What's going on in the Pottery?

Hello Friends/Potters-

I'm so happy you have stopped in. It's been a while since I have posted on my blog, but with all this integrating with Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Google+, Etsy and Pinterest, I thought I would get in here and start trying to keep up with my blog. Besides.. there are some exciting things happening in my future, at least I'm in hopes of that excitement. I'll be talking about that much later.

~ETSY~  Are there really others who don't know what Etsy is? I'm amazed that there are plenty of people who do not know what Etsy is, forgetting the fact that I knew nothing about it myself. Well... Etsy is a place where you can open up a store, IF you have a hand made crafted item to sell. It also allows you to sell  Back in August I decided to start trying to seriously sell some pots on Etsy. I have a friend Nicki @Raviolee Dreams who convinced me that Etsy would be a great place to sell my pots and she sure talked me into it. I had opened the account though back in Sept 2011 but only listed one item. I had no idea how it worked. So as I got going, I realized if I was going to sell on Etsy, I was going to have to spend time on Etsy. Well.. you have to favorite other's products, Add people to your circle, Add shops to your favorite shops, and.. Favorite some Treasuries. What I have found that works the most is creating a treasury yourself. You get so much more exposure. I was trying to figure out why it worked that way and the reason is, people click on the favorite button to favorite those treasuries, and then from there, everyone who sees them does the same thing.. It's hard NOT to click and go look to see who was featured in one. It's so exciting to be featured too I might add. I've been featured quite a few times. I think things are going to be slow for now with Christmas gone and the Tax Laws up in the air for now. It's like people are bracing for it. I'll continue to list my products though and work it like I have been. I'm going to be optimistic and believe there is at least ONE who wants a yarn bowl that might have not gotten one for a Christmas present? Ok, so now you can find me on Etsy. Here is the Link to my store until I can figure out how to get a store of my own, or a blog using a store button.  
My Store

~FACEBOOK~ Ok, I've been on Facebook for quite a while now. I can't say enough about how much Facebook has helped me get my business of the ground. I have met the most wonderful friends as well as potter's who I share the same interest with. I belong to a few clay pages on there and love being a part of a potter's community. Everyone is so helpful. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I'd find so many nice people in one place. I am so thankful that many of those friends I met on Facebook became my customers. If they weren't my customers, they passed along my name to their own friends and helped me get some sales. My wonderful friend Lisa who wanted a yarn bowl from me showed my yarn bowls to her friends and I've made quite a few sales from that. I appreciate her so much, although the few bowls I have made so far are NOT her color! I have been looking for a purple color and I've finally found one. I'll talk about that later too. So Facebook has been very good to me. I need to clarify here that I set up a Facebook page called Muditis Potteryandgifts and set it up so it was like a friends page. I wanted to control WHO could be on there. So if you are a friend on there, you know what I am saying. I just recently started another page. The name of that page is Muditis Pottery. I have it set up like a business page so people can just like the page. I will have most of my content dealing with upcoming shows/markets I will be at and my plans are to put my photos on there from now on, IF it's as easy to manage as the other page. Trying to move everything will be quite a job, so I am not sure I'll move it all.. I just might start from here and go on. I'll definitely be moving my "For Sale" folder over though. Ok, so my new Facebook page so you can run over and like my page is Muditis Pottery
I would appreciate having you on there so much and please click the Share Link under the Tool Icon over there so your friends will Like my page too. Thanks so much!


~PINTEREST~ Ok, for about 2 years I ran from this application. I kept hearing how addicting this application is. Well... after a while, I kept hearing, "Oh Sonja, you need to join Pinterest so people can Pin your pots and share them". I thought, "yea.. that's a great marketing plan"... So.. I fell, hook, line, and sinker! lol.  Actually, it's a great little application. When you are selling on Etsy, once you post a new product on there, they give you an option to post to Facebook, Pin It (on Pinterest of course) and Twitter! (We'll talk about that one next) So I am able to pin my pots straight to Pinterest for others to pin and share, and it provides a link back to my Etsy shop to purchase that item. How cool is that, huh? Another thing I really like about it... Like tonight, my son wanted to know what we wanted for dinner? I told him I had seen a recipe on Pinterest I thought would be good. It was a Chicken Parmesan Recipe I had re-pinned from another friends pin. I got that recipe for him and that is what we had for dinner tonight. It tasted truly like authentic Italian! He is a great cook too by the way. So.. if you want to find me on Pinterest and view my boards (and by the way, you can create as many as you'd like with whatever subject you choose... pin away everything on the net you want to save)you can find me here Muditis Pottery on Pinterest

