Etsy

Last Wet Day. Sort of.

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Today was my last day throwing for the Thrown Together Show on Sept.  24th.  Sarah and I are going on vacation next week so I want to have all the pots made, slipped and some decorated before we leave.  I'd like to get a bisque in too.  So this week I'll be finishing and hopefully load a nice bisque on Friday or Saturday.


So it was the last wet day in the studio but it looks like there may be a day or more of very wet weather in store for us as tropical storm Lee drenches much of the south.


Thanks for all the comments on the last post about disconnecting!!  This seems to be something that many of us could use some work on.

I have a few small strategies in place.  I'm not going online until I've been up for at least 2 hours.  I'd like to try and even move this on into the day, maybe not get online until lunchtime.

I'm trying to only check my email 2-3 times a day.  When I check it I respond to the emails that come in or file them to be responded to.  Right now I'm doing pretty good at responding to what comes in.  I've also unsubscribed from several sites and changed my settings on social networks so I don't get notified  about stuff.

If I think of something during the day that I want to look up I make a note of it on paper and then try to do all that at one time, usually in the evening.  The evening is a bad time for me to get sucked in.  If I stick to the list, check my mail and sign out then that's good.  Not being successful at this all the time though.  I should probably set a timer and go for a certain time and then log off.

If I am working on a document, or something in Photoshop, etc then I sign out of my browser so I'm not tempted to check my blog, or Etsy, or email.

I'm really trying to only do a couple posts to FB or my Fan page per day and not get caught up reading what everyone else is doing. *


I'll keep y'all up to date on what's going on as I try new disconnecting techniques this week.

The boxes are almost done and ready to deco.  Today I got them slipped and the lids cut.  They will get a lid flange tomorrow.


Thanks for checking in.  I know we all have little time to spare but it's nice to be connected here on the blogs and I plan to keep on posting and to keep reading as many others blogs as I can.


*Did you follow those hyperlinks?  Hum, that can get us in trouble too can't it?!  Well if you did I hope you didn't get sucked in and made it back here quickly.


And now you're off to whatever is next!

The Desire to Disconnect

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I've been working yesterday and today to try and get some of my 'junk' organized.  'Junk' being all the stuff on my desk, the kitchen table, the table by the window, and on top of the bookshelf by the door.  Piles. Stacks.  Stuff of varying importance. Or no importance.

As it is now I've moved most of it to my upstairs desk, which is to become my Control Center, the place from which I am going to build my Empire, or at least where I'm going to spend the next hour working to clean out my Inbox.


In the last month or longer I have seriously noticed my addiction to being 'Connected'.  I check my email several times a day, and my blog comments, and my facebook, and my Etsy, and I also have the weakness of getting sucked into surfing for god knows what on the internet.  It's not good.  It's eating away my time, my creative time, my time for tea and drawing and reading and napping.  I need to Disconnect.  I need some structure to my time on the internet.



I have a plan. I'll share more about that later.  For now lets just say that I'm happy that I've decided to work on this.  I'm not saying I'm going to do less work or use the internet less to market my art or to communicate with others.  I'm just going to do it in a healthy way, that doesn't eat so much of my time up, and make me crazy.


I'm getting some help from some of the materials and posts on this site.


The Gallery Crawl uptown went well last night.  I was in charge of the food at the Arts Council and with the help of my fellow board members Fredia and Donna we put out quite a spread.


My work at Two Doors Down looked fab and I sold a couple pieces from there.



Thanks for checking in everyone.  Have a good Friday!!







Just out of the kiln

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Some of the pots from yesterdays unloading.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGAp61klMKg

Tomorrow, September 1, is the Gallery Crawl in uptown Shelby.  My work is featured at Two Doors Down, 12 Warren Street.  I also have work at ETC Gift shop in the Arts Council and at Buffalo Creek Gallery, also on Warren St.  I hope the locals will come out and support the arts and our local businesses.

In the Middle

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Here it is, the middle of the day, in the middle of the week.  I haven't felt very much like blogging, I've barely done much of anything this week really.  I did make a nice run of pots on Monday and they are all finished up now.  Sarah has been out of town so my days have seemed  long and lonely.

I did decide that I need to get with the program on my Etsy site.  I've re listed some expired things and shot photos today of pots that I'll be listing over the next few days.  I'd like to build my inventory back up.  Hopefully in time for folks to do some shopping for the Holidays.


Speaking of the impending Holiday Season, I'll be sending 20 pots or so to Lillstreet Art Center for their 35th Anniversary Holiday Show.  I'm very happy to have been asked to show at Lillstreet during this time.


I'll soon be starting a project for a historical house in Shelby.  I'll be making a number of tiles for the kitchen area.  I'll keep you posted on that.


Who's That?

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Oh just me.  Right. Okay, so I have been going over the presentation I am giving tomorrow evening for the NC Pottery Collectors Guild.  I think it's fine.  It's all about the Internet and how that technology as well as some other tech stuff is used in my pottery business.  Like this Blog for instance! Right. I should be able to talk about that shouldn't I? Fingers crossed.

