Friday, January 11, 2008

A fresh year and fresh clay

Raku Bottle, Anne Webb
The holidays are over and life is finally getting back to normal. A much needed the break and change of pace but now I am happily back to making pots again, and looking forward to the first show of the season and starting a fresh new year.

Just before Christmas I took the plunge and went ahead and opened an Etsy store. What the heck is an etsy, you ask? Well its an online marketplace (not an auction site) where independent artists can list and sell their handmade items of all kinds. You can find the most unexpected things if you look.

Sushi plate & bowl, celadon and tenmoku glazes, Anne WebbI first checked Etsy out 3 years ago and at that time, I admit, I wasn't terribly impressed. Since then, though, it appears to have has grown exponentially. I was happy to find a growing amount of quality work there as well. What spoke to me the loudest is that things were actually selling and for fair prices too. I have sold quite a few nice pieces on eBay (despite how other potters have said how they had done there) so I am most certainly willing to give Etsy a try too.
My store link, by the way, is http://webbpottery.etsy.com

Knowing there is a renewed interest of people going out and actively looking online to buy handmade and to support indie business actually picked me up a bit and gave me a renewed outlook for the new year. I'm not a big or regular shopper except for groceries usually, but this year as I was out looking for stuff for my girls, I couldn't help but take notice of how much shabbily crafted junk was in the stores leading up to Christmas, mostly cheap, shoddy imports from China. Sure some of the prices looked pretty good, but that's little consolation if something is obviously of totally inferior quality and looks really cheap. Needless to say, aside from a few low-tech toys for the girls, I ended up making most of my gifts or buying/trading with other local craftspeople.

Made me think.. do people know what they're buying anymore? Stuff, stuff, and more stuff. That disposable consumerism mindset - quantity vs quality and all that. Evidently its very easy to become complacent for the sake of convenience, accepting whatever big corporate retail conglomerates put on their store shelves, and believing it when they tell us that we must have whatever *it* is. Sad.

Lotus Garden, Raku Vessel, Anne WebbAs a craftspeople, this is something we are constantly scratching our heads over and are all too aware of. People want the big houses, the big car, the pre-fab room settings from "Rooms to Go", and would rather buy art/accessories from places like "Pier One" than have something unique made by a local artist or artisan. Cookie cutter people. No originality. See and be seen. Automatons who can't think outside of the box. And the saddest thing, they don't know the difference either. What does this say about our culture? And more importantly, what does this say about our future?

4 comments:

Cynthia said...

Amen, Anne.

"...they don't know the difference either." You hit the nail on the head. I do think there's a greater awareness that's going to continue to grow.

Congratulations on setting up shop on Etsy - I'm sure you will do well.

Mishy said...

Hey Anne,
I am bad, never updating my blog...been busy here and I should post new pics of the studio progress...

Maybe get to that soon....I heard from Marianne that you are on Etsy, I need to get more active there too...

Hugs, hope things are great with you,
Mishy

LaPellaPottery said...

I couldn't agree more! It is painful to visit huge pricey houses and see them filled with poorly made reproductions. I want to turn everything around to see if they have pulled off the "Made in" sticker.

tazarotene cream cost said...

I rarely use Fresh's Umbrian Clay Pour Purifying Face Mask because of the cost of the mask without sucking my finicky, dry skin into my pores.