Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Jon Puzzuoli | Episode 821
Jon Puzzuoli is a full time ceramicist of 17 years. Jon’s life is absorbed in clay, both creating and teaching. Jon’s passion emanates from educating others in the art of pottery. Jon is Head of the Ceramics Department at Silvermine School of Art in New Canaan and Co-Chair of it’s almost 300 Guild Artists. Developing unique glazes and growing crystals on the surface of his wares are a particular focus.
SPONSORS
You can help support the show!
GRPotteryForms.com
Number 1 brand in America for a reason. Skutt.com
For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com
What’s one of the things that you know that makes you friendly to Instagram?
So there’s slices of the pie and you have to know what segment of the pie is doing what for you. Being consistent and posting daily to engage with your followers and finding new followers and knowing the peak points in which you can grab the most attention for posting. But Instagram is trying to get away from just posting a random photo or a short little video. It will be doing you a lot more favors to be posting at least one or two Reels a day. Reels I look at like fishing. You are bringing new people into your orbit. You are getting exposure with new eyes.
TikTok is raw and unrefined and Instagram is supposed to me more refined and thought out so do you find that the quality of post development matters before you post? Do you put time into developing the video and refining it?
So people’s attention span is very short and one of the ways that you can boost your post is by keeping a video under 15 seconds. Because that’s where people’s attention span taps out. So a fifteen second video that I upload every day it probably took about 30 minutes, forty minutes to record. And then it probably took another hour or two hours to edit it.
Do you schedule your posts so they are the same time every day or at a high volume time?
I try to post at 7 o’clock in the morning, every morning. And then every once in awhile I have tried to incorporate comedy into my world, so I will post a supplemental comedy video at night. So it’s serious, artful in the morning and here’s a little laugh at night.
How do people know when your pieces are available to buy?
At the top of my page it says all works are for sale but I never talk about money or say that it’s for sale. It turns people off. If something is beautiful enough it sells itself and people will come to you and ask if they could have it. If the work is beautiful enough the problem is kind of goes away.
When people write to you and want a piece do you already have in mind what the value is before you write back?
Yes.
How do you value your work?
It’s funny a young potter just messaged me and asked for advice with that too. Well as you start your pottery or any art career you are trying to sell and it is better to start with some sales so you’re prices are low and you find what’s selling and the price. You can compare yourself to other potters or other artists and see what like work is selling for. And if you are selling out of something all the time that means your price is too low and that means the prices need to go up.
So you depend on the old adage supply and demand as a gage for determining your next pricing structure or your current pricing structure?
For sure.
If someone wants a piece how do you get them to pay for it?
Well I say we can use PayPal, Venmo, a credit card, and I will give options and whatever they pick I will tell them what the next step is. So if it’s credit card then I go on my Square account and send them an invoice and that way I am not dealing with credit card numbers and stuff. It’s sent to their email and they plug in their credit card number and Square lets you know when the transaction is completed. Venmo and PayPal are pretty simple. I usually just give my screen name and let the customer take care of the payment. It seems friendlier than the other way around.
Book
Contact
Instagram: @jpuzz