Should I tell you everything that had happened in the last two months? Really? I'm fairly embarrassed that I haven't tried harder to blog. February, March and April have mostly looked this this: made some pots, had a birthday, surprise weekend in Belfast, festival meeting, France, in-laws, Cambridge, made some pots, festival meeting, made some pots, made some pots. I also picked a lot of windfall daffodils, which made me smile. The BIG news is that I've been selected to participate in the inaugural mentorship programme organised by the Craft Potters Association, in partnership with Adopt a Potter. I've been paired with Helen Beard, an established and successful ceramicist based in Clerkenwell, London, who produces wheel-thrown and hand-illustrated porcelain pots. I've followed her work for YEARS, so I genuinely almost fell off my chair when I read the acceptance email. With thanks to help from the Isle of Man Arts Council, I've booked flights to visit Helen in June, then we'll follow up with Skype sessions. I'm very excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn from such a talented and respected maker. It's taken far longer than I'd like to do these screen printing tests to check if the technique I learnt in Fremantle suits my clay and glaze, but I'm SO pleased it works! I'd love to develop layered designs of inlay, colour washes, screen prints and digital decals. In two and a half weeks' time I'll be opening the studio for the Isle of Man Art Festival, so I'm in full re-stock mode. After clearing some Manx National Heritage consignments it's rather luxurious to look through my sketchbooks and pull together designs that I've been thinking about since the Christmas break. This week I found time to indulge in some mishima - scratching a design into the clay, painting over it and scraping off a layer of clay to reveal the fine lines of the illustration. The Art Festival has also been front and centre of my schedule as I'm responsible for the event's publicity. That involves sprucing up the website, writing press releases, sending a lot of emails, and keeping the Facebook page vibrant and jumping with good stuff. Whilst all of these tasks are well within my skill-set, I haven't worked on a specific project of this size before. It's excellent experience, but I'm learning that I need to set more boundaries - yesterday I found myself wanting to post a photo on my Facebook page, but not having words for it as my voice has been dedicated to Festival promotions. Last week saw the completion of a fun order - new merch for my favourite coffee van, Flo! Both Annabel (Flo's owner) and myself are super pleased with this batch of mugs. She's only had them for five days and half have sold already! This is my favourite flavour of project - collaborating with passionately dedicated small businesses. It's also particularly awesome when clients provide cake...!!
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February is definitely turning out to be more fun than January. Told you so. I'm experimenting with coffee scoops. Maree mentioned the idea of a ceramic coffee scoop to me last year. Maybe even the year before. I liked the concept but I thought a long handle was needed, which is totally impractical for functional ceramics. In my efforts to keep working through the cold January days, I returned to drinking coffee (hurray for caffeine!). Whilst sniffing the coffee jar one day I remembered Maree's suggestion and did some research into hand-crafted scoops. Most of the best designs are long handled and made in wood or metal, but a few short handled scoops gave me hope for a clay version. Quick sketches showed that the basic form I wanted was something to throw on the wheel, instead of pinching like my measuring spoons. With a little slab handle attached to each tiny bowl, the forms are most satisfying. I'm eager to get them glazed so I can test them! This batch of fresh loaghtan sheep went to Manx National Heritage last week. I went through an odd phase last year of disliking these sweet sheep, resenting the repetitive work. My change of heart might be thanks to a break from them, or the warm reception the design has from my customers, but I rather delighted in painting this batch. Look! Look! ACTUAL sunshine! Indulging in painting a big (for me) dish, creating a little circular world. This is currently 27cm wide, but it will shrink by at least 2cm in the glaze firing, boo. Long live the Spring sunshine.
Ah, Hello February, it's marvellous to see you.
