Wednesday 6 May 2009

What's a Cretan Urn - Not Enough !

Anyone in the South West of England would of heard of a place called Trago Mills
Marion was there yesterday doing some business with them, She supplied the Turf for the new Garden Centre. But she also took these shots of these huge Cretan Urns
all Hand Thrown in Crete and frost proof.
So how much does a Cretan Urn ?
Judging by these prices not enough.
How much does a British Potter earn ?

Well this small half Pint jug sells for £12.50 minus the flowers,
well I say minus the flowers, but I do say to customers if they want the flowers
they are more than welcome.
In Yesterday's Banking Rant I referred to my Pottery as My Business
More on this thought later.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

and yours is much nicer than that cretan

potterboy said...

I agree with Jim - perhaps you should make some really really huge jugs, for garden use :)

Been thinking a lot about flower pots and garden pots, and pottery as a business. I wonder whether it'd be possible to compete here - at least selling from your own gate, as it were. So, flower pots, fired as quickly as possible to stoneware temperatures - cone 9 say - oxidised but throw some ash in - get some flashing - maybe some glazed but probably not. I wonder how cheap you could go and pay for materials and some kind of wage (even if minimum.) Interesting.

Hannah said...

Too cheap Paul. Your pots are worth more than that, you are worth more than that.

Hollis Engley said...

I'm with Hannah. Charge more. As to pottery being a business ... people ask me if I make my living making pots. I tell them that I make my life making pots. Making a living is an entirely different thing.

bellasnow said...

I agree with Hannah and Hollis. Infact, that Hollis is one wise mustache.

doug Fitch said...

Yes, I agree with them all too Paul, your pots are worth much more than that.

I used to work for a flowerpot makers when I left college in the mid eighties and cheap imported pots killed it off. I think the only way to mke money from flowerpots over here these days is to make something completely different and unique. Jim Keeling seems to be able to do it. Some of the stuff that used to come in from abroad was beautiful, from cultures that still had the skills available from their folk heritage, Spain and Portugal.

The Italians invested a huge amount of money in ram presses and would take clay straight from their pits and force it into moulds. The pots looked dead, but nobody really cared because they were cheap. The company I worked for just ended up importing stuff in the end because it was impossible to compete.

potterboy said...

I think Jim Keeling is exporting most of their pots to Japan, n'est pas? They have a lovely set up at Whichford - something like 25 people working there.

So how does one make a business from pots? Or is it just doomed from the start?

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