the last few pots of 2011

Last year we were in NH for the week between Christmas and New Years so we didn't know what to expect for gallery traffic or sales this week. We have been pleasantly surprised and have enjoyed meeting new people and making a few good sales. We have enjoyed the week with a healthy balance of slacking off and working. Jeff has been making mugs by the dozens and getting his tools organized around his wheel. In between cooking (and eating!) good food, I have finished some carved vases...

I have about a dozen finished and played around a little with the designs. I have sold quite a few of these in the last few weeks.

When the last vase was carved, I got busy throwing some shallow pasta bowls. These will also be slipped and carved. You may recall that the last round of these ended up full of shards from a re-fire explosion in the kiln. Only one survived and it has already found a new home. Today I will throw a few more. I am trying really hard to stick to working in a larger series rather than jumping around to every new idea that comes into my head. Perhaps this is my New Years resolution!

On a final note... I am paying closer attention to my Etsy shop. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I was listing items everyday, my sales increased as did my traffic. I use Google analytics to track my page views. When I list items my traffic is anywhere from 24 to 60 hits a day. I didn't list anything this week until yesterday and my traffic had dropped steadily to only 8 visitors. After yesterday's listing I was back up to 24. If I want to increase my sales this year I know I have to stay on top of it.

I think that may be resolution #2.