~Twitter~ Last but not least... I had no use for this application.. at least I didn't think so. UNTIL... I met a sweet friend on Etsy who told me if I was going to really market my products, I needed to get Twitter and TWEET everyday, at least once a day. When I first signed up, I laughed because there was no-one I could think of that I wanted to know about! I told my friend.. "Who other than you, can I follow"? I don't get into too many movie stars and don't really watch TV much, as I'm always looking at clay videos and trying to learn how to make more money. She said, just pick a few people and then warned me about who I followed for fear that I may pick someone who pins porn links.. So.. I've been on the lookout on there to make sure I don't. I just pray I don't accidently follow someone who follows that stuff! And with all this social networking going on, you wonder how long it will be before someone hacks into your account and then posts something you don't believe in and totally embarrasses you and you are then left to hope and pray everyone knows you better. Well.. lets hope that doesn't happen!!!  So far, I've been trying to TWEET my products once I list them on Etsy. I don't have many followers yet but in case you are on Twitter, you can follow me and I'll follow you :) You can find me here. Muditis Pottery on Twitter

Well... How's that for a blog post? I am sorry it's so long. I think I'll save some of this for another day.. I don't want to bore anyone.. Oh yea.. at least my 2 followers :) Thanks you two!!! Love yall! I hope I get more soon.. I'll work on that too. There is so much time involved in Social Networking!!! Love it though! I'm looking forward to growing my business... One post, at a time!
 
Thanks for reading,
Sonja @ Muditis Pottery

What I've been up to

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Just not enough time in a day it seems anymore. I'm trying to get myself on a routine, so I have a set schedule as to when I throw, trim, bisque fire and then glaze fire. Then that doesn't account for the time it takes to video, or take pics of my work. I'm not really complaining though, I LOVE what I do.

I moved my Pottery Wheel to our sign shop so now I can throw there. Not only that, but I also went ahead and got myself a business license. I guess if you are going to be serious about it, you just as well get serious! I can now display my work in my sign shop and sell from there. I have plans to create a sign for myself but haven't done it yet. I also plan to change my makers mark, or Chop Mark as it's called. I made a simple one to get by with in the beginning but it never was something I was totally satisfied with. So that will be in the works, along with business cards and also some flyers of some of my work, Once I get some good pieces out the kiln.

For the past few months, I've been concentrating on forms. I am still trying to get a better bowl form. Here is a pic of one I just threw and then did some chattering on.

                                                                                   
Here is the inside of the bowl

                                                                              


Here is the bottom where I did some chattering. I love the way the chattering looks on the bowls. It was mentioned by my friend Don Goodrich that Celedons look pretty good on textures, so I'll be using something like that, or a stoneware wash. I have some plans for this bowl :)








Here is the bowl standing up. I like the way it looks standing up too :) This is a 3 pound bowl and it was the first 3 lb lump of clay I have thrown :)

Then I decided I'd throw my first Trinket Keeper. The bottom was thrown using 1lb of clay. I made the lid 4 times before it was a suitable lid. YES alot of work goes in to throwing forms. But there is nothing like looking at the finished product and being at least pleased with it, knowing how hard you worked on it.

And... here is the inside... looking down at the gallery.

Here is the bottom of it where I did some chattering. I can't wait to glaze this one. And... this one is MINE! lol









I've been working on my Mug Forms as well. I don't have any pictures of them but I do have a video you can look at if you want to see them. It's a bisque firing.








 Well... that's it for this post. You can catch me on Facebook
and friend me if you would like. See ya in the next post :)
And... thanks for stopping by to read my blog :)