Guesstimating Your Way to Setting a Price | Lori Rollason | Episode 457

Lori Rollason | Episode 457

Lori Rollason was originally from Middletown, Connecticut. Now Lori lives and works in Hillsborough New Hampshire. Lori Is a full time potter and a part time teacher. Lori has her own studio in the barn attached to her house. Lori makes mostly functional cone 6, electric fired pottery.

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When you meet people, what do you tell them that you do?

I tell them I’m a potter. I might have to explain from the very beginning that I work on a potters wheel, or what is a potters wheel, or where do I fire my things… With someone else with experience will be curious about what cone I fire to.

What do you do on a daily basis as a potter?

In my case my studio is attached to my house. Sometimes I throw in my pajamas. I can just get right to work in the morning. I usually make coffee and then go out to the studio, throw some pots… I might throw and trim in the early part of the week and then it might take a couple of weeks to finish decorating everything.

How is running a pottery as a business different than you originally thought it would be?

I think it is a stretch for me to say I run a business. I make pottery and the challenge still is marketing it. The time it takes to market is a bigger challenge than I expected. For example, I have an Etsy site and the time it takes to photograph, upload, and describe… It is really pretty time consuming. I feel that there are a lot of venues to market stuff that I am not taking full advantage of just because I haven’t gotten that system down.

What would you consider a successful potter?

I would love to see the day when I am able to make pots that I care about and then making sure that they are being marketed and appropriated in someone’s daily use.

What’s one thing about the business side of you work that you struggle to understand?

I guess finding your market or your appropriate market. Just recently I was watching a marketing symposium and they were talking about finishing a business plan, and I thought, Oh yeah. I’m supposed to have a business plan. So creating that and carrying through with it, is something that I feel I would really benefit from.

Since you started, where do you seek advice for running the business?

I am really fortunate because my son and daughter-in-law are very successful in running a business. I listen to them because they are really really smart. If I could do a fraction of what they do to make their business successful, it would be way better for me. They are an amazing role model for business.

Do you think you are good at what you do?

Yes. I think I am good at parts at what I do. I’ve had interesting conversations with instructors when I would be thinking, I’m getting really good at this pottery stuff. One of my instructors looked at one of my pieces and said, “Where the plains change on this pot, it is like looking at two separate pots- the top is one thing and the bottom is another.” I felt like I opened my eyes for the very first time to actually look at what I had made. So now I feel like I am much more critical when I loot at what I do. It is hard to say that I am good at what I do because I am very critical with my own work.