Occupy

Yesterday I cleared moist dead leaves that clung in crevices of a bush in our garden. The bush had brown spots where the leaves had blocked sunlight all summer long. On New Years Day, as we clear away the old to make space for new growth, I thought of all the possibilities in my own life that have manifested only after I cleared away the dead debris, and opened myself to the transformative powers of sunlight.

And I think there are two parts to the magic that changes and heals. One is the act of protest, of knowing what needs to be hauled away and allowed to compost. It is then necessary to open oneself to the sunlight, to allow the mysterious and unknowable process of renewal to take place in our own hearts and minds.

In 2012, I will be a clearing for the good stuff to show up.

Do you ever lift your face to the warm sun and let it fill you with pleasure? Or are you lost in he world where status matters, and your clothes tell us who you really are?

Battle of the bowls

My eye is drawn to pattern and so the flower shaped bowl, with its complex symmetry, has become a signature form. The second bowl is the flower bowl just before the rim is altered into the waves. Something inside me has been wanting to stop there. So, in the middle of my busiest season, I took  time out to throw 4 of each.

There is no clear winner yet. The flower bowls sold out faster but those who bought the round ones loved them a lot.

When you love pottery as I do, certain pieces appear as if I've been searching for them a long time only I've just remembered that I lost it. They feel both utterly new and utterly familiar all at once. Both bowls evoked this type of reaction, so I don’t know if I should choose just 1 to continue, even though that is far more practical.

Which do you like better?

Family

I rarely start out to make these insanely elaborate decorations. You would think that after 70+ hour weeks in the studio making pottery, I’d just make a pie, or stick flowers in a vase. But my mind is racing with imagery. At the market I just have to have these particular lime green mums, and…not those…not those…oh, have to have these bright red mini carnations! And then they have to be meticulously arranged. Like this:

And the funny thing is, I never feel closer to my grandmother than when I am obsessed with getting the pie crust to look just right. I can so vividly recall her lattice crust and the way she used a zigzag cutter to cut the strips.

This Thanksgiving, my daughter returned for the first time a grown woman. She went right to work in the studio, making pottery for her Etsy shop, MarciG. When she helped me cook and bake, I was amazed at how much she knew without being told. And then it occurred to me how many years she’d silently been there, just watching.

Flock of Love by MarciG

I think what makes us family is not so much our genetics, as we are all so very different. It is rather this silent language that runs through us.

We make our nests, our homes like a monk prays, or like a little bird sings.

Raised In Love from OneClayBead

Dinnerware, Frequently Asked Questions

Thanks for your interest in my dinnerware. I have sold functional tableware for 35 years. I’ve used my own dinnerware set daily for 20+ years, as have many of my early buyers. I use special techniques to compact the particles of clay densely, and test my glazes for durability so the pieces are much stronger than commercial dinnerware. I have many sets to choose from, which are available on LeeWolfePottery.com. Delivery times are included in each listing. Here are the most FAQ’s:
Do you offer a discount for multiple sets/ large orders?
No. As each piece is made individually, one at a time, it doesn’t save me any time to make large quantities, so I offer the best price I can on each piece, regardless of quantity. I make 2X the amount of pieces you order, choose the best ones for you, and sell the less desirable ones on Etsy as dinnerware seconds.
What are seconds?
Seconds don’t function as optimally as first quality pieces, or they do not coordinate as well with my sets. I love the look and philosophy of wabi-sabi, which prizes individuality and peculiarity in functional objects. If plates that wobble a bit, small glaze bubbles, or slightly bowed surfaces don’t bother you, by all means, purchase and enjoy my seconds. You’ll have to watch for them as they become available but as hundreds of people have noted-
“Your seconds are better than most people’s firsts.” Why is that?
I‘ve made pottery for a long time, and sold through top level American Craft galleries, where you are are held to very high standards. Today every hobby potter opens an Etsy shop and sells their work before it has technical integrity. Some of it is alright. Some of it is awful. Here is a comparison:
Why is a foot rim important?
One of the crucial techniques that I use is to add a thrown foot rim to the bottoms of my hand built pieces. This adds stability, making sure that the the wonky nature of organic forms, which I love, does not mean that they rock and wobble in use. It also gives a lift to each piece, so that when they stack the fluid organic edges don’t press against each other, causing tension that will lead to stress cracks and eventual breakage.
You can see how my foot rim affects stacking in this comparison of plates:

in bowls, both my foot rim and consistent curve affect stacking:

What are other advantages to having my dinnerware made by a master artisan?
There are many functional mistakes that fledgling potters make. Here are some to look for:

Bowed plates- Do you see how the plate surface curves upward towards the middle? This will cause sauces and juices to run towards the edge and pool.
Shallow lip- Imagine carrying food from a buffet to the table on a plate with a shallow lip. Food will easily spill. This problem is compounded when the plates also bow upwards in the middle. Do you really want to embarrass your guests this way?

Spotty glazes- Some glazes are intended to have a mixture of translucent and opaque qualities, which gives them visual texture. Drastically uncontrolled, or spotty, glaze application, however, means that the glaze is too thin in places to hold liquids. These pieces will deteriorate with dishwasher cleaning.

foreign materials stuck on- I discount the price for this, and sell them as seconds, pointing out the flaw so that you can decide if that’s something you want to live with or not. Beginners don’t know how to control for this and it occurs so frequently that its just part of their acceptable quality.

