Etsy- Opening day!

Today I opened my Etsy shop! It was rather anticlimactic actually. There were two things holding me back, first the photos, the second- figuring out the shipping.

I set up a photo booth on my back porch to get the pictures. Our house is pretty dark, and finding good natural light is not as easy as you would think. So I ironed out an antique white tablecloth (leftover from my wedding!) and pined it to the wall, then set up a little fold up table, and draped the cloth over that.

Photo booth next to the home brew equipment... we have a lot of hobbies.

Finished Photo. Not bad, huh?

I set up a clip on lamp too, but it didn't make the biggest difference. Natural light is key! The best photos came from when it was overcast out, which is basically every day except the day I set this up.

Overall I think my photos turned out really well. Etsy allows you to put five photos with each item, so I really tried to get different angles and a few good close ups.

The next hurdle was the shipping. I plan to get a shipping scale, but for now I just did an estimate. If it ends up too high I will put the refund in cash with the package, if it's too low then I'll just have to take it out of pocket. There's a lot of great info in the Etsy seller's handbook, which is free on Etsy. I also went into the forums and found some good Q&A. I really recommend going through the Etsy website and figuring out the forums and groups and look at other shops similar to what you want. Try not to just duplicate another shop, but use others to find your own voice.

I've been studying other potter's descriptions and shop info, and had a rough draft ready for set up. I'm glad, it really is a lot of work! You want to have detailed descriptions, and maybe something whimsical to describe it so that a customer really bonds with the piece they're considering buying.

Check out my Etsy page at http://www.etsy.com/shop/RoseAvenaPottery?ref=ss_profile

I also filed my business license a few weeks ago, but so far I haven't gotten anything in the mail. I figured I could jump start my Etsy shop while the paperwork comes in. It was pretty easy to do online.

I still have a lot of work to do on my shop, but I think it's pretty good for a sleep deprived mama! My little toddler is cutting a few new teeth, and it's been rough. I think it's about time for us both to go to bed.

The S Crack

There's something that happens to wheel thrown pottery that can completely ruin a piece without you ever laying a finger on it. The S crack. It's something I had been battling for a long time. You make a beautiful little cup, and are sure that it's perfect, you leave it to dry nice and slow, only to find a few days later that the bottom had cracked in the form of a S. Sometimes it cracks all the way through the piece, or maybe its just a little hairline split, but either way it's ruined.

Four years later and I'm still having that S happen!

 

While known as the S crack, it can sneak up on you in a variety of annoying cracks.

I had thought that the S came from too much water collecting at the bottom of the cup while being thrown. In high school we cut our pieces off the wheel, which I guess eliminates the S problem since a bit of clay stays behind on the wheel. My teacher had never mentioned the S, and I don't recall my aunt, who first taught me pottery, ever mentioning how to remedy this problem. Yet it continued to happen to me quite randomly whenever I was throwing pots.

Leafing through the book The Ceramics Bible, I came upon the answer! All you have to do is "compress the base with your thumb to prevent an 'S' crack from occurring". Something I had never paid too much attention to because I tend to naturally pull out a pretty flat bottom. But by simply going back over it a few times with your thumb or a sponge, it can align the clay so that that all the particles are cylindrical. You can actually feel the clay aligning under your fingers.

I also came upon this little article, which had some other ideas if you're still having the S crack problem.

http://www.ceramicstoday.com/articles/103000.htm

For a little while I had been trying to keep the spiral pattern from wedging the clay aligned with the wheel, but really, it didn't seem to help as much as just pressing the bottom of the bowl right after I pulled out the initial shape. In that article the potter also suggests its a problem from too much water left in the bottom, so I guess my previous assumptions were correct too.

So remember, sponge out the excess water, compress the bottom a few times until you feel the clay align, and let your pieces dry nice and slow.

It's good I finally learned this, since I'm trying to go pro. It's never too late to learn a new trick!