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Amanda Dobbratz | Episode 242
Amanda Dobbratz graduated from The Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, UK, with a Masters in Research in Creative Practice. Amanda makes functional, complex ceramics, which marry the whimsical with the pragmatic, often conveying a sense of play and humor. Amanda is a 2015 Anonymous Potter Studio Fellow and currently works as Northern Clay Center’s Marketing and Communications Associate.
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When you first started selling your work how did you establish your price point?
Mostly guestimation. I looked for people’s work that I felt some kind of kinship with and tried to aim slightly lower than them because I felt that they were probably more established than me.
How have your sales progressed over the last two years?
I don’t know numbers for sure but two years ago was when I opened my Etsy shop and I might have sold six pots all year. Last year was the year I started doing craft fairs and I probably sold closer to fifty pots. Then this year once my commission is finished I will have probably sold close to six to seven hundred pots.
What is your current price range?
My shot cups go for twenty-two dollars all the way up to my bigger planters go for about two hundred dollars.
Does that mean your work is priced by size?
That’s a good question, it sort of is. Because I think that is what I see people do in galleries. At least that’s what I am perceiving what they are doing.
When do you know it’s time to increase your prices?
I’m thinking about that right now. I am thinking about the dissonance between over-pricing and not being taken seriously from under-pricing. I feel I sometimes get a little insecure about being a hand-builder and that people won’t take that seriously. I feel there is a point where you have to charge a certain amount to have people understand that you are serious.
If you could be a super-hero what would your super-power be and why?
Some practical super powers that my mom really has that I’m envious of is she can remember colors to the point of seeing a piece of fabric and going to a different place and getting the right color paint. I think that would be a really great super-power. She can also measure things looking at them, so she can be like that is an eighth of inch too far to the left. So those a s a maker are very practical super-powers.
Book
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
Contact
Instagram: @adobbratz