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QotW: How savvy are your customers about pottery?


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Hi folks, once again, no new topics in the pool for the question of the week. I will try one from a different angle. .. thinking about customers here! Over the years I have had several people that wanted to know more about pottery, others that just bought on impulse, and some the really knew about what they were getting when buying a pot of mine. I have wondered in the past where they got or missed exposure to pottery.

When I was teaching HS, I believed that part of my job as a teacher was to get my students to realize that even though they might ever make a piece of art they should understand what good pieces of art or craft would entail. Often this would entail talking about aesthetics as another story, but more often in was about the craftsmanship. When talking about pottery as a consumer I reinforced the things that I taught about making a pot: smooth edges, tight joins, well designed functional ware, glaze technique, weight balance, and other things. I always would tell students during introductory talks that even though the may not make pots again, they might be consumers.

QotW: How savvy are your customers about pottery?

best,

Pres

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Its a huge mix from knowing a lot to clueless-like putting a teapot on open flame ( and breaking it the day he bought it) to heating bake ware up with oven and lasting decades. 

The public is  a petri dish of good bad and the down right clueless

As I slow it down  with the public I will never miss the clueless ones.Only the ones who are aware .

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I've told the story before about the guy carrying a bucket of water to the Penn State festival because he wanted to buy good teapots and used the water to test them.

Then there are those that want to be certain they are buying stoneware, but don't know anything about what that means. All stoneware is brown, all porcelain is white, and low fire earthenware is red!

I have also had the casserole passed up, because the last one they bought cracked all apart in the oven. Fix it the night before, and put it in the fridge then take it out and put it into a hot oven!

Needless to say the lack of education for the public consuming functional ceramic is apparent, but there are bright spots as the day I sold 3 teapots to one customer!

 

best,

Pres

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I get the whole range too, from “what is this made out of?” to “what cone and atmosphere?” I think my favorite customers are not necessarily the technically knowledgable, but the ones who care a great deal about home design and function, i.e. making their home into a space where they feel happy. 

Over the years, I have found that as I moved up into a higher tier of craft shows, I really don’t meet the clueless ones anymore. And the ones who don’t know much about ceramics are at least smart people in general and know how to ask intelligent questions. 

I also like to talk shop with other potters. They aren’t necessarily interested in buying, they want to learn. That’s fun for me too. 

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I took a long break from selling pots about thirty years ago. Now I’m back at it and things are different. 

It was so difficult then, I had a lot riding on each craft show and I was learning as I went. As far as how savvy customers are, it feels about the same now as then. 

My experience interacting with people the last couple of years, after jumping back in, is completely different. I sell a lot more with less effort and stress than when I was in my twenties trying to make it work. 

I have a lot of fun now talking to people about pottery, gauging the conversation as I go. Most know a little, a few know a lot. My work attracts people with a certain aesthetic, and it doesn’t always correlate to how deeply they know the process. We just talk. It goes all over the place. From the best shape and size for a tea bowl, to geology, fire, or chemistry, to the fond memories someone had in high school pottery class. 

My crude guess about folks who buy my work is 5% are clueless (“Oh, wait, you actually made this?”), 85% know a little, 8% know a lot and 2% appreciate what I do in a pot. All of them appreciate something though, and it’s not always what I expect.

I had some plates without a foot ring and thought they felt unfinished. It was a good weekend though, so I pulled out everything. One lady said, “Finally, someone who makes plates without that ring on the bottom.” She could have cared less about most anything else. They looked nice and didn’t have that darn foot!

Two kinds of sales bring me heartfelt satisfaction: 1. When a potter buys my work. 2. When someone, between me telling and them looking, becomes so engaged they see through new eyes. They start examining the pots differently, turning them over in their fingers. It’s like they’re thinking, “I didn’t see that before. How could I have missed it?”

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our guild holiday show was last weekend, the saturday and sunday after thanksgiving.  we set our stuff up early on saturday instead of friday as in the past.  started at 7, all of a sudden there were strangers all over the place.  i asked another potter where they came from and she said it is 10:15.  doors opened to the public at 10.   i left through a crowd.  got down the road a little way and realized my wallet was under the table so i returned.  

crowd at the front door, i went to the side and a customer let me in after a dozen of them pointed to the front door.   the crowd was thick and i had to squeeze through .   my purse was 10 feet away and i must have answered 10 questions before i reached it.  our customers mostly know what they see and what they want.  if not, they know that if they ask they will get a full discussion if they like.   and yet, there was some young girl who looked at my display while her mother asked a question.  the daughter's eyes opened at some point and she said  "you made all this by yourself?"   

i want to think she just realized she could do stuff on her own and her mother would let her.

