Head-to-Toe, a Sales Profile: Susan James

  
     When I do a show, it’s fun and very informative to meet other artists and crafters. At the JFS show May 6^th, I met Susan James, who was showing and selling her beaded jewelry.

     I learned that Susan’s business actually encompasses two crafts. You can check out her jewelry and also the hats and capes that she crochets, at www.design-site.net/headtotoe.

     I have a hard enough time pulling together one category of handmade objects. I interviewed Susan for this blog to find out how and why she works with two.

     Susan said, “I started selling original design jewelry at the Aspen Saturday Market in 2001. It's a long selling season--from mid-June to mid-October.” 

     She reflected on the seasonal aspect of her sales. “When the weather got cool in September -- winter comes early to the Rockies -- I noticed the customers were too bundled up or chilly to try on jewelry, so my sales dropped."

     "I needed a fashion accessory product that could take me through the fall selling season in Aspen. Taught as a girl by my grandmother to crochet, my primary experience had been making afghan blankets for family and friends, and I hadn't crocheted in years. I started experimenting with shaping hats, and after pulling out many errant rows of crochet, I developed a line of hats for adults and children.” (Note: She also does capes. These are two of her customers:)

     Impressed by Susan’s perseverance, I wondered how she could make the hats pay off. I realized by her answer that, at least to a certain degree, she thinks through who she is selling to, before she even creates her inventory. She bases her analysis partly on prior sales, but also on certain external factors.

     “Over the years, three things changed my hat-selling business. The first was global warming. In recent seasons, Aspen stays hot until the middle of October. So I was selling winter hats in hot weather for four months! The second was that certain styles sold way better than others. And the third was the Great Recession, which caused shoppers who used to buy colorful caps for every kid in the family and hats for all the adults to pull back their purchases to perhaps one token hat as a souvenir.”

     So how did Susan adapt to meet these challenges?

     “This winter," she told me, "I designed a new cotton fedora, which was instantly popular, and works well in warm weather climates all year round. And I narrowed the collection to include only the few top-selling styles. The warmest designs I only sell at a store in Aspen during winter season. The cotton hats, flower headbands, and brimmed winter hats I sell at my booth at farmers markets year-round.”

    She added, “My biggest problem going forward is that I've been crocheting for 6-8 hours a day for so many years, that I've overused the muscle and nerve paths in my neck and shoulders, so now I must limit my crochet to as few hours a week as possible, and sometimes avoid it entirely. Thankfully, my jewelry design business has been growing, so the hat business is supplementary and not primary at this point.”

     As a potter, it was interesting for me to note this challenge, to which I could relate. It is sometimes hard to live with the beating on the muscles, joints and neural pathways, that comes from repetitive motion. I relate to it when my wrists and lower back ache after working too long at the potter’s wheel. If the problem gets bad, it requires that the crafter modify technique, or adjust to making a less body-stressing product, like Susan did.

     Making craft pay is quite a challenge. Thanks, Susan, and hats off to you for sharing your experience.

A Single Fruit in a Fruit-Sized Bowl

Sometimes you want an orange. Or an apple. Or a pear. And you want to cut it up and put it into just the right bowl.

Hello, bowl.

You are perfect for one pear today.

Tomorrow I will use you to beat up a couple of eggs for an omelet.

Later, you are just the right size for the last bit of stir-fry.

Last bit of stir fry> into the bowl> into the microwave>Voila!

Love these. I have a quartet of them in my kitchen cabinet.

Even I am surprised at how often one of these is the go-to bowl.

They were each made from a slab of clay, paddled into shape with a wooden tool.

I love how none is the same as the others, but they stack up so nicely.

I don't have these on my website, but they are made to order for $15 each.

Have you enjoyed a handmade, one-of-a-kind, just-right-for-one-fruit bowl today? Inquiring potters want to know.

The Fabric of Challenges

Here is one face of behind the scenes. It is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I am Optimizing my website for Search Engines to find me. Somewhere inside my head I know this isn't so difficult, but Cheese Louise, I don't get it yet. The tumblers have yet to align in my head to unclick this lock. This is one of those smack-my-head things: won't you step into my brain, Yoast? But Yoast refrains.

But I persist. At some point soon, with a little speck more explication from an expert, I will get to that "Oh!" realization and evolve from there. I say this with confidence even though I am not feeling it yet. I hope to draw actuality with positivity...and further effort.

Meanwhile, say hello to the awning of the future. So far it is just a pile of nice fabric:

But soon it will be an awning on the wall that faces you as you come down the steps to the gallery downstairs. There is a wall right in front of you. Since I have no real shop window (because hey, we're inside my house), I am creating the illusion of one on that wall. There will be a "window" in front of you, a big, attractive framed grid of wood resembling a window (without glass) that will showcase various pieces of pottery. Above it will be my awning, with a flap on the front that will read The Gallery Downstairs in black letters. There will be a spotlight behind the awning flap shining on the art.

