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being hateful #2: production potters

updated mon 28 mar 11

 

Lili Krakowski on sun 27 mar 11


My hat is off right to the top of my ears to production potters.

I am not one, never could be.

I am awed when I read Rogier made some 5000 tea glasses and mugs a =3D
year.. Which means like 100 items a day, and preparing the clay and =3D
glazes, firing the kilns and so on.

Equal admiration of Kathy, and the several others who wrote about their =3D
productive lives.

What needs to be said. Production pottery is not just about great =3D
skill.

Not everyone, least of all I, can, could stand the repetitive monotony =3D
of the work. Serious fulltime production potters--as distinguished =3D
from the many studio potters who make the same items over and over, but =3D
allow themselves great variation--make the same identical items all the =3D
time.

Some allow themselves some evolution. The dinner sets no long all are =3D
white or brown, but some are white with blue rims, or brown with white =3D
rims! Still when someone breaks a white plate and wants a =3D
replacement...

And living off one's production demands huge efficiency in marketing.
Craft fairs do well some times, and some times not. Craft shops appear, =
=3D
stay a while, disappear. I wonder how many there are that have been in =3D
business under same management for twenty years?

So before one "gives up the day job" and so on, one must experiment and =3D
see if one has the temperament for this kind of work.

I may, do feel bad I don't. Never did, and do not now.


Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage