Cost of Pottery = My Mission Statement
“RK Delta Pottery is a place for me to share my joy with the world & for anyone to have access to it.”
My mission statement came to be during my first year of college when I started following other ceramic artists.
By the end of high school I had started my pottery instagram and begun to follow different ceramic artists to see what they were making, to learn from their techniques, and attempt to do it myself. Once in college ceramics, I was introduced to new artists nearly weekly and was really encouraged to try new styles and techniques that pushed me beyond my skillset. As I explored, I found a great appreciation for what other artists were achieving and the amount of skill and artistry they held. Right along with that, I also became more interested in purchasing pieces. At that time I finally had a job that earned me enough money to be spending on more than just food or basic needs and I had sights set on the work of a few different artists. The disappointment came when I visited their online shops. I was living in a dorm so I was looking for functional drinkware and other usable pieces. What I found was that the works I liked were usually $75 or more, and they were often times just normal size mugs. Spending that much on a mug just wasn’t justifiable for me by a long shot. And so, as I began to build my Etsy and have summer pottery sales at my house, I was very conscious of how I was pricing my pieces. I wanted my art to be accessible to anyone.
As I kept that in mind, I unknowingly found my mission statement
I wanted my pottery to be affordable to everyone. I really find so much joy in doing pottery and want everyone to be able to have access to my pieces since they may find just as much joy from it as I did. I want the joy to be spread (OOF - VERY cheesy). So when I thought of my mission statement - what is something that I can say is the goal of my business on a human interaction level, I landed on what I’d been holding at t the root of my sharing since the start:
RK Delta Pottery is a place for me to share my joy with the world & for anyone to have access to it.
BUT art takes time and can easily be worth $75 or more…
Art should be respected and valued
“We rarely bat an eye when we spend $100 on a lovely meal at a nice restaurant - and that’s something we enjoy once and never see again! So why is it that paying $100 for something, such as pottery, feels so hard when we will use it hundreds of times?”
As I write this, I can imagine the discourse that could be held over my $75 mug complaint, and I want to give some clarity to my point. I don’t look at those artists and feel anger or frustration. Today, I would definitely spend $75 dollars on a mug that I really really loved. I also fully believe that an artist’s time is valuable. Especially for an artist who is making a living off of their art, every second needs to be valued - the same goes for materials and such that they are using. An artist who has honed their craft over thirty years and attended university, done artist apprenticeships, completed workshops across the country and globe, etc. DOES deserve to have their work valued at a higher price.
While I was facing this reality, my aunt pointed out how we (general population) rarely bat an eye when, for special occasions, we spend $100 for a lovely meal at a nice restaurant - and that’s something we enjoy once and never see again! So why is it that paying $100 for something, such as pottery, feels so difficult when we will use it hundreds of times???
Simply put, it shouldn’t.
Art should also be accessible
A mug being $75 can really limit who is able to engage with art when art is often seen as a community whose arms are open to any one. As a college student who was super excited about ceramics, was ecstatic to be supporting another artist, and itching to get my hands on pieces from other creators, I wasn’t able to do so because of the price. I was kept out.
My simple solution: Price my art so it can be accessed by all.
I think why this bothers me so much/has stuck, is becuase I am a teacher. Educators are constantly asked how they are making learning accessible to everyone. At every single professional development and quarter reflection, the question, “How are you differentiating (creating instruction and assignments that meet the needs of individual students in your class) for each learner in your classroom?” is asked. This is important because a teacher’s mission should be to educate everyone in their classroom, and we know that everyone learns differently; one cannot assume that your teaching style will best fit all students. As a fix, we analyze our methods, we diversify our content delivery and we ask our students “What do you need?”
Recognizing that in my own experience and addressing it through my own pricing makes me feel better as a person because I know that I may be allowing a future potter to be one step closer to doing what they love and further immersing themself in this magical, creative world of ceramics.
Maybe the issue is “Art”
As I write and reread, I see where the issue may* lie:
Pottery holds a unique position as a difficult and intricate art. BUT, pottery also holds a position as objects that often times come with functionality. My personal expectation (when thinking of that $75 mug) that art and functionality, when mixed, should then be affordable may just be wrong.
My beef with this mug is that it was $75 and I couldn’t afford it. But maybe that was art that costs $75. Not a mug. For $75, I’d have paid for art, not a functional mug for the morning. I suppose that then proposes the idea of functionality being something only worth so much.
I really don’t know.
In summary…
*Disclaimer: I am leaving undecided how I feel and want to express I’ve just been thinking out loud here.*
I very much respect art and I really respect the many ceramic artists around me with a lot more experience than me. Do I think a mug can be justified at $75? No but also probably? But will I also pay $75 for a mug today? …If I really love it, yes.
However, that doesn’t solve the disappointment I felt when I couldn’t buy during college and that means that there are plenty of people who cannot afford a $75 mug due to being in school or many other reasons I can think of.
I do think that ceramics is art. I think art and functionality can go hand in hand. I think my pieces are art AND can/should be accessible to anyone.
So I simply end with:
RK Delta Pottery is a place for me to share my joy with the world & for anyone to have access to it.
Thank you for taking the time to read and please look for more blogs in the future! I intend for my blogs to be RK Delta Pottery updates: things I’ve been learning, shop updates, and a place to see the fun work I’ve been doing! So make sure to stop by, or, better yet, subscribe so you don’t miss a post.
-Read Karsell