The same fabric will also be used to upholster a bench I found in an interesting store in Garwood, NJ, called Artifacts. They take old furniture and refurbish it. It isn't going to cost me a fortune, and non-browsing friends of browsing people can sit on this nice upholstered bench while they wait, and read back issues of Pottery Making Illustrated.

Meanwhile, the pots broken by accident after the last show (dang) are deleted from my website, SOLD has gone up on photos of those that sold, and I am puzzling (through a mental block) over that Search Engine Optimization. This blog post is a digression from what I really should be doing! So I am going to sign off and get my Thinking Cap from the virtual hatrack, and go do what I should be doing.

Give me a 3-D challenge over this webby stuff any day. But it is all necessary to run my studio and gallery.

Hey, thanks for reading. Leave a comment below if you have one! 

Sketching, [Not So] Randomly

 

I just had an eye-opening tutorial, to learn about applying good ol’ Search Engine Optimization* to my website. More on SEO as I get more proficient. This has to be a serious priority for anyone with a website, so that it will show up in online searches. (*I am making place for an SEO hat on my metaphorical hatstand.)

Also, an electrician’s been in to the future gallery (finally!) to assess the work needed for radically improved lighting, and will give me an estimate Monday(ish). Electrical work comes before any other work.  I am going to be the general contractor*. (*Contractor hat, comin’ up.)

So instead of working with clay, being fairly distracted lately, I’ve been taking up pad, pencil and a kneaded eraser (love those) and I'm at least sketching (what else?) pots.

Started drawing spirals, which turned into pearlike shapes. I’ve built something like these out of coils before. But how would they be to make on the wheel and alter, instead? Would make them strictly decorative, and probably glazed simple white.

Also, I incorporated nails into low-fire earthenware years ago (as eye stalks for little monster pots, with wiggle eyes glued on the ends later). How would metal brads be for pear stems, at higher temperature firings like I do now? And could I also cut holes into the upper parts of the pearlike objects and make them into (no longer just decorative) functional flower holders?

Started drawing circles, realized I was still thinking Song Dynasty (see back a few posts), and evolved quickly back to that covered jar shape. It recurs, which means I’d better do this one (out of the new porcelain) just to get it outside my head and see how it goes. Would be wonderful with shellac resist designs.

Something else I’ve had in mind for a long time (see lower left of sketch): pots reminiscent of nests. This is a good sort of pot to throw thickish and carve. Inside would be very, very smooth and strongly or brightly colored, or bright clean white, with the outside stained sheer, matte, twiglike brown. All sizes. Really want to do this. These would be interesting to touch and look at, functional, and could attract birds…OK, not really on that last thing.

Another thing I’ve been thinking of: the sort of lobed pot (lower right of sketch) with a small, shot-glass like shape sort of set in as a rim.  I see this with sheer, light glaze of one color or other. Could be beautiful, or weird, or both.

Still itching to carve pots, so sketched the first two here:

The second from left has my typical leaf carving and the one on the far left has a raised band for carving the life circle and pumpkinlike “lobes.” The second from the right? Just a simple cylinder for a change, with possible underglaze brushwork and carving, maybe in the old Saturday Evening Girls style… And I’m not sure what the heck the pot on the right is, a single covered jar like a pot-within-a-pot; not liking. (Interesting to note that the new camera curved the image in at the edges like it was a wide angle shot. Have to learn the new camera settings better.)

Thinking (above ^) cylindrically some more…but I feel that these look like the light, colorful earthenware sort of pottery you can buy at Home Goods. Heck, my ideas are not all going to be useful ones- sometimes they’re just bad sketches. But all this drawing got me thinking about the simple cylinder shape with minor variations- it needs to feel handmade, or at least as if its surface matters beyond serving as a canvas for assembly line design. I think the cylinder is more challenging to decorate because it is such a clean, blank form that is open to imaginative handling or its opposite, minimal interference. Cylinders are a good exercise for any potter, beginner to expert. They give you room to roam.

Well, back to Search Engine Optimization…so anyone can go to my website and find what s/he is looking for.

Bottle with a Broken Lip

 Stoneware Bottle with Broken Lip

Out of the hot Maine July noon

In a listing antiques barn,

Among the kitsch and jetsam,

This bottle with no handles grabbed me-

With no raised foot, tripped me up.

In the white sun a wince in the height of day

Cool concrete and wood lured my son and me in

Beneath the Picker’s Palace sign-

His baseball cap shading his tumble-haired head

His search focused tight on musical things, and games-

When cheek by jowl to scalloped milk glass

And faded beige satin pincushions

The chipped gray gleam of its little mouth in the gloom

Blew me a kiss. I swear.

I heard the phantom snap of ancient pine ash melting.

We climbed a flight of metal steps

Saw chairs and chests and Esso signs

And came back down with my sturdy boy clutching

A harmonica still in its box, and a dinged-up iron putter

But my hands empty longed for the rich brown bottle.

