Morgan

Hard to add to what’s been said but ya apples and oranges. i personally have both. I prefer Shopify but it is totally on you to drive traffic there, seo, marketing etc. Etsy does this for you (rather poorly)…but as Neil points out it is beyond saturated. If you don’t have tons of sales and tons of reviews it’s almost impossible. I did spend a good chunk on Etsy ads to get a small amount of sales and reviews (think like 300 sales and well over a 100 5 star reviews) so now I just let it ride if something sells on there, great, but I don’t care as my focus is on Shopify site. if you do try Etsy spend a ton of time on seo (look at competitors), have great pics, a lot of listings if you can, focus on good titles, tags etc. But again, Etsy is hard now but doable still if your willing to do it well, have a good product and so forth. In the end if I could have done it all over again I would have probably just focused on good content via social media/instagram/fb and invested time and money on meta ads, google ads and just drove traffic to my Shopify store alone and never bothered with Etsy. The vast chunk of my sales are from direct in person markets so that helps me not care so much about online sales…but ya if I never had to do another market I would probably die happy.

This is roughly the schedule I use (temps changed to get heat work where I want on my kiln) https://digitalfire.com/schedule/plc6ds then if you want you can use the same schedule with a controlled cool down if that’s your thing, for my glazes I prefer crash cool.

He claims to not contact him on Facebook but he was non responsive on email after payment (over a year ago) so I sent him just a couple of DMs on Facebook and oddly he replied. He sounds fine and is obviously working. Maybe something happened before but I do not want to speculate. What I can say is a few big social following potters dropped his name almost daily which certainly probably overwhelmed him with orders. Time will tell and I am going to be optimistic I get my replacement tools but when is anyone’s guess.

Whoa! I cannot believe it is that much mainland where you are, just wow!

Also mark I’m living in HI and paying over 40 cents/kwh, it’s crazy.

I kind of got burned by not specifically stating 325 on an order one time (lesson learned) so of coarse they sent the much cheaper 200. For some glazes I could not tell but others were super apparent and 325 gave a superior finish/melt.

Outside of having to test it, wouldn’t it be easier to simply color with oxides/stains etc, your go to porcelain the exact color you are aiming for instead of having to deal with that? Food for thought.

Minor update to anyone else in my boat. I pinged him on Facebook again and actually got the most detailed message out of him I have. “Good news Morgan, I have your order printed out and I see your PayPal payment”…then radio silence again ha! Maybe I actually get these sometime in the coming years…who knows.

Bumping this on more info the mine has plans to reopen even though it closed for financial reasons, or is this just speculation?

Way too many

Bill that’s correct. I get a fairly perfect cone 6 bend with that schedule. Every kiln is different obviously and the drop down and hold is for clearing up and healing. Here is the post on Tony’s site that gives further info: https://digitalfire.com/schedule/plc6ds

Wait, the mine is set to reopen? I have not heard that yet but good news if true.

I can only speak for my glazes and results but after I started doing a small hold at top for 10m (~2190-2200 depending on kiln load), a drop down to 2085 for 30m all of my glaze issues for the most part are good. I seem to get a nicer finish on both matte and glossy with the hold vs just going to peak temp. This is the digital fire drop and soak (no slow cool) schedule and I have never looked back.

This looks great will try it out thanks!

Well, he has not passed away per numerous account on IG, Reddit, Facebook and my own personal response from him noted just recently. Unless someone is impersonating him which is pretty absurd. While I don’t want to speculate I think he just took on way too much and as a man his age (Florian really blew him up exposure wise) got overwhelmed and is not great about communicating as it is digitally. He could have had health issues on top of all that but again that is just speculation. That doesn’t excuse all the issues but let’s not make statements like it is safe to assume he has passed, as we know that is simply not true.

100% agree

Well at this point you may be right but I am trying to be nice to a man in his 80s, could have who knows what health issues going on, and overwhelmed with a backlog of orders. Yes, at this point I am taking the polite hat off now that we know a bit more, but I figured that would be my initial approach.

Yup I saw that post the day he posted it, I even posted a response in the comments. Ya, it’s beyond strange…I reached out on Facebook and said “sorry to bother you Phil but I’ve sent countless emails with no response “ his response was “well then just message me here then ok” now nothing from him on there either. Seeing how many people this is happening to from Florian’s post as well as a few Reddit threads posting my same situation…I will be shocked if these tools ever show up. I gave up on that $200 some time go sadly.

So I did get a small update from him on facebook, or at least a response. It did not say anything so that was not helpful but at least he is seemingly ok and checking facebook. I think he just gave up on his emails. I responded kindly and never heard a word back so we shall see.

Sent an email every few days (all very very kind fwiw ) since I made this thread with no response, if anyone has his number it would be appreciated.

Ya it’s all over the place…I saw Seattle pottery supply trying to sell 50lbs for over $8k. Speechless on that one even with high prices. I do know one supplier that had a large cache that was not fine so they had it done and sell it much much cheaper (relatively) to a lot of others. trinity ceramic supply in tx.

I don’t believe I have his number but I will double check our email chains. I am thinking health as well and hope he is ok. That was also another reason I posted as I figured someone here might know. If someone has it and wouldn’t mind sharing ( @Roberta12 ?) it and can message me that would be great.

As Min points out more like contaminated bisque as some of the glazes don’t at least look that thick. Are you cleaning your bisque with a damp sponge (or dunking them in water)? Also, I am neurotic about keeping my hands cleaned on glaze days, it’s actually quite funny. I don’t think this is that, as it would be a finger dab here or there, but it’s just a reminder that any little wipe of the nose, your pet etc can unintentionally add oil to a bisque piece and ruin your glaze.

And this is the experience I’ve heard from countless others and why I have given him as long as he needs and absolute benefit of the doubt. Tools aside, I hope he is ok. It was only when I read my exact experience happening to others that got me to actually post this. But ya it would be greatly appreciated if anyone knew him personally could possibly reach out.

So let me preface this by saying I am super hesitant about posting this so if it is questionable please take it down. Also was not sure where to post this so stuck it here. Short story: I have wanted some bison tools (specifically one) for years and finally contacted him August of last year and decided to drop the money on two tools. He was SUPER responsive, kind, explained his ordering process and even sent over a detailed schematic of his tool offerings etc. we agreed on two tools and then he sent me a link to pay via PayPal friends and family (I know i know). So I quickly sent that all excited and his last response over a year ago was “give me a couple of weeks as I wrap up some orders and I will let you know asap once this ships” (verbatim). Fast forward now and he has not answered any emails for over 6 months at least (when I started emailing him with update questions) and often his email will also bounce back. After some googling I found quite a few Reddit threads with this exact same thing happening, some people having paid a few years ago. I guess I am asking is there anything at all I can do here? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt but this is pretty absurd. I know I have no recourse on PayPal since I paid as a friend. I just feel pretty sick to my stomach if this is all going on on purpose but again, who knows what’s happening in his life. Shot in the dark, but does anyone here know him and maybe ease my mind. Or should I just assume I will never see those tools or money again, which is clearly where I am at now. Outside that I guess this is just a heads up to others.