On Making a Living

Not many people make a living exclusively doing pottery and pottery related activities such as teaching and workshops. I know a few though and in researching the necessary evil of business and marketing I came across Joel Cherrico of Cherrico Pottery. Joel is a mid 20’s potter who is not only making awesome pottery and making a living with his passion but also doing great things for the community at large.  He writes posts on the business side of pottery for the American Craft Council called A Potters Journey.

Not only that but check out his amazing idea and implementation of Cosmic Mugs, inspired by images of galaxies made with the Hubble Space Telescope.

One of the keys is making connections and getting information from real people on the subjects that you need to be more knowledgeable in and to implement something with that new found knowledge. There is a fire hose of information on every conceivable topic: the internet. It’s a magical tool with almost the sum of human knowledge, but the way (for me) that the knowledge is transferred is important. Face to face. One on one. That is where things click. Research, research, research, and then talk to someone and solidify all of that chunked information into something cohesive, something that you can use and act upon.