 

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I'm glad this hasn't devolved into too much of a tear down of Joe customer. It's easy to make fun of people and I do it too often for my liking.

a person recently spent a few minutes asking some questions about some new work. They were new to ceramics but enthusiastic. They left without buying anything but did request a card.

this one person made my day. They were one of the clueless I'd love to find at every sale. The rest I try to be easy with. I don't always succeed as much as I would like.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I find most of the “stupid” questions that I’ve encountered are more about feeling socially awkward and not knowing what to say at all, rather than anyone coming into my booth with half baked ideas. The time the one person was quietly browsing my booth and picked up a soup bowl an asked me what it was for. Turned out she’d tripped over her words and was more wondering what specific use she wanted to put it to in her life. We had a good chuckle over it, and chatted some. She bought the bowl, and decided to use it for dinner that night. 

So I’m never going to make fun of the weird questions. I find people’s curiosity to be a beautiful thing, and I think it should receive all the positive reinforcement possible. I love talking shop with other potters, and I love introducing new ideas to people who haven’t seen something before. If they like it, great, if not, that’s okay. I might not like whatever they’re into.

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99.999% of my customers have been lovely but there are exceptions. Not trying to tear down joe public but there are cases where customers are anything but lovely. Have had two customers at an outdoor summer market who were complete jerks. Doing things like picking up a berry bowl and very loudly saying things along the line of  "well this isn't going to hold cereal", ha ha ha. Then going over to a large platter, removing it from it's stand and pretending it was a steering wheel of a sports car. Another time I had a fellow take some of the blueberries he was carrying (bought from a farm vendor) and start whipping them into my swirl dish (type in avatar) seeing if he could get them to go around the outside then land in the center cup. They finished being jerks, laughing loudly at what I guess they thought was being brilliantly clever then moved on. 

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I've heard the dad joke pretty often so far myself about my berry bowl or pierced fruit bowl not holding soup. Sigh. I just try to picture my actual dad saying those things, because he's come up with some doozies that make me groan in embarrassment even to this day. I haven't had anyone disrespectfully touch my items, though. I'd get pretty upset with a grown adult playing with my work like it's a toy. 

I put labels next to my items which really helps with the questions like, "What is this for?" when it is a berry bowl or garlic jar. People unfamiliar with those terms will then ask me how it's used, and I enjoy explaining that to them. I used to be an elementary teacher, and answering questions is something I still love. It would be difficult for me to make up some of the wacky questions the kids would ask, so I'm not too surprised by anything people ask me about my pottery. 

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I have to say I have had some of the most delightful customers over the years.  Some are educated to the world of clay and others not.  I too, love the questions.  Kids are great!  One young person (probably 7 or 8 years old) buys a small piece from me each year telling me he likes pretty things.  One of the more interesting questions I had a few years back was a woman whose adult daughter was having health issues, auto immune of some sort, and she was asking exactly what are the components of glazes.  Specifically.  We talked for a long time about that.  I explained what most of the ingredients were.  I think she was trying to determine if there were ingredients in certain glazes that could cause health issues.  She didn't buy anything, but it a great connection!  

customers who flip a piece over to check the bottom looking at the foot or comment on the weight of the piece, you know it's not their first piece of handmade pottery.  The customers who seek me out each year to buy another piece, who tell me they won't let anyone else in the house use their pots, kids who express awe and wonder that I have made everything from a ball of clay....that's a joy, right there.  

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Our customers run the full gambit, from experienced potters to people, who I think, may have never looked at a handmade pot before. I love talking to them all. 

My wife and I are potters and we do our shows together. Just about every show we always get someone that says (thinking it's original) "Oh! Just like Ghost!" My wife smiles and with a wink she says "But he's alive!" Everyone laughs. It's a great ice breaker to start a conversation.

There was once a guy wanting to have a bullet stick half way out of a bottle of Johnny Walker. All his attempts caused the bottle to crack and was hoping I would know how to do it. I explained to him that I don't really know about glass but If I had to guess the two objects were expanding or contracting at different rates  causing the glass to break I suggested that he try a bigger hole but he would have to down a few more bottles so he can test a couple ideas. At least he was happy.

Then there was another potter at a same show as us who told me he judges how successful a show is by the tonnage of pots he sells at a show. His prices at best where 1/4 of mine. with mugs selling at or below $10 each. He was happy.

My very favorite people to talk to are kids. When I see one with their eyes wide open staring at a pot, I hand them the pot they are looking at. There's always a parent that says I shouldn't give it to them because they might drop it. I tell them not to worry that I know how to make another one. I make these tiny pots from leftover slabs scraps that are between the size of a half dollar to a sliver dollar. I impress a leaf in it and curl one end up. I give one to each of those  kids. The look on their faces when I say " It yours. No charge" is priceless

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yes, kids are the best.  a mother had two daughters with her.  all were dressed in sunday best clothes.  the girls each had $10 to spend.  one of them wasn't sure about the amount of money $10 actually was.   she wanted a little bird that i had priced at $7 and when i gave her the change from her $10 i said she should ask her mother to explain the change back.  i gave her 4 ones and 4 quarters and a wink at her mother to stay quiet and let the sisters buy the ice cream next door for $5.  they had been talking about it when they came into my booth.

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