Cranky Love

I lined up the trays outta my last firing. Since I now have a basement workshop and no retail location the bulk of my work has to be wholesaled. This puts a whole new prospective on pricing. You’re going to get 50% of the price when you sell outright and 60% on consignment. I sell to one awesome gallery that is 70/30. I ain’t telling ya cause I want to keep that one for myself. Selling wholesale is an eye opener on pricing. If many of the people selling their work had to pay a mortgage, car payments, etc, etc they would understand that a retail price of  $12 for  mugs is nonsense.

My friend Don Ross told me you need a hydraulic press to make a living at selling pots wholesale. Making them slowly on a wheel and firing periodically just doesn’t add up.

I was having memories of Jingdezhen, China today.  80,000 people in that city involved in clay related occupations. Do you really think you can compete with the incredible production of China? Why would you want to? An 80 cent mug at Ikea makes the $6 wholesale on a $12 mug look like a fortune.

On my way back to the dorm from the studio in Jingdezhen I would pass a wooded area. All the trees were swaying. But they weren’t trees. They were young couples hanging on to each other in the dark and swaying. They had nowhere else to go. They were hanging on to love. Hang on to your love of making pots. Don’t crank em out! Love them out!  If you crank em out for little money you’ll make cranky loved pots. Cranky love is no kind of love at all!