The meeting is on the campus of NCSU in Raleigh, NC.  That's where I went to college from 1988-1992.  I studied mathematics there.  And horticulture (for one of the 4 years).  I didn't graduate which is a drag,(I had great grades, but just got fed up) I had a pretty hard time during those years.  Worrying about pleasing other people and having no clue what I was going to do with my Life.  I had some good times there too of course but it's going to be weird being back there.  I haven't been on campus since I left.  I'm sure a lot has changed.

Anyhow, probably no posts until Saturday.  I'm going to go to the Larkspur Party while in Raleigh.  Jenn Mecca will be there showing her pots as well as several other friends.  I've heard the lady who has the show has these amazing gardens.  That should be neat to see.

New pots on the Etsy site if you'd like to CLICK over and check them out.  I've got a bisque going tonight with some new mugs, bowls and plates.  I'll definitely be listing some of these pots when they come out of the glaze kiln.

All for now. Thanks for checking in!!

One Yunomi. Two Yunomi

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A while back I said in a post that I didn't make yunomi's any more because they didn't sell well.  That was a bit of an exaggeration and Carter from Georgia (who reads the blog) commented on this statement and how it seemed at odds with some other stuff I had written. (The making pots that are almost guaranteed to sell).  Anyhow I couldn't disagree with Carter (he's much too smart for me, and logical too).


What I may have meant was that in the past I made loads of yunomi and possibly my supply exceeded any demand for them. Especially in Shelby.

I made these two  recently and was very pleased with both of them.   I like the wide feet and the straight sided-ness of them.  They feel good in the hand. I also have one decorated with an Owl, but I've kept it for myself!


I've listed both of these in my Online Shop.  You can see a few more views of each there. SOLD


I'm sure I'll be making some more yunomi soon.

Tuesday's Post

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Karma and I just got back from a nice walk.  The birds are out chirping away, we saw a flock of geese fly over and we went by the livestock barn to visit the cows. (Last visitors they'll have before transport to slaughter I'm afraid) (Such happy thoughts here on my blog. Ha. Sorry).


Anyhow, I have a bisque cooling and freshly slipped cups drying in the studio.  It's been a busy day of photographing pots for my Etsy Shop and working in the studio.

Please take the poll over in the right side bar if you haven't yet.  It seems like most everyone that reads my blog is a potter.  No surprise there really, and I'm thrilled to have you all.  Thanks for continuing to visit.  I'm wanting to make some improvements to this site soon and knowing who the audience is will help.  It helps me to put the right content out there too.

I'm looking forward to making a special trip on Thursday. Stay tuned for that, hopefully I'll have a bit of film to share on Friday.

Cheers!

My 2 Cents

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I'm not breaking any records this week.  I did the the handles on the 5 pots I made on Monday.


So I thought I'd give you what info I have about selling pots online.  I certainly am no expert here, but it's something I am very interested in and I do want to put more time, energy and money into my online presence/shop this year.

I have an Etsy shop to sell pots online. Most everyone has heard of Etsy by now, but if you haven't, head on over to the site and check it out.

In my opinion Etsy is a good way to get into online sales.  It's easy to set up and use and the cost is low.  It costs 20 cents to list each item and they take a 3% commission of the sale.   You can accept credit cards by using PayPal or take checks.  PayPal has fees too, but I have found it easy to use and it has some nice features (like sending folks invoices).

I've heard artists complain that Etsy is very large and that there is a wide range of quality in the work.  This is true.  I also find Etsy to be very hard to search.  I can't even find myself on there using their search feature. (I'm probably not tagging things correctly).  So the way I use Etsy is to point people directly to my shop via my website/blog, email campaigns, postcards etc.  I give them my Etsy address or a hyper link and that gets them right to it.  I certainly doubt anyone will ever just stumble upon me there and buy my work.

I know very little about how to utilize Etsy to its full potential ie, getting your listings seen more or whatever.  I do know you can pay to be featured.  There's lots of info out on this stuff on the Etsy site and other blogs. (If you have links or info please leave them in the comments for us)

I have found that I like to do a scheduled listing of work on Esty that I promote to people.  In December I did this and had pots up for a few weeks before Christmas.  I sold enough pots to make me quite happy.  Of course I had to then ship them but I was prepared with bubble wrap, peanuts and boxes which made it painless.  I have also started using the Click and Ship feature that the USPS offers so I don't even go to the post office, my mail carrier just picks up the packages.

My goal is to have some sort of integrated online shopping cart here on the website by the end of this year.  (hopefully!).  I will probably hire someone to do that work for me and to tell me what 'company' or whatever to use.  I want to overhaul the whole site before long and this is part of that plan.

I'm sure there are other options out there other than Etsy. The only one I really about is Other Peoples Pixels.  I think Amazon has some sort of thing but I haven't seen it  in action. Of course there are lots of e commerce sites that are used in website development and I guess some that are stand alone.  I'm just trying to stick to what I know here.