One of One

collage

The price of freedom
isn’t even loneliness.
Companionship can cause isolation,
and connection isn’t binary.
I admitted I don’t even like people
with reluctant attachment.
I know I’m better, and yet,
here I am again.
And I could be anyone
even if you are only you.
I step back and keep falling,
and he repeated,
“I told you about stairs,”
while trying to rewind time.
Quadrants are alien and confuse
and yet I chose to be one of four.
Adapting has only made things less clear.
Being truthful in inner conflict
is staring at several reflected, fractured shards.
I’m one of one, regardless of who I see.
I’m one of one, on my own and making it through.
I’m one of one, no matter who stares at me.
I’m one of one, with or without you.

Not That Special

collage

You are just not that special, attractive
but part of ninety percent of people,
and you’re the one who responds.
All of them are flaky, so I see you out of the four
friends that are only friends.
Even if they say they love me to the moon and back
I’m a backup- It’s only hyperbole,
because I too am not that special.

My Rules For Life – Version 1.0

In no particular order…

  1. Have Goals. Work towards goals. Celebrate small victories and milestones. Celebrate failures as a testament your hard work and persistence.
  2. Go to the bathroom and pee before you leave, even if you don’t think you have to.
  3. Assume you’ll be doing more walking than you planned
  4. Let it go, or give and appropriate action/response, and then let it go.
  5. Take a break to help you keep going longer, fresher, better (faster, stronger!). Don’t take a break to put off things that need to be done.
  6. Turn ideas on their head, especially negative ones.
  7. Taking the T (subway) is almost like having a personal chauffeur if you think about it the right way.
  8. Don’t believe something or take something seriously because it’s popular, commonly accepted, etc. Question!
  9. If something isn’t working quite right, ask why and try to find an answer.
  10. Don’t assume you’re the problem.
  11. Forgive, but don’t forget.
  12. Allow people that influence your life negatively to drift out of your life. Even though there’s never enough time, try to remember to reach out to the good ones to let them know you care.
  13. Don’t eat the yellow snow.
  14. Call people on their bullshit, but try to do it in a way that gets them to think. You can’t change most people’s minds, but you’ll feel better doing your thoughts and values justice by expressing them well.
  15. Your body will get old a break. Don’t waste too much time on vanity.
  16. You will die one day, definately too soon. Still, you’ll probably wake up tomorrow and have to deal with things. Plan for tomorrow, but also seize today.
  17. Be well, but don’t try to live forever.
  18. Don’t let others tell you what you should value. Find your own truth.
  19. Games make your brain happy. Leave time for games.
  20. Moderation in all things, including moderation.
  21. Jealousy is useless. The rich and famous are just as miserable, if not more. Pay attention to your own lawn.
  22. You’re always competing with yourself and your own limitations. Learn from and share with others.
  23. It’s not okay to murder people when they tell you something is, ‘not that spicy’.
  24. Try new things, but you don’t have to try something if you don’t want to.
  25. You actually don’t have to overcome all of your fears. It’s okay to be afraid sometimes. You’re not Batman.
  26. Make rules for yourself, and change them when there’s a good reason. Hold fast when there isn’t.

Spring, Time For New

Back when most potters didn’t even have a website, I had the bad habit of redoing mine about once a year. The last website sat for many years as I told myself over and over not to redo the site because:

Bye old website!

Bye old website!

  • I felt like my site was better than most other ceramics artists I admired (if they even had one)
  • I did most sales in person, and the few online ones go through Etsy
  • I never felt like I had enough time to work in the studio

Recently , I started to feel like ceramic artists were finally springing up with their own beautiful and functional websites. It’s now not uncommon for these people to do a good amount to most of their sales online. Many just point to Etsy, many handle their own sales through their website, and many tell customers to call or email to work it all out.

Etsy has a couple of good reasons to use it. For one, it can bring traffic to your shop that you wouldn’t normally have. Secondly, Etsy has become a name that people trust ordering their stuff from. Even if they haven’t heard of Sally Pottery Maker, they’ve ordered from Etsy before (or know people who have), so they feel okay clicking the buy button.