January has long been my least favourite month. This year I allowed myself a few indulgences to push through it; slower mornings, short days in the studio to avoid driving in the dark, small batches of throwing, more caffeine (and chocolate). In drafting this post, it was immediately clear that I sound disillusioned, and maybe a bit princess-y. Apologies. The studio was COLD in January. December had been perfectly pleasant seeing as I was firing the kiln most nights - my kiln heats the building and keeps it dry. But my workload slowed right down after Christmas and I'm down to one or two firings a week. I'd be tempted to take the whole month of January off, but I can't wait for warmer weather to come before I start making again - I could be waiting 'til mid-June. I don't deal well with the cold. Upon my return home in 2013, the island was half-covered in freak snow drifts, and frozen for weeks. Combined with the despair of leaving the happy (and perpetually warm) life that I'd built for myself on the Gold Coast, the icy temperatures messed with my head. Even three years on, with a hundred things in my world that have changed for the better, if I feel cold for a prolonged period of time my mind rushes straight back to those sad times and rolls about in the misery. Extra socks, a jumper, a blanket, a hot water bottle and a large hot chocolate are the only remedy. Plus hugs, hugs help too. With the exception of slightly longer days and a smidgen more sunshine, February isn't all that different to January. But it's my birthday month, so by default, it will be more fun. See? Total princess. It's hard to avoid clichés when composing a long overdue blog post, especially when Christmas has passed in the gap. 'Time flies...', 'What a month...', 'Where does the time go...'. They're all rather boring, yet incredible easy to use. I might try some honesty instead. I am tired. Five days of resting over Christmas has only served to allow my immune system to relax and let a virus in, leaving me with an uncontrollable dry cough that is wrecking my (and my boyfriend's) sleep. The elements of Christmas - time with Ed, slow and indulgent meals, prosecco and croissants for breakfast, movies, writing and drawing - were glorious, but I feel far from rested. This festive season - my first as a full time potter - was brilliant despite the drama of a failed thermocouple in the kiln. New designs sold well, bespoke work was challenging and fulfilling, I pushed my production rates to provide stock for more outlets, Christmas in the Yard was ridiculously busy, I attended my first curated market in the UK. I stayed on top of jobs most days, with only occasional tears of frustration. I was mostly incredibly happy. I am deeply grateful to my customers for continuing to support me by purchasing my work and for being so patient (and for bringing cake). From the beginning of November I abandoned most domestic duties and relied upon Ed to feed us and look after our home. He was willing to do that for me. His help comes without strings. Ed is the champion of this story. He believes in me and sacrifices his time to care for me, in turn helping me to achieve my goals. I need to make changes before the next festive season. Whilst I adore my work, I need to focus on sustainability. A particularly nice end-of-year treat: being featured in the first British-Irish Council Creative Industries sector report! Many thanks to Mike Reaney from DED for bringing the group to visit the studio back in February.
I've been making a lot of pots in recent weeks. In my world, a LOT. At least 30 or 40 a week. Plus Christmas tree decorations. I'm pleased with those production rates, but due to shop or gallery consignments or pre-orders this stock seems to be disappearing into a black hole. Yesterday I found myself excited at the prospect of having at least 10 festive pourers and wine cups in stock, only to realise that I should use them to fulfil a promise to a gallery and pop up shop. Please don't read this as a complaint - I'm deeply grateful for the demand of my work - I'm simply thinking out loud (er, in type) about one aspect of my production process.
The studio has been rammed with pots for the last month. This week I've been able to free up some space by delivering another 25 pieces to Manx National Heritage, posting 20 pieces to the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and I've just finished packing up 30 pieces to post to Cambridge Contemporary Craft. In tandem with those sizeable consignments, I've been working on smaller orders. It's a relief to get successful, finished pots out of the studio. Shelves full of unfired pots make me nervous!
Now I have studio and head space to plan the next month's workload. This week I was offered a place at the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair - I'm thrilled! The organisers, Great Northern Events, have an excellent reputation and attract some incredible maker/designers. It feels like a real achievement that my work is considered good enough to participate. In true silly-season style, the fair is one week after my open studio weekend, Christmas in the Yard, so time will be very tight indeed! Nerve-racking, but most exciting. The evening of Thursday 22nd October saw the second Isle of Man Creative Industries public meeting at Noa Bakehouse. Mike Reaney, Business Development Manager for Film & Creative Industries, lead a panel with three local professional creatives – architect Martyn Thomas, fashion designer Lisa Angwin and myself! Our community turned out and Noa was packed, many thanks to everyone who came. The perpetual issue with panel discussions is that whilst a great conversation can be had, no one ever gets to say everything that they want to. I’d written a lot of notes before the evening, so this is a recap of my answers and comments, plus the things I didn’t say: My name is Katy Mitchell. I’m a potter. I trade as Kathryn Mitchell Ceramics. I make wheel-thrown and hand-painted functional tableware. Simple pieces - mugs, bowls, plates - intended to be used in daily life. I have a small studio in Kirk Michael, which is open to the public most Saturdays or by appointment during the week. Local sales of my work are predominantly through Manx National Heritage, but also through the Manx Wildlife Shop, direct from my studio and online. Further afield, two small galleries sell my work in southern Scotland and Cambridge.
