It is cold here, not as cold as "cold" means, but fairly cold for us; +8, +10 Celsius during the day is too cold for me for working with the wet, freezing clay. Nevertheless I tried today to do maintain works like cleaning, and putting things into place and taking pictures. I have also mixed some new glazes for trial in the few coming kilns.
The view from my studio in a rainy day
I was not happy with the bowls I did last time. Although deliberately, I reduced the time and effort I put in every bowl's decoration, the results seem to me dull and less than I hoped for.
The inside of the bowls, being glazed with clear glaze only, look uninteresting.
I must find a way to decorate, like I would like, but still spending less time with each bowl so I could sell it cheaper. Or, I could decide to do what I like best- that means putting a lot of time in each piece, and then sell it for a lot of money. It is complicated; no one here pays so much for ceramic. Maybe the wiser approach should be looking for places which might buy expensive ceramics.
Looking for the right way, I found myself decorating more bowls made of brown clay, combining the two sides of the bowl by decorate the inside as well.
3 comments:
The bowls with decoration in and out are absolutely stunning and have a lot of depth in the pattern. Really very striking. But, I have to say I also really like the ones with just the decoration outside. I don't find the white plain but rather find it draws focus to the outside (and I can imagine how lovely food would look inside them). As you say, it is very hard to price items that require so much work but you want to be happy with the work you are producing. At the end of the day (as I know from my own experience), it doesn't really matter what others say about your work, you need to be happy with it and feel like you "stand behind it". Just wanted to say that I think it is really beautiful. :-) Miri
These bowls are beautiful, I particularly like 0037 0041 and 0043 (your numbers). It is better doing what you like best and putting a lot of work into pieces and selling them for more, if you can. I have a real problem with this point too. With the planet collapsing under carbon emissions I personally am of the opinion that I can’t make “stuff” anymore. I truly hope that 2010 heralds the age of production of things that are meant, essential and beautiful.
Can you sell these pots on Etsy? I am planning a very small e commerce shop on my web site so I can sell directly.
beautiful bowls, i particularly like the ones that have a combination of blue and brown over the white... really nice combination. your dilemma is one that i have constantly because i spend a great deal of time to decorate both inside and out and although i feel that the ones with in and out both are better, it's twice the time about and i don't get nearly enough to justify it. one thing i've decided that if i planned to only do either the interior or the exterior that if it's interior, it needs to be a low bowl that the owner would have to hunch down to see the outside of and if it's an exterior decoration that the bowl needs to be tall and more vertical so that the exterior is easily visible because i've done the exterior only before on a shallow bowl and if it's sitting on the table, you can't even tell that there is decoration on it. all that aside, i think i'm leaning toward do both and charge more and we'll see what happens. i agree with kitty about the environmental impact and it makes sense from that point of view to fire less often.
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