A freckle of stony bits complicated its skin

Stippled with fly-ash, unsigned, alone, out of place,

The mark of a twisted cutoff wire beneath its narrow bottom,

Its belly swelled with old sweet fire…

I bought it. What was the tiny price? Some paper tag long gone now.

copyright Mimi Stadler 2012

Improved Show Space

This is how I rearranged my space the day after the show, having realized it was too crowded.

Scroll down and compare to the photo two posts ago, when I first set up the show. Lots more room to look at individual pieces!

With a leaf applique fabric piece above (not sure of artist's name but a nice piece of art), and Dario Scholis's paintings at the left, it was a colorful space.

More changes for next time: more poetic (less prosaic) pieces (sorry, no mugs), black tablecloth, banner with my studio's name.

(photo by Susan James)

After the Show: More About the Business of Craft!

The art show at Evalyn Dunn’s Gallery in Westfield, NJ, was Sunday. How was the show, you ask? (Remember that question, and how difficult I find it to reply?)  Short answer: it was a good show, but not because I made so much money. It was a particularly good show because of the intangibles, which are what I learned while interacting, questioning and observing.

I did a sort of post-mortem after a show. What sold? What did not draw interest at all? Did a particular texture or color turn the people on or off? What price point sold better than others? Was the one-of-a-kind work more interesting? Were people willing to spend on a unique piece? Did they want Judaica? Serving pieces? Decorative ware? Did I get names and addresses (email and snail) to add to my mailing list?

Yesterday, I went back to the gallery to help out for a couple of hours. My work is still there for the duration of this week. Susan James, a jeweler who had been in the show, was also helping out. Since the gallery is not usually open Mondays, few customers showed up, and I took the opportunity to rearrange my display. Susan makes her living from her craft all year round, mostly at outdoor shows. She has a sense of what makes a good display. She and Jacie Civins, the owner of the gallery, gave me great feedback, very helpful for my show post-mortem.

By the end of our discussion, I had packed up at least a quarter of the items I had on display. The table and shelves looked better. It now had few multiples of anything. I had shifted groupings by color, instead of by type of object. Jacie pointed to a large vase. “When did that get there?” she asked me. It had been there all along. It was just highlighted now with better placement.

So. "How was the show?"

1)  Because each piece has its own carving or a plate fitted especially to suit it, I believed I make one of a kind work. But it didn't necessarily look like it at the show. Because my carved goblets, for example, were of similar size to one another and stood in a row on one shelf, regardless of differences in their carved decoration, if you didn't look closely, you would have assumed they were all alike. This, Susan told me, is not "special." Unless he or she really wants a pair, or a set, a buyer will usually prefer to have "the only one like it" at a show like this. The remedy is to place objects separately, not as a group of similars, and limit their number- otherwise you get a herd effect. A herd effect can be gorgeous; think of a herd of horses running- but conversely, can also can lower the effective beauty of an individual thing.

2) Price should not reflect only the time, effort and cost expended to make the object. That should just be the floor when setting the $$ amount. Charge for the specialness of the piece. If necessary, get a knowledgeable friend or colleague to help. If you are like me, knowing too much about the making process clouds your objectivity.

3) Each item should be what I want to make. There is a buyer somewhere for every single handmade thing, if made well.  It's not much use planning too rigidly what to make. Jacie and Susan chose to admire pieces that were quite different from one another's. Susan loved a simple, easy to make bowl with a subtle stony glaze, that was particularly graceful. Jacie liked two carved and complexly colored vase forms.

4) Display: Less Really Is More. Clear up a little. If planning to show 8 teacups and saucers that are the same, make them different colors from one another. Or show only one to three at a time, not ten.

5) Yes, this should be obvious, though it wasn't to me-- Color contrast is extremely important. Ware that is green should not be on a green cloth. Put it on a black cloth. And make more of the ware some other color. Not everyone likes green.

6) Again- color! Develop a good palette for more color! More, more, more color! People have a visceral reaction to red. Or blue. Or pure white. Or variegated golden brown.

7) People actually want to pay more sometimes. If the price is too low, it will seem apparent that as an artist, I do not especially value the objects I  make, and neither should the shoppers. Usually, unless it's a mug or a cereal bowl, (and even sometimes then,) a customer has no set of criteria to assess the value of a piece of handmade pottery, except to look at the price tag. If someone wants to give a gift, and the bowl they are looking at is $22, they assume it would be perceived by the recipient as a cheapie gift, and they won't buy it. This is faulty thinking, but common. It does no good to explain that the recipient would not know what the giver had paid. The gift giver will buy a bowl that cost the potter next door just as little to make as your bowl did, but they will assume it is a “better” bowl, because it is marked $42.

Think of it this way. If the bowl is beautiful, and I still price it according to the time it took to make and the cost of materials. I am totally ignoring the intangible something that makes a piece special. So remember- a buyer who "gets" that certain "something" in the work will pay real money for it.

Well, it’s been a busy and informative couple of days. As ever, onward and upward