.50 latte every morning or make leaf tea, dig our own clay or never recycle ready made. It is our choice. We get to choose the parts we like and ignore the rest, and perhaps we succeed...... or not.

Potting part time does not mean you are not a serious or good potter. Starting late in life does not mean you are not a serious or good potter. Using low fire glazes in an electric kiln does not mean you are not a serious or good potter. The size and beauty of your studio (closet, garagio, where ever you work) does not mean you are a good or poor potter--we all start where we can.  Firing in the more esoteric kilns or having your work in the magazines does not necessarily mean you are a serious or good potter, nor do the degrees behind your name. Eventually, the work speaks for itself.  Most of us have missed some part of the necessary education for being a potter. Hopefully, not as badly as the art teacher Logan

has been asked to help. It is up to us to learn what we need to know to succeed. I am appalled at how many potters do not bother to read books or magazines and keep them around to refer back to.

The wealth of information available to us is mind boggling. All the glazes and techniques and firing schedules and tools to make are available in abundance. Skip a few high priced workshops and buy books. The more you know about the craft the better able you will be to survive tough times. Many good potters who were setting the rules for show or guild entries some years back, are now doing something else because they could not adapt their way of working or selling to make enough money to live on.

Ellen Currans

Working in clay for over 50 years through all the stages of novice, part-time, workshop junkie, wheel in the kitchen corner, lugging pots and kids to fairs for many years, easing my studio into a bigger and better space from time to time, selling comfortably and then selling all I can make, and now trying to scale back my work to adjust to some kind of semi-retirement at 77. But not quitting. There is always something new to learn.