MudTalk Podcast - Pottery, Ceramics, Business

003 Pottery Goals - MudTalk Podcast

This episode is all about pottery goals. The goals from others in this episode are over a year old so if your goal was mentioned and you want to give us an update, we would love to hear about it!

Resources

My process for setting goals (mentioned in the podcast):

http://www.potterymakinginfo.com/news/best-pottery-year/

Transcript:

Welcome to the MudTalk Podcast. We’re talking about pottery, ceramics and all things related to clay. Each episode will explore a new topic and we will hear some great comments from people around the globe. My name is Brandon Schwartz, but you can call me Fuzzy. This is episode 3. In which we will talk about pottery goals. The original MudTalk Monday post asked “what is your top pottery goal for the year and how is it going?” And this was way back at the end of January in 2017. I think it would be really interesting to ask the same question, and see how everyone did with their goals for 2017. Hopefully, you all reached your goals last year and are ready to set a different or bigger goal for the new year.

This has been one of the most exciting MudTalk Mondays to read through for me. I love to see people out there setting goals and working hard and getting better at something every day. As I was reading through the goals I started to see some themes again. So first we’ll hear goals about skills and techniques, then studio or equipment improvements, then goals about selling, marketing and business.

Goals for improving Skills and Techniques

There were plenty of people who wanted to improve their skills or try a new technique.

A lot of people, including AnitaRobech, Cro.ceramics, Joyful_effort, Sas3sas3 all mentioned throwing bigger or taller.

Sas3sas3 Taller!!! Going good… reached almost 30 cm while my 2016 best was about 20 cm.

Joyful_effort To throw taller!

Cro.ceramics Trying to throw higher shapes and hopefully finally making something that I actually want to/can use.

AnitaRobech My goal is to learn how to throw big vases like my big inspiration #tortuscopenhagen.

Zeldalune wants to make a large moon jar.

Thordar Greybeard Larger sculptures.

Mudworkspa To get back on the wheel! Had a total knee replacement a month ago, and so far it’s been just handbuilding and maybe one or two throws.

Equipment/Studio Improvements

Some have goals of improving their equipment or studios to increase efficiency or production.

RosemaryJacks To get my new Studio up and running and then to start teaching some classes.

Mychelle91 Get a kiln in the house!

AshnWeeks To get my own kiln and start producing pots on my own!

Business, Marketing, Selling

Some more experienced potters or those that have improved their skills to a certain point are setting goals for marketing and selling their pots and growing their business.

PotteryByAnna My first exhibition as a sole potter sculptor with a friend who does oil pastel drawings.

Ferguson_pottery add teapots back into the collection and connect with 4 new galleries by the end of the year.

Something New / Big Idea

There were a few goals to pursue something new or get started on a big idea.

ClaysAndGlaze I want to open my studio cafe and give the opportunity for special needs people.

Favorites

ZygoteBlum Make significantly less, but better work.

Setting good goals gives me a clear picture of what I want. Starting with that helps me figure out a plan to achieve the goal. At the beginning of 2017, I put together a blog post on the Pottery Making Blog called Your Best Pottery Year. I tried to include what works for me and other goal setting advice I have learned along the way. So here are six and a half steps to setting and achieving your pottery goals.

  1. Define What You Want
  2. Break it Down, make it a smart goal
  3. Prioritize
  4. Write Down Your Goal
  5. Make a Plan
  6. Stick to the Plan

And that is the basic process I use to achieve my goals. To get a little more detail you can check out the full article at Pottery Making Info.com.