Technical ignorance- Crushed glass can be put in the bottom of pottery. It will melt into a beautiful thick layer. However, it has a deep crackle that cannot be cleaned so it is not safe to use these bowls in serving food. This is from a listing that states “This little dish is microwave and dishwasher safe. The glaze is lead-free and is food safe too.”

Sharp edges- The plate on the right is from my Moonshadow collection. Notice the softened edges. On the left, as noted, the sharp edges are uncomfortable to hold and chip easily.
Admittedly, there are subjective lines between what is an original design and therefore intellectual property, and what is an idea that any artisan is entitled to see in someone else’s work and copy. Technical differences are objective. I have tried to stick with these in my comparisons here, and I have not intended to embarrass nor denigrate, but rather to educate and explain my own prices and the decades of experience and continued education I bring to my own work.
I am grateful every day for those who purchase my pottery. I hope it brings you years of daily joy, and a meaningful heirloom to be remembered by in future generations.
click to see:
My website 
my dinnerware- full sets 
check available seconds

Beatles vs Stones

I liked the Rolling Stones better than the Beatles, and if you were a teen in the late 60’s to 70’s, this choice had to be made. It defined who you were. Maybe it still does.
I am listening to Keith Richards’ book, Life,  on CD in my studio, and then caught Martin Scorcese’s documentary on George Harrison the same day. Keith was the guitar player for the Stones; George for the Beatles. I was struck by a sharp contrast between these 2 British rock stars who rode the same wave to fame.
George used his music to say something important. It was message driven music. He railed against the Tax Man and advocated Eastern mysticism and philosophy. Whereas Keith was obsessed with what he could learn from playing guitar. He was driven by a need to get a chord he’d heard or a blend of sound that felt right. George was a teacher who used art in his lessons. Keith was a student and his art was his teacher. And that’s why I’ve related to Keith and the Stones more than George and the Beatles.
It's not that I disliked the Beatles nor mysticism, and George wrote some of the best, like Here Comes the Sun and Something. It's just that, as far as music goes, George wasn't all in the way that Keith was all in. There's this old quote that gets attributed to different people, that goes:
"If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you."
Music was that thing within Keith that saved him. And that is what pottery is like for me. I'm not expressing joy or awe in my work. Joy and awe are expressing through me when I am making pottery, and that's why I make it.

I don’t have anything to say with my art, yet it has taught me to live a life filled with satisfaction. What I find there is beyond words, beliefs, theology.

flower bowl in OneClayBead
Who are you, as an artist? Stones or Beatles?

Marketing Tips from Steven Jobs and Me

 

Apple CEO Steven Jobs was truly brilliant. He left many great quotes as part of his legacy, and here is one that stands out for me:

"We've never worried about numbers. In the market place, Apple is trying to focus the spotlight on products, because products really make a difference. [...] Ad campaigns are necessary for competition; IBM's ads are everywhere. But good PR educates people; that's all it is. You can't con people in this business. The products speak for themselves."

In contrast to this I also read the Etsy forums, which are full of advice on how to market your work. You know, you can Twitter and ban together as teams to dominate Front Page coverage and do a Feasibility Analysis and give your work away for free in order to attract attention. And yes, I've tried all these things and more at one time or another.

The sad reality of Etsy is that only 5% of the 290,000 sellers on Etsy are making over $30,000/ yr in sales. And in the face of this overwhelming failure, they are intent on marketing more, marketing better, and marketing different.

Not that marketing is bad… but as Steven Jobs says, it focuses attention on your products. So if marketing more, better and different  isn’t working, it might be time to focus on improving the products. For an artisan, good products don’t come from making what everyone else is making. Good products come from connecting to that adventurous inner desire to try something new, to master a technique, to innovate, to push something known into the unknown.

My rustic ceramic bowls, hand sculpted with vintage lace textures and up to 7 layers of glazes are where I'm currently pushing the boundaries on functional pottery.

Style

I invited a few local creative clayfolks over to my studio to show them  tricks that have made me successful on Etsy. These are people who already have a unique body of work. That’s the #1 thing. I believe that the second most important element for success is how you style your photos.

Above is a One Clay bead necklace from my My Tribe collection. I used natural sunlight, a vintage looking Boho shirt, and a model with no makeup and carefree hair. This one is all about natural beauty. It’s for a woman who wants that look, and meant to draw her in to look at the close up photos that are second in the listing.

Here are a few other successfully styled photos from the Artisans Gallery Team. Notice how each one is so much more than a catalog shot. The photos make a statement about the work, and tell us who the target audience is for that artisan. (Click on any photo to learn more).

From Birribe, the scarf pops against a subdued palette and the rustic bowl says ‘handmade, and ‘timelessly fashionable’.

 

From Starbags, a playful, fun and energetic styling photo says that this is for a woman who is light hearted and adventurous. She needs a bag that has personality but is made well enough to withstand her capricious and active lifestyle.

From Polestar, this conveys a message that the necklace will be front and center, a focal point for your outfit. Simple and powerful presentation.

From WolfArtGlass, the recycled shot glass is shown emerging from the bottles- a clever way to convey the process and its eco friendly nature. The target market- eco conscious buyers- are defined instantly.

From Ileaiye, the styling shows us a comfortable and flattering shawl in the easy going pose of the model. The white textured brick background also says urban. The styling successfully says that it is made for a woman who needs hip current styling but demands comfort.

From LeshasWorkshop, “turn your shoes into boot” is perfectly conveyed. The buyer is modern, youthful, sexy, and confident.

As Rod Stewart once sang “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”  I enjoy styling my pottery. it’s another artform unto itself.