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Adrian King | Episode 497
Adrian King is a potter making functional pottery in Portland, ME. Adrian grew up in New England and learned making pottery in high school. Adrian then pursued a BFA in ceramics as well as worked as an apprentice potter in NC. He now has returned to Maine to make pots and teach adjunct at a local art college.
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Have you been selling your work online also?
I have. I started online sales a couple of years ago. It starts off slow just like any new thing. This year has been the best yet since my exposure in ceramics monthly and everything people have been more interested and I have been a lot more active on social media. It really takes a lot of work and effort to get a good presence online and just sell your work online because you gotta hit a market. If you leave it to random chance, nobody is going to see your work online. It’s interesting, for the longest time it wasn’t doing very well and now it is doing better. But I will say across the board I make more sales face to face. Because I can be there talking to the customers and talking about the work and they can pick the piece up. Where as online you are banking on that image that you posted. When it is face to face I am selling myself as well as the pot.
Let’s talk about that. When you say you are selling yourself, what does that look like?
I mean I am selling my personality and who I am, my story, everything that we are talking about right now. I love talking about it and I love what I do. I love ceramics, I love pottery and I love everything about it. And people really like that, they love the story. If they approach you about your work and ask you, How did you make this? or How did you get into this? or How do you do this? I can actually tell them rather than typing it up in an email. So it is far more effective.
So you are saying people buy you as much as they buy it.
Somewhat. Then they have this piece, say it is a beautiful vase on a mantle or something that they bought, or even just a daily mug. The mugs I use on a daily basis are from different people, different friends with different stories and I can hold this mug and tell the story of when I got that mug. I want people who buy a piece from me to leave with a story. I want to reflect what I do through my pottery as much as I do through meeting somebody.
When you sell the piece itself are you talking people into a sale?
Not necessarily. It depends. Sometimes, obviously I am trying to sell the work so I am going to try and persuade somebody into doing it but I am not like, You want to buy this.You need to buy this. (laughter) I am not like, a salesman by any means, I am just someone trying to sell my wares. I am just trying to be honest about my work. If somebody comes up and holds a piece and I talk to them for twenty minutes and they end up saying, You know I don’t really like this and I am going to move along. I am totally fine. That is fine with me. It is always the customer’s decision. But maybe me talking to them and being a nice person will make them want to buy this mug even more.
How important was the mentor-ship in your life for making sales?
Extremely important. Me saying I am trying to sell myself and my pots is exactly what he portrayed for the past thirty years. That really kind of sticks to me and every apprentice he has had who is still doing this and still making pots, I am sure they would say the same thing.
Is the idea of selling you and it as a package, the story and the substance, is that why you chose Adrian King Pottery as opposed to Portland Pottery or some other name? So you are making yourself the brand.
Yes, a brand would in turn become a business, an entity and require something else. And this is really just me. I don’t have anyone else who works for me, I don’t have anyone else who makes the pots. I guess that stems also down to where I worked and that was Mark Hewitt pottery.
What are your online sales percentages compared to your in-person sales?
I would say as low as twenty percent. Maybe even less.
That is still a lot of sales that you would not have gotten otherwise, right?
Exactly. This holiday season it was half and half almost. But over the summer and the spring it is hardly there. So that requires me to sell first hand and it requires me to go to shows and be there. But also I wasn’t as active online, I wasn’t pushing it, I wasn’t updating it, it’s all on me to do that. This year I have made it a goal to be more active online and kind of push that a little bit more.
Is it worth it to have that extra twenty percent to put that effort towards it?
Yes and No. I would say on the yes side I am getting pots out to California, Alaska, Oregon, anywhere in the world really. The furthest I sent it away to was British Columbia this year. The thing is also, and I’m still figuring it out, you gotta put the pots online, you got the sale, you got to pack it all, you got to ship it all, you’ve got to do all this extra stuff. Whereas if I do a number of sales like craft shows, that are localized, I can pack up my truck, go there and just as much or double or triple that money and I don’t have to do all the shipping and packing that is involved in online sales.
What does your dream day as a potter look like?
Waking up without an alarm clock. Getting going and making really great pots all day. Coming home, having a great meal and going to bed. That is my dream day right there. (laughter)
Book
Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain by Jack Troy
Contact:
Instagram: @adriankingpottery