LOL! Last night Cynthia Bringle was telling us that someone was agast at her
prices and said to her "Who do you think you are!" and Linda McFarling shouted
back "Just a National Living treasure, that's who"." We all got a good laugh out
of that!
Emily Reason said she sells her porcelain mugs for $48 and the gallery said they
have no trouble selling them at that price; and some of us mentioned that we
haven't changed our prices in 3 to 4 years even though clay, gas and everything
else has gone up in that time. 
One of the potters, Sarah House,  always puts her price tags out of sight, so
people have to pick up the pot. Another potter always hands a pot to people and
usually sells it. He was quoted by Shane, our moderator, that the reason he does
this is that "possession is 9/10th of the law". Seems that once a pot is in
someone's hands, they are more apt to make the purchase.  I'm definitely going
to put that one to the test.
I think the main thing we all agreed on, is that educating the public is  an
important factor to getting people to not only appreciate what goes into making
quality work, but also, to understand why the work is priced, as it is.
Another member said that he has a small item that he sells at cost, as a loss
leader, basically, but he sells a lot of the item and feels that it brings him
future sales since so many people buy them as gifts.  
Some of the potters who are just starting to sell their work spoke of the
dilemma about pricing their work so they don't undersell other potters, but yet,
realizing that their work is not yet up to the level of some others, don't want
to over price it for it's quality.
Cynthia Bringle brought up another good point, when someone mentioned that
several potteries in Seagrove went out of business this year. She said that many
new potters begin selling their work too early, which I and others agreed.
Much more was covered during the meeting - wholesale, consignment, the fact that
some retailers are now asking artists for 52% discount, what artists do about
galleries which want exclusivity within 50 or even 100 miles, etc. etc.


Regards,
June

http://www.shambhalapottery.blogspot.com
http://www.shambhalapottery.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sodasaltfiring/
http://saltandsodafiring.ning.com/
http://ncclayclub.blogspot.com
 
 




________________________________
From: Lee Love <cwiddershins@...>
To: Clayart@...
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2009 2:40:02 PM
Subject: Re: What goes into making a soda/salt fired mug

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 9:36 AM, June<beinjoy@...> wrote:
> After the theme (pricing), of our Clay Club meeting last night, I decided to
post my edited, amended, version of Sam Cuttell's wonderful, original post to
fit my making and firing schedule.
>
> WHAT GOES INTO MAKING A SODA/SALT FIRED MUG? (I'm so glad you asked!!)
>

I am exhausted just looking at the list!  I suppose someone might ask
why'd you ever want to do a thing like that?  ;^)

--
Lee Love, Minneapolis
"The tea ceremony bowl is the ceramic equivalent of a sonnet: a
small-scale, seemingly constricted form that challenges the artist to
go beyond mere technical virtuosity and find an approach that both
satisfies and transcends the conventions." -- Rob Sliberman
full essay: http://togeika.multiply.com/journal/item/273/