I grew up on the island then moved to Australia when I was 18, where I stayed to study and work for five years. In early 2013 I ran out of visa options and had to return home. Within 6 months I had re-established a studio here, thanks to the support of many individuals and organisations. SKILLS / EDUCATION What has been your entry route? As a teenager I stumbled into a job at Craftworks Studio in Silverdale. I worked there every weekend and holiday for four years, it’s where my love of ceramics began. I would often be asked ‘Did you make that?’ and my answer would be ‘No, I painted it, but it was made in a factory in China or Taiwan…’, which sparked an interest to learn how to make from scratch and be responsible for the whole creation process. So now when people ask me the question I can answer ‘Yes, yes I did.’ I studied for two years on the Gold Coast, at a poorly managed and privately owned college that no longer exists. But my teacher, Michaela Kloeckner, was wonderful – a practicing artist with brilliant education skills. She was and is endlessly enthusiastic and supportive. The course was an Australian Diploma in Visual Art + Contemporary Craft, which is equivalent to a British foundation course. What careers advice have you received? The careers advisor at my high school was a bit lost with me. But I don’t recall any of my friends receiving great advice either! The best advice came from people that I worked for when I was younger, so Martin and June Whiteman from Craftworks, Leni Lewis from Shakti Man (or Baked Beads if anyone remembers that far back?!). They all encouraged my creativity, could see that I worked hard and told me to find or create a job that I absolutely loved. What are your transferable skills? Running my business involves intense time management - I've often got 3 or more batches of work on the go at once in different stages and working with clay has long lead times, troubleshooting - problems can occur in every process with clay, events management - twice a year I host open studio weekends, and I've organised exhibitions. What are your skills gaps? I’d like to be more comfortable with Photoshop. I’d like know to know SOMETHING about Illustrator. And I need to learn to take better product photographs. Have you benefited from any mentoring? I was matched with a mentor for the Small Business Start Up Scheme (more on that below), Helen Cowley, for 18 months. She was helpful, enthusiastic and experienced. In a less formal sense, I have a good friend in Melbourne who has been a potter for 30 years and we’re in contact nearly every day. She’s a great sounding board and is really experienced, so she’ll critique my work and I can ask her technical questions. Another informal mentorship was from the owner of 19 KAREN Contemporary Artspace on the Gold Coast, where I worked for two and a half years. Terri is a shrewd, creative and seriously motivated business woman; it was a privilege to learn from her. The position was paradoxically fast-paced and nurturing! COLLABORATION We’ve talked about hubs, have you ever been part of one? How do you think you would stand to benefit from such a facility? I haven’t directly been part of a hub, but when I lived on the Gold Coast I sold my work at a monthly night market which was hosted by a creative precinct, called Rabbit + Cocoon. The hub is an old industrial area, with 2 warehouses a bit bigger than Noa and a private road between them. There’s a café, a digital radio station and 14 creative studios, as well as space to hire. I feel like the island is ready for a creative hub. The rise of creative, alternate local events in the last 5 years is a clear sign that our population is craving more culture. I'm really happy with my current studio and I’d be hard pushed to leave, but a central location for meetings, exhibitions and a regular quality makers market would be excellent. Do you ever collaborate across disciplines? Not often as yet, but I would like to! Earlier this year Tanya from Lovely Greens approached me to make pourers for her to use as a vessel for candles, however it was more of a straightforward business transaction than a collaboration – I made the pots, she paid for them, finished the product, added her mark up and sold them. I like that process, it’s simple. In terms of exhibition work, I was part of a group show in Melbourne last month called The Cup Collaboration. 