Solar2 Limited Commission

In March I got contacted by Solar2 Limited. They had completed a project outside of York and to commemorate this they wanted a local artist to create a bespoke piece for them. They wanted to have bespoke DAVOS tumblers with their project stamp on.

I was delighted to be selected. It was a one month turn around time, which, for me as a one woman part-time business, is fast, considering in March/early April temperatures in my studio were still quite low, so drying took up an entire week. The local stamp shop I initially wanted to work with wasn’t available due to unforeseen circumstances, so I had to work with a stamp business I had never used before on a tight time line. They delivered outstandingly.

The bisque kiln was full to the absolute brim and two glaze kilns were completely full. The shipment and delivery went smoothly and within the agreed 30 days the company had their bespoke commission at their door.

You can watch the whole process below, from the day the ordered raw materials arrived until the shipment got picked up.

Watch video here.

Should I exhibit at a Big Fair?

If you’re a maker and you’re wondering whether or not it’s worth exhibiting at a big Fair, here’s my two pennies worth of thoughts. I’m passing on this experience, as when I did research online, I could not find anything of the like.

The short answer is: it depends. And by that I mean that it depends on the fair you’re attending and what goods you’re making.

If you’re a maker you’ll take pride in your hard work, your craft, the years it took to master the skills. You’ll remember the tears, sweat and - depending which craft you’re into - occasional blood that you put into acquiring those skills. Your products are priced to reflect this. Making things by hand takes longer than mass-producing identical looking items in a factory. Your customers are people who appreciate your work, craft and skill.

Now my business is fairly new. I have been promoting it on an almost daily basis on Instagram, I am posting on YouTube. This year I was asked to make a promo video, I was on the national radio, I had an interview published online and in a regional newspaper, I had a local radio interview and I nudged my way into wholesale by means of a small independent local shop. But despite taking every opportunity, sales were going slow.

What to do? I decided to push my timetable a bit forward and apply for the Living North Christmas Fair in York a year earlier than intended, because the magazine has a decent sized readership and was localised enough to not be too overwhelming, promising a solid exposure, both via the magazine (print, website and social media) and the four day Christmas Fair.

Last year I scoped the Fair out as a visitor. I looked at stall sizes, payment methods, price ranges, displays, visitor data (age, gender and what is bought). I decided it was worth a shot, people definitely seemed to come with the intention to spend money.

I decided to apply for a 2.5m x 1m stand to allow me to have a chair of some sort next to the table to sit on, as everyone with 2x1m stands seemed to stand right in front of their goods. (There is zero space behind the table.) The total fee for the 2.5x1m stall amounted to £614.52 (this includes VAT). On top of that, because it is INSIDE, I had to get a Public Liability Insurance covering a minimum of £2,000,000.- damage. This cost me £58.31, the second cheapest insurance I could find. I also had to rent a trestle table, as the camping table I had intended to use seemed not quite up for the task (pottery is heavy). This amounts to a total of £683.33 the Fair cost me. Remember that’s fee, insurance and table only.

For a small business like mine, this was quite the investment. I was, therefore, very careful with what things to make for the Fair. My application was accepted in May, so I devoted five months to making solely for this event. Seeing as the cost of living crisis has left a big impact on people, I was very aware about pricing. I wanted to be able to offer something affordable as well, as I didn’t want to be an exclusive shop. So I made a lot of Christmas ornaments and little mini planters which can also be used as tea light holders. They were between £5.- and £10.-. Affordable, small, handmade presents. I also brought along other, bigger things (like vases and bowls) - mainly to give customers an idea of what I do and maybe drive some traffic to my website.

I’ll be honest with you, I was disappointed. The promised footfall was not drawn in. In fact Thursday and Friday were pretty bad and I made very few sales. Saturday was a lot better and there was a steady stream of people from start to finish. Sunday was, again, quite slow. It took until Sunday after lunch until I broke even, as in covered the Fair cost. I made a very small profit. None of the stalls around me were rolling in massive sales.

About 70 people took my business card, I got 5 new followers on Instagram, zero new subscribers on YouTube, but traffic on my website doubled over the weekend.

One of the reasons for this dire result is: this was not my market. Like not in the slightest. If you’re producing baby clothes or toys or games, candles or make food or drinks of any kind this is the place to go and those sellers did well. The majority of visitors were women over 50 and they were easily tempted into buying presents for their grandchildren.

