It may or may not be known, but I recently graduated with a degree in Public Education with a minor in Studio Art. I already had a job when I graduated (Natural foods sales, customer coddling) so it was a good place to be when I realized I’d rather get molested by an elephant’s dirty old wrinkled trunk than set foot in the highly corrupted Minnesota Public School system ever again. (Not to mention get paid in peanuts and then use those peanuts to buy all my education materials for a classroom packed with 30 neglected children. No thank you.)
I ventured out with the other half of my degree in hand and am slowly but surely building my own business. What kind of business? CERAMICS. Here are the first few things I have thought to consider during this process.
1. Standing out from the other ceramic artists. How do I do that? By not throwing housewares on the wheel! That’s how. After being exposed to many an art show and many a ceramic artist, I realized that about 85% of these artists are all making bowls and cups and mugs and jugs. How many bows and cups and mugs and jugs does this word need? Better yet, how many 25$ mugs do people need? Do these people not realize that you can wander into some weird company promotional event and walk out with free mugs and cups galore? I’ll stick with hand building thank you. Besides, what seems to be more reasonable: A $25 mug or a 25$ sculpture? I’m going to go with the sculpture. People don’t fall in love with mugs, they fall in love with ‘art’.
2. Promotion. Although it is widely believed that today, more than ever the internet is our top promoter for all things that exist, LOCATION is also key. Living in the Twin Cities (my home town!) is going to be far more beneficial than if I had wandered north to work in solitude. A. I already have a job here. B. The more people around the area, the more potential customers you have. Not to mention all the piddly diddly craft shows I could enter. If I lived in the middle of the woods I’d probably waste all my profit driving back and forth from rural craft shows.
3. Funding. I can’t be stupid and quit my day job. My day job is what funds this. Along the line, maybe I will be able to. But until then I can’t go all ‘Dreams come true!’ attitude on everyone. I have to accept that this will be a mountain. It will be hard. It might even suck. But working a regular hourly job while doing ceramics on the side is much better than being a teacher who constantly gets shit on everyday for practically the same wage. (Probably less, I’m guessing.)
Was my education degree a waste of time? Perhaps, considering my grades were 90% straight A’s and anything less (A-) was because I just didn’t feel like proving myself with bullshit jr. high level reading worksheets. College is a waste. Don’t go unless your dream REQUIRES a degree. Would I be where I am now without mine? Probably, and I would have some extra thousands of dollars laying around to boot.
I recently got a request for my first custom ceramic order. Its a biggie and can run into the the 3 digit price range. Updates to come. Pray for me so that I don’t fuck this up, and I can later rub it in some doubtful faces.
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