: DMCosta - Viewing Profile

John, thank you that was all very insightful. Yes I agree, so much overhead goes into making pottery that you really need to take it all into account. Between my electric bill to run my kiln, glaze chemicals, clay, and my time spent etc. its a very high "upfront" cost (as you know) to make a body of work and try and sell it at a craft fair or wherever. I feel there's a lot more invested for me, than the vendors next to me that were selling jewelry or handmade cards. I do recognize $75 is not a lot for a large sculptural bowl, I suppose I was stating that in response to the "street fair" prices there were around me. Thanks again for your support!

Well the craft show came and went. It was this Saturday and Sunday. I have to say it was kind of a dud. I made enough money to at least cover my table cost but the "vendor scene" at the street fair wasn't what I had expected. Turned out I was one of the ONLY true artists there, my booth was two doors down from a guy that sold sunglasses 2 for $5. It was misleading because when I applied it the application said "You must hand make your own art to participate, no resale of items". To make matters worse since I had a range of prices where most items were between $10-$40, (and some high end over $50) I was probably the most expensive vendor there, I occasionally heard comments like, "Why is this sooo expensive," "I can get a mug at target for $5". Obviously maybe not people that appreciated the word "hand made".

If I had to say any positives about the weekend, I'd say that a lot of the focal point of what people were interested in was not the everyday functional items but rather my more sculptural work that I make to exhibit in galleries. An hour into Saturday one woman bought one of my large sculptural bowls for $75 without hesitation, and others asked if I had it in other colors etc. I wasn't even going to bring it this weekend. Others friends/family saw the advertisement I put on Facebook etc and asked about that sculptural bowl as well. Here I am thinking make functional affordable pottery because people nowadays don't have a lot of money to spend, yet nobody batted at eye at a $75 price point. Nevertheless, I am happy I finally got the courage to do it and it was a learning experience!

My craft show is this weekend, I will let you know how it goes!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and help. The reason why I was asking is because I did make the glaze originally with the black copper oxide and after viewing the fired test tile it looks totally off from what it should. So I wasn't sure if I added the correct oxide. I will continue to look into it further and experiment, thanks again.

~Dianna

Thank you for your help John! I suppose to clarify my question I am asking: Can a glaze recipe including the colorants and/or variations add up to more that 100% in total. From what I understood initially the entire glaze recipe including any added colorants/variations still must add up to a total of 100%. However, if I add the extra percentages stated in the recipes, the total percent of the recipe including everything will be over 100.