Etsy also has several good reasons for artists not to use it. The first one is the cost. They charge you for listing your stuff (like eBay) and it expires after so much time. The extra step of keeping track when something will expire and renew it is a pain, and now you’re paying a second time to list it. Maybe you’re someone like me that pays to list something, then inevitably, that’s the thing that sells in person and I need to take it down. It doesn’t refund you for deactivating a listing early. Etsy will also charge you on the actual money you make as well, taking a cut every time you sell something. Etsy now has direct checkout, but back when it was Paypal, that meant both Etsy and Paypal were charging you. All of those fees add up and cut into the less than huge makings of an artist.

I just alluded to this, but the second biggest reason not to use it is that it doesn’t do anything helpful for inventory management if you’re not selling exclusively with Etsy. For people like me that sell in person, we have to have a spreadsheet or something else to keep track of what is in stock versus what isn’t, whether it was sold or if I dropped it on concrete, if it’s being shown somewhere, etc. This spreadsheet tells me what is on Etsy so I would remember to take it down. What I would really like is a real inventory management system, one that was integrated with enough things that I wouldn’t need a separate spreadsheet at all.

So I have two really good reasons to still use Etsy and two really great reasons to move on to something else. For now, I’m going to keep my Etsy site in tact while trying out WooCommerce. So far, it seems like you can use WooCommerce for complete inventory management: adding notes, manually putting in orders that weren’t generated directly on the website, keeping track of stock, and even calculating and adding sales tax where appropriate. Even if WooCommerce works well, I may keep Etsy around for selling select items, just to keep a presence and bring more eyes to my work.

To jump back to my original list of reasons not to redo the website, I said that I never have enough time in the studio just making stuff. That’s still true. However, a good investment in a website could maybe finally mean never building it from the ground up again. That overall should save time, right? WordPress has been around and getting better for years and years now. I’ve been using it for my blog, www.theseize.com, since 2007. This, coupled with the possibility of retiring the too big Google Drive inventory spreadsheet, makes a compelling argument.

Finally, the other big “Why now?” is that I’m doing the biggest sale I’ve ever done at the end of this summer / fall. I will be a vendor at King Richard’s Faire for the 2014 season, which means 18 days (2 long weekends and 6 regular ones). I started thinking that I didn’t want any customers I gained from the sale to be looking at an old website. I needed to prepare for things go well and assume I’ll get a spike in traffic online. So, even though I am worried about making enough for King Richard’s Faire, I’m spending time on a website. Hopefully it’ll be the last time I make a big investment of time doing this.

One more thing that should stand out is that this blog here is separate from TheSeize. I’ve wrestled with this for a long time. Should I make an ‘artist blog’ or not? Should I keep two blogs? Do I even have the time for two blogs? Do I cross post? I feel like one of the best examples of what blogging can do for a ceramic artists is Lori at Fine Mess Pottery. I love reading her blog. I also feel like I lose something not writing about processes like this. Maybe in many cases I’ll be documenting questions, frustrations, and breaking things, but there’s value in that. By documenting failures I’ll also be documenting my eventual and inevitable success, right? And besides, I know I’m not alone in these thoughts, and speaking with the large online community is just as important as my own local artist community.

For a Friend Who Just Lost Their Mother

Hello everyone,

Please consider donating even just a few dollars or sharing on social media. Every bit helps!

I couldn’t imagine having a family member pass away and not only having to shoulder all of the funeral expenses, but not having the money to do it. The funeral home says they need all of the money up front, and until then there’s no service or closure.

When I Learn To Swim, Will The Water Change?

In a mythical future things would be better. Isn’t this what we all think about? One day, some day, maybe next time it will turn out right, turn out better, or turn out differently.

We wish we were satisfied while we realize there would be no progress without that struggle.

We feel guilty for our dissatisfaction since so many have it worse, and it could always be worse.

We strive for something better while we grasp and fumble on the details of how one actually accomplishes such a thing. How can I make things better? Can I? If it could be done, if it were so easy, wouldn’t life already be that way?

I can make ripples as an individual, but won’t the water just return to it’s still surface? Even if we all make splashing waves, the water stays the same.

Still, I have to believe we were put here to do more than just tread water.

When I learn to swim, will the water change?

If I start to drown, will someone save me?