Blog Giveaway: Spark and Inspire





Spark and Inspire in the studio

Oh my gosh! I am SOOO excited this week!!! I'm hosting a blog giveaway of one of the most amazing collaborations I've ever been a part of. Back in the spring of this year, my artist friend Robin Norgren started a blog hop with 10 women of 10 creative businesses answering 10 questions called the 101010 Project. Robin took her vision even further and turned the project into a book called Spark and Inspire! The giveaway is for a FREE PDF copy of the book (although I highly recommend you get the book too! It's amazing!)  All you have to do is leave me a comment below and share this Spark and Inspire link on your Facebook page. That's it! What a deal! So are you in?



What's New: Painting Storage

Some artists are lucky enough to have their own studio space with plenty of room to store their artwork and supplies. Then there are those of us that are lucky to have a spare room (or two) in the house or garage. My office/painting studio/art room is a typical bedroom with a smallish walk in closet. Last night my husband decided he needed to tackle his office which meant rearranging for me too. Most of my large paintings took up residence in his office closet. It is a lot bigger than mine, so it was a good fit for awhile. But he has acquired quite the collection of hunting and fishing memorabilia/paraphernalia which needed a new home, so it was time for me to do some rearranging in my storage area.

For years we've been talking about building a storage unit for my paintings. They seem to multiply around here like bunnies! Anyways, I'm not quite ready to let them go out into the pottery studio. I don't think it would be a smart move considering the temperature out there in the winter, the spiders that like to take up residence and the hay that trickles in with every feeding...with that in mind, my husband built me a nice storage unit in the art room closet.

lower storage

large paintings

upper shelf with smaller canvases

I love it! It looks great and I have all my paintings in one place. By looking at the pictures though, you can see there isn't much room at all for new work. So I'll have to find more space soon, but for now, I'm very happy with my storage unit.

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH SWEETIE!

 

 

Do you have a storage area for your work? What do you do when it crowds you?

I'd love to hear what you do! 

 

Be You with a Little Attitude



Pink with Attitude © samos 2012

I am having so much fun with the round robin art journal!
Above is Pink with Attitude with a quote from Winston Churchill:

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Isn't that the truth!

Be You © samos 2012

 

Be You includes two very funky but stylish girls sporting uber cool hats and gloves.

They are accompanied with a quote from Orson Wells:

 

 Create your own visual style...

Let it be unique for yourself

Yet identifiable for others.

Peek-a-Boo

Last week came and went so fast! Art journals for the week...

Life and Bikes © samos 2012



I See, I See © samos 2012



and then I couldn't resist this little dish in the Lotus glaze.

 I bet you couldn't

tell it's one of my favorites. *smile*

lil Lotus dish © samos 2012

 The Cherry Blossom Lotus Vase

is an older piece that I haven't had available

 in my shop for a while now. It would make a great

gift for a loved one that collects unique pottery.

Red Cherry Blossom Vase

Heat + Studio = Happy Potter

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for installing heat into my pottery studio yesterday! We had an old furnace that we had taken out of the house when we first bought it. It has been out in the garage to serve as a heat source for my hubby when he's out there working during the winter months. But we have acquired a wood stove from my folks and are going to use that in place of the furnace. We've been talking about getting some heat into the studio, but just haven't got around to it. You know how it is. But now we have heat! I am so excited!!! Can you tell? You may be wondering where the furnace is from the pic below...well, David put it in the corner of the garage and cut out a vent in the wall. So the furnace is in the garage! I just get the heat.

studio

My studio is always a work in progress. It's a breezeway between the house and the garage. Just the perfect size for me! But there is always something that has made throwing a little difficult. For instance, the first three and half years or more I was using an old stool that my dad had used in his work van years ago. It wasn't quite tall enough for the wheel, so I had it sitting on four 2x6's. I had to becareful not to move or else I'd fall off my "stilts" and onto the concrete floor! For years, my husband had been telling me to just order a stool. Finally he just broke down and got me one. Boy, does it make a difference! I love it!

my wheel and comfy chair

Thanks to my sweetie, I will be warm and comfortable while working in the studio this winter!

sPoTTy Bowls and a SpOOky Mug

Mocha Ice Bowls

SpOOky Mug @ muddypotts
 



Lil Red Ladybug Dish @ muddypotts



Pottery: Wholesale or Retail

That's the question. When I first started making pottery, the thought of selling wholesale never entered my mind. A few years ago, I was approached to sell wholesale and turned it down due to my schedule. When I was  asked again this year I decided to give it a try. Excited to enter new business territory, I jumped right in with confidence not knowing what I was getting into. After doing some research I discovered wholesale usually means that you are selling your work at 50% off the retail price. Retail price?! Wake up call! I didn't view the price I was selling my pottery as a "retail" price, I was just selling it for what I thought was a reasonable offer. Wrong! Now, at this point in the game, you're probably thinking "what kind of business person are you?" Well, to be quite frank, not a very good one. But I am still learning and trying. *smile*

 planters © samos 2012

Now that I know that the price I'm selling my pottery for is the retail price, I have to start from square one with every single piece I have in my inventory. Yes, that's right. I took each piece of pottery, weighed it, calculated the cost of materials, time, and figured out the actual retail price. This was quite the chore, but a necessary one. For years, friends and family have been telling me that my prices are too low. Well, they were right. After figuring out the cost of each piece of pottery, I was stunned to see how much work I've been doing for almost nothing. This was of course the biggest wake up call of them all.

I have since revamped my retail price list as well as produced a wholesale price list that I follow to a tee. And guess what?  My sales have increased and I'm still working wholesale!

Do you have any thoughts or stories to share about working with retail or wholesale?

 I would love to hear them.

 

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

 

samos