34 potters from around the globe were paired up to create cups together. I spent two days with Niharika Hukku in Sydney (full blog post here) and we had a marvellous time figuring out how we work, how our processes differ and finding a balance for the collaborative pieces. I’d like to collaborate with more potters! More recently I’ve been working with a local graphic designer – Rich Hird – to create promotional material for my pre-Christmas open studio event. I had a fairly clear idea of the design, gave Rich a rough sketch and some components, and he wove them together with his creative flair to produce some awesome artwork. This is my first time working with a graphic designer for my own promotions, and I would definitely do it again – I know the event has been and will be excellent, but beautiful, concise promotional artwork will inspire many more people to be part of it! What digital “new media” skills do you have / require? How important are they? In the last year I’ve started using digital decals in my work - they’re like a commercial transfer. It isn’t new technology - I can remember hearing about them 10 years ago - but the costs are more affordable now and the quality has improved. I scan my original illustration into Photoshop, clean it up and compile up to 70 of them on an A3 document, then send that to a printer in Stoke-on Trent. They enable me to repeat the same pattern relatively quicker than hand-painting, which makes production more efficient. What has been your experience as to financial support, subsidies and grants? I’ve been through the Small Business Start Up Scheme. I started the course in May 2013, wrote and edited my business plan over the summer, signed the contract in the November and received the funding in December. I qualified for both the equipment grant (a £1500 match) and living allowance (£50 a week for 30 weeks – another £1500!) – in the last month this scheme has been updated (and sounds even better now!), head to the Department of Economic Development website for info. The 18 month mentorship was almost as valuable as the funding, because I had someone to run ideas past, to discuss what I’d achieved, what goals I wanted to set, and I was obliged to keep up with my accounts! Looking back or forwards to a 3 month period sounds simple, but not many of us do it and it’s incredibly helpful. Helen has helped a few creative businesses through the scheme – Faye Christian, Sweet Ginger Emporium – so if you do the scheme, please try and seek her out as your mentor. That same summer of 2013, I applied for Arts Council funding. This seems to be a little known fact, but the Arts Council has an Artists Studio Policy. They can fund 50% of your rent in the first year and 25% in the second year, which they did for me, I've just come to the end of my second year and I'm writing the report for them now. It really helped my cash flow, especially in the first year. The Council have also approved several other grants – they've helped me attend three different off-island conferences and they funded the material costs for my exhibition at Noa in 2014. The most recent one is the smallest but it’s incredibly helpful – I've been invited to participate in two Christmas exhibitions at established UK galleries, but posting a box of heavy ceramics off-island is expensive and consumes any profit I might make in sales from those shows. I asked the Arts Council to help and they've kindly given me £50 to cover that expense. It’s a tiny amount, but to a small business like mine it makes a big difference. IMPACT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES ON THE WIDER ECONOMY Have you considered your relevance / potential impact on tourism offering of the Isle of Man? Tourism is really important to my business. The pieces that I sell through Manx National Heritage and the Manx Wildlife Trust are inspired by Manx iconography and bear Manx Gaelic phrases – they are aimed at tourists as high quality souvenirs and they sell as such. There is a distinct gap in the market on this island for locally made, high quality, tastefully designed souvenirs. And we have plentiful unique and wondrous elements to provide inspiration. I could work with MNH for the rest of my career and probably not run out of influences for Manx souvenirs. It would be wonderful to see more locally designed cards, postcards, jewellery, textiles. I'm working like a hamster in a wheel to fulfil orders – I can assure you that there is a demand for this kind of work. But it NEEDS to be of the highest quality. It must be carefully considered and marketed accordingly. I'm tired of seeing mediocre or lack lustre products made on this island and marketed as craft. True craft is an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill. We need to raise the standard on the Isle of Man. Have you used the services of a strategic marketing company, or creative agency (or been hired by one?) – do you feel you have a clear understanding of your market? No, but I have attended workshops with two marketing consultants – Heather Blackley and Alison Teare – both of whom I highly recommend. Those courses helped me to understand my market, then formulate a marketing plan and communications plan. I admit, I don’t always stick to the plans, but it’s good to know they’re there if I need to reassess my situation and it’s reassuring to know that marketing isn't as scary as we may think. TO WRAP UP What are the biggest challenges you face? Making a profit. I can sell good quantities of pots, but my work is highly labour intensive so the profit margins are tight. I have my costing formula to calculate retail prices, but more often than not I need to reduce those idealistic prices, otherwise I’d be pricing myself out of the market. As my production process evolves and my brand gains more recognition, this will get easier. The digital decals are already increasing my efficiency, as I continue throwing that skill will improve and speed up, and as my brand reputation grows I can slowly increase prices. What advice would you give the people in this room (or reading this…!)