: Sherman - Viewing Profile

Vinka,

So glad to hear you took the first step. There are so many first steps, and the more them you can take, the farther you will go.

All the best,

Sherman

There is an article in the works for PMI by Angelique, and it will focus on her process, but here is the link to the CM article where she explains the process:
http://ceramicartsda...ng-artist-2011/
It's not a pictorial how-to, but it might serve for now. Stay tuned for the PMI coverage---coming to a mailbox and tablet near you!

Sherman

I was hoping a good discussion like this would result from that article. It's not as easy a topic as many of us sometimes assume. As several have stated already, in very eloquent terms, things often look different from the inside of a practice than from the outside. The article on Scott Cooper originated from a discussion I had with him about a blog post he wrote on the topic of difficult choices he had made in his career (primarily the choice to "kill the dream"). His perspective encapsulated what I have been seeing in the course of publishing articles about folks in this field for about a dozen years now: that most people seriously working in clay are not able to, or have chosen not to, exclusively pursue making pots as a livelihood. I've also seen that the idea that this is somehow a failure of fortitude has waned. In it's place, there is (appropriately) the understanding that people build their lives and livelihoods in ways that make sense to them personally, that fit their family obligations and lifestyle preferences. And of course, it resonated with me personally.

I remember having a discussion with my brother once (he's younger, but wiser, than me) a few years after setting up my studio after college and trying to make a go of pottery as a profession, and I was lamenting how much work it was, and all of the potential hazards and difficulties involved (I probably just had a very bad firing). He asked me the very simple question, "Why do you want to do this?" I was honestly stumped for several moments, which surprised me. I had been so focused on making this happen that I never bothered to revisit my original motivation for pursuing ceramics in the first place, which was a love of the material and the satisfaction of making things by hand—a good deal of which I had lost in the course of being in business in just a few short years. Not long after that, I realized that, while I may be interested in making pots and selling them, I was not going to do well if I was the one in charge of running the business as well. My decision to stop trying to make a living at it wasn't a pottery decision, it was a business decision.

So I find the part of this discussion that has to do with our own personal assumptions and fantasies about what it might mean to turn our passion into a profession very interesting. I suppose what I think about Claypple's original question is that there are about as many types of potters as there are people pursuing that dream. That's overly simplistic, of course, and perhaps an easy way out of answering the question, but I hesitate to claim one camp or the other. I've been making pots for a lot of years, and when I'm in my studio I feel confident and assured like a production potter might. I don't really lose pots anymore, and I can be as efficient or as inefficient as I choose with my studio time. So, in this respect, I feel I have professional skills. But when I look from the outside (on paper, so to speak) it is clear that I am a hobby potter. I don't sell work (I make gifts), I don't spend much time (a few evenings a month) in the studio. So I guess I'm both—and I would guess that many of us are some mixture of both.

Thanks for posting, Claypple. And thanks to everyone for thoughtful responses.

Sherman

Hey, thanks for the feedback, folks. To be clear, Ceramic Arts Daily produces the videos in question, not Ceramics Monthly (though we are are all part of the same happy family). I do love it when people suggest we do something similar to what Amazon does---makes me feel like we are 10000 times bigger than we are

Keep in mind that all of the free stuff CAD does is supported by things we then sell through the site.

We have looked into streaming video rentals, what it would cost us, and what it would therefore cost you, and to date have not come up with a viable solution that would work for everyone (unless "everyone" equals a few million people---right now we're at about 120,000). That said, we continue to research this. Technology progresses, services develop and change...and we get smarter as well.

Thanks again, and stay tuned!

Sherman

JBaymore, on 16 December 2012 - 10:50 PM, said:

Nancy, we'll look into this (I'll check your permissions, etc.). This is a new one on me.

Sherman