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If the item is “soulless” and can be sold without an artist signature or stamp, then you will likely be competing with mass-produced versions of the same item, which is very hard for a hand maker to do.

If you weren’t planning to use the kickwheel function anyways, get the more space-efficient Clay Boss. Space is a valuable commodity in most pottery studios.

Because it's bigger and holds a LOT of trimmings. If this is your first wheel that is just for you and not shared with anyone else, you are in for a treat. You don't have to clean it!

I have a friend who, years ago, moved to a new area, and learned that she would need a permit to build a gas kiln. So she went to the county offices, and learned that the person who approved the permits was her next door neighbor. He said he didn't know much about gas kilns and would need to research the matter, and get back to her. She figured she had no chance. The permit guy found out that firing a gas kiln emits lets than a commercial passenger airplane does every 30 seconds. He gave her the permit!

By the time I had started a part-time pottery business, I had been a self-employed graphic designer for 6 years. So I was already comfortable with administering a small business. This gave me a big leg up compared to a most craft artist businesses. So backing up from there, the most positive thing I did before starting my graphic design studio was to hire an accountant. He taught me how to keep books, pay estimated taxes, pay sales tax, and save for retirement. I am still working with him 24 years later! Over the years, he has given me so much good advice, plus lots of support and encouragemen

@dirtball It has already been said but you are not taking the advice, but once again “all or nothing” is not a good way to do this. Keep you job and start the pottery business on the side. Build it up slowly. You will still have a boss ... yourself. Being your own boss has a lot of pitfalls too. Also, you will still need to work well with show organizers (lots of rules to follow when doing shows), gallery owners, and most of all, CUSTOMERS. Having carpentry skills to build a display is not the hard part. The hard part is to design a display that is visually effective and also

Witness cones. Heatproof gloves. Chisel. Notebook for keeping a kiln log. A wooden ruler that is taller than the height of the kiln and long enough to span across the width of the kiln opening. Use the ruler to check how much height is left in the kiln while stacking it. If you’re not positive that a pot on the top shelf of too tall or not, slide the ruler across the opening to see if it hits the pot.

I use an overhead vent hood, and keep my top peep holes open all the time. I have corrosion on the lid band just above the peep hole too. My kilns are 16 and 7 years old, and get used heavily. They don’t seem to be anywhere close to failing yet, so the corrosion doesn’t bother me.

Measuring experience in years doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Measuring in “pots produced” is more meaningful. You mentioned above that you need to acquire a studio space and equipment. Whose equipment have you been using up until now? If you are using somebody else’s studio, or a community/classroom studio, there was probably a limit on the volume of pots you could produce. 27 years of making a few dozen pots per year does not put you on the cusp of making a good income with pottery. I’m just assuming your output level of course, I could be wrong, based on you saying that you need to get a

No. It takes much longer than that to develop a sellable body of work, and an audience that is paying attention to you. It does sound like you are in a stable financial position though, so becoming a potter is doable. Just give yourself 5 to 10 years (depending on your current skill level), and have a financial plan to cover yourself during those years. This will probably involve keeping a paycheck job for several more years, which doesn’t have to be the one you currently have. I don’t think it’s necessary to build a new house. Can you make a studio space where you live now? Or buy

Good point. I use a dark brown clay, and need to keep an entire drawer of “pottery shirts.”

@Sile, although the kiln you mentioned before is already sold, the size of that kiln does not prevent you from making plates. I wouldn’t try to fire a production quantity of plates in a 17 inch wide kiln, but making plates for personal use is totally doable. So don’t eliminate that size when looking at used kilns. I am a full time potter, and started my business with a kiln that was 17 inches wide and a bit shorter than that one. I made plates, using plate setters to stack them more efficiently. I upgraded to a larger kiln two years later when I could afford it. But still, if you are mak

Just for some context, Nora Roberts owns a big chunk of the town of Boonsboro. I bet the inn and the shop are owned free and clear, which means operating them has much lower overhead than typical businesses, and that she can afford to subsidize the shop. Good for her for using her wealth to bring tourists to buy work from local artists.

Offer them $350. I bet they really don’t want to move with it. Cress is not a very desirable brand, and the kiln sitter is a long outdated mode of firing these days (compared to a digital controller). It does look to be in good shape though. I have a friend who got a used Cress for $100, and he likes it. They work fine, but lack better features like an L&L. There are lots of them on the used market, because they are bought by potters who are just shopping on price, because they are not that serious about being potters (just like the sellers in this story).

Since you are planning to throw, I would start with a clay that contains some amount of grog. Grog makes the clay more stable for throwing, i.e. it can hold a shape better than something very fine and smooth. This is why porcelain is considered a more intermediate/advanced clay. I don’t agree that “earthenware is best for handbuilding.” Stoneware is just as good for handbuilding, and both can be thrown too.. The better question is “do want to make foodsafe, functional pots?” If yes, then stoneware or porcelain fired to midrange or above is better suited for that. Many earthenwares cannot