There are certainly circumstances that all contributed to the slow sales to some extent, such as the organisers turning off the Christmas music half way through the day and creating an awkward “they’re going to close the shop, quick, leave”-atmosphere, poor signage to the connecting building in which the Fair continued, a too early date for Christmas shopping and the Cost of Living Crisis. Also, I am very aware that a) not everyone likes pottery and b) my style is not to everyone’s taste. However, with a promised draw of ten thousand visitors, I had - naively so - expected to do better.

The audience at the York Fair unfortunately wasn’t mine. Artisan, ceramics, makers and craft markets clearly are the way forward, seeing as they tend to be visited by people who appreciate handmade items and are actively seeking them out and willing to pay the price for it. Also, I am aware that people might think my pots are overpriced, but if you bring forward this argument, I would counter-argue to search the internet for actual handmade pottery (and not a factory made mug with the picture of Uncle Bob’s pooch on it) and compare prices and you will find I am actually in the low bracket.

So, to conclude: if you are up for standing in one place for four days solid and are not worried about sale numbers, it is definitely worth the experience - if for nothing else but meeting awesome stallholders and networking.

Introducing: Bergnacht

After months of trial and error, I am so happy to be able to finally introduce a new range: Bergnacht. Bergnacht means ‘mountain night’ and the inspiration is taken from the nights in the Swiss mountains - one in particular.

When I was eighteen, we went on a school trip to climb the Schwarzhorn - which, with 3,146 meters above sea level, is the highest mountain in all of Davos. For that, we had to get up at 3am. A minibus took us up into the Flüela valley, where our hike started. This is a remote area, with zero light pollution. I have seen the night sky many, many times, studied it with my telescope. But never before, have I been able to see the actual milkyway. It was mindblowing.

After a long climb up, we made it to the summit just in time to see the sunrise.

With this range, I have tried to recreate that night: the deep black of the night and the multitude of stars in the sky above. I hope you will like it as much as I do.

Living North Christmas Fair

I can finally announce it: I’m going to be exhibiting at the Living North Christmas Fair at the York Racecourse from 9th till 12th November. I’m in Ebor, stand E16. It would be lovely to see you there!

Wake me up when October ends…

I have some exciting news:

I will be exhibiting at the Living North Christmas Fair in York from 9th-12th November 2023! So if you are there, come see me, say hi, have a chat, look at my stuff, buy a pot even - it’s always better to see the pots in person.

Having said that, I’m busy stocking up for this fair. I was prepared, with a spreadsheet and weekly/monthly milestones (because I’m a geek) and was doing well, but then the summer holidays happened, the kids were at home and plans got cancelled, which interrupted the work flow. Then school started again and the first bug hit. Now that everyone’s back on track again, I’m trying to play catch up.

I’m nearly ready to introduce my new range, which I’m very excited about. Just a few more kilns to go and then taking photos. It should be ready before the fair. Fingers crossed.

This is my first big fair, so I’m not really sure how much to take and what to make, so it’s a bit of a gamble. The logical decision was to go with what sold well in previous fairs. I’m happy with what I have so far, so I hope people will like it, too.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do this month. I know the song goes “wake me up when September ends”, but that’s October for me.

Stay well.

x Gabi

A little update

I haven’t been able to do much this week. I was pretty much banned from the studio because of the heat. My studio is in a garage, which gets very hot in summer and very cold in winter.

So instead I have dedicated the time to revamp the website, changing the look to make it a bit more consistent. There are still some things I would like to do. For example, I would like to offer the possibility to subscribe to a (quarterly) newsletter. But currently I am hard pushed for time to do this. Due to personal life I don’t get very much time in the studio at the moment, so I prefer making over admin and writing.

Another thing I want to do is make the ranges accessible, so if you want something from, say the Aurora range you can just click on a button and you’ll see all the pots from that particular range.

But this is all quite time consuming and fiddly work on a screen. So it might have to wait for a bit.

Pottery-wise I am very excited about a new range I will be introducing soon. I have been busy testing the clay and glazes, and the results are stunning - in my opinion. Also, I have been looking at reducing studio expenses, so I have been trying out new clays. One of them looks very promising, but I have to see how it interacts with the glazes. Due to the heat, I will not be doing any firings this week. I think I would melt.

I’m also redesigning the DAVOS mugs, to get a more consistent look. There’s a sculpture I have been working on for the past four months. The drawings all look lovely, but making it proves to be a bit of a challenge. So far, I have had four failed attempts. And then I am still trying to finish up the Smart Makers Guide to Wholesale course (I had to pause because life sometimes takes over). My sketchbook is full with ideas I would like to try out. Lastly, I intend to apply for a fair. Should they accept, this will take over the rest of the year’s production.

Stay cool. Literally.

x Gabi