? Surround yourself with people that believe in what you’re doing. Those friends and family that cheer you on will be instrumental in helping you achieve your goals, even if there input seems unrelated. The local funding bodies are not scary, they are employed with nice, friendly people, who are happy to answer your questions. So call or email them, suss out how they can help you. Be brave and talk to people about your work. I get it, that isn't always easy, it's often uncomfortable. Most of us creative bods are introverts. Talking to new people scares the shit out me most days. I'm much happier in studio solitude. But the best way to share our work (and thereby grow our businesses, SELL the things we create and support ourselves) is to talk to people, in real life. And finally, read Amanda Palmer’s book, The Art of Asking. --- Thanks for your time, folks! I was a right Grinch around Christmastime for YEARS. I guess it came purely out of teenage angst and then battling with confusing Australian Christmas traditions. But last year I found love for it again. My festive range was limited in 2014, but I spent most of my post-Christmas days off drawing for this year! I've been super keen to get them onto real pots and I'm REALLY enjoying this year's festive making. These plates are awaiting some touches of gold, then destined for Manx National Heritage: Last Sunday morning we joined the good people of the Isle of Man Society of Architects for their Big Draw event. Our muse was the Sea Terminal - somewhat of an icon in Douglas and a prominent childhood location for me, as my Dad worked in one of the offices for about 15 years - and was surprisingly fun to draw! After an hour (ish), our fingers were suitably cold and we piled into Noa Bakehouse for hot chocolate and croissants. It was a most pleasant was to spend a Sunday morning! The first half of my festive consignment for Manx National Heritage is complete: I still love my 'open' sign. I might never get bored of photographing it... Last night we yurted! We also learnt that we need to brush up on our fire safety skills. But it was a lovely one-night escape and I'd highly recommend Saba's Glen Yurts!
Christmas making has consumed studio days. It's hectic, but wonderful. Having full time hours to work in is incredibly satisfying, even if I'm eternally creating more jobs to do...ahem. Glen and plantation walks have been especially lovely this Autumn. It's felt like I can hear the ground settling, protecting itself and it's inhabitants for the coming Winter. The wren is a special addition to this year's festive collection, in honour of the age-old Hunt The Wren tradition.
On Friday I attended the 2015 Craft Scotland conference in Glasgow. I flew up the day before, in a dinky 12-or-so-seater plane. I could SEE the pilot! Unnerving though it could have been, it was the fairest of days to fly and we were treated to the most beautiful views of the island and Scotland. The conference was packed with fascinating presentations from makers, designers and curators working across many disciplines. Events like this really expose us to work that we might not have considered investigating otherwise. I was entertained to find myself quoted in the Craft Scotland 14-15 annual report! The highlight for me was a workshop with Jude Barber, an architect and director of Collective Architecture. Jude presented a short talk on the many collaborative projects she's worked on and explained a little about the framework of standards that those schemes progress within. During the workshop, Jude gave us a simplified version of the framework and asked us to break down how we work, with stages from Strategy to In Use, taking People (stakeholders or collaborators) and Skills into consideration. I LOVE exercises like this, I find it really interesting to be encouraged to think in a more linear fashion and analyse how I work. The results from 20-odd different disciplines (sound engineers, an inventor, curators, potters, jewellers, a glass artist) were fascinating! Some people renamed stages, some had arrows jumping backwards. I believe these exercises, like writing a budget, business plan or marketing plan, are incredibly important to our creative practices, as they prepare us for grant application writing or for communicating with other industries. So thank you Jude! And thank you Craft Scotland! Our group was assigned to this little circular room with an impressive skylight: Sadly there are no direct or even connecting flights from Glasgow to the island on a Saturday, so I took a 3.5 hour train journey down to Manchester, then flew home. I spent most of that journey staring at the beautiful wind farms, drawing trees and making these blog notes!
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February 2019
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