**I was checking to see when was the last time I had done any blogging....wow, it's been awhile. I found a draft I was working on over the summer. Decided to post it now just for kicks and giggles and will start working on an update.**

I did a dumb thing last week. I decided to organize my "business file" and that led me to add up my pottery sales so far for this year. I was a bit heartened by the total.......UNTIL........I decided to tally up my expenses for the same time period.

As of last week, it seems I have barely broken even! That was a bit of a blow!

I had just participated in a local event the night before, a "Wine and Art Gala" sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. I had produced some "wine related" pottery for this event which I fired in my electric kiln.

I know that some of my potter friends will feel that I "sold my soul" by firing my little electric kiln rather than loading up my soda kiln, but I need to start producing some work that I can turn over quickly and sell at a reasonable price. The electric kiln seems to offer this opportunity.

I ended up selling less than a hundred dollars worth of work, Ok, more like 75 bucks worth! That in itself was rather disappointing, so when I tallied up my expenses vs. income the following day, it was a sort of "icing on the cake" moment (with the cake tasting like liver, and the icing tasting like brussel sprouts!! In other words, YUKKY!)

Of course I participated in a bit of rationalization at this point, telling myself, it is only August (well almost September) and sales should increase dramatically in the next few months as the holidays approach and my expenses should have leveled out for the year now. So I told myself (as I've done before) that I just need to try to hang in here until after Christmas, and then decide if I should continue to pursue pottery as a business, or go back to my pottery being a hobby and find a part-time job to produce some actual "income."

Then Friday evening, I was informed that 2 of my higher priced pieces on display at Bear's Mill (in Ohio) had sold.

On Saturday I sold another wine chiller while unpacking the leftover from the Wine Gala to display at the local artist co-op. While I was there I met a woman who home schools and is interested in enrolling her child in a pottery class. I told her I had tried to teach a class earlier at the local Art Center, but had been unsuccessful in generating enough interest and she told me that she thought she might be able to find enough students for a class by talking to some of her fellow home-schooling parents!

Oh, and I almost forgot, at the Wine event, I met a man from Richmond, IN (about 20 min. from us) who owns a winery there. He said they're going to have an art event later in September and told me that I could sell my work and not have to pay any consignment or booth fee! We decided to check the place out Sat. evening with some friends, and it looks like it could be a nice venue to sell some pieces! I think I'm going to try.

I also am going to begin working on producing some pottery for Bear's Mill. The other 2 potters and I have decided to come up with a line of "Bear's Mill Pottery" that will always be available and will consist of classic, functional pieces that customers always seem to be looking for. Things like mugs and bakers and pitchers, etc. We're going to make them with the same clay and glazes and come up with some sort of "Bear's Mill" stamp that we can put on each piece to tie them all together.

So I guess I'm not giving up yet.