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Gabrielle Schaffner | Episode 442
Gabrielle Schaffner is a ceramic artist, producing a line of functional pottery in her Boston studio. Gabrielle’s work has been sold and exhibited in stores and galleries across the United States. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Gabrielle has been a resident of the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston since 1988. Gabrielle spent many years working in various arts administration roles for the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) and served as their Executive Director until 2014. FPAC is a community non-profit organization founded in 1980 by area artists to preserve and promote the local arts community. Gabrielle continues to be engaged in Fort Point, and serves on the Board of the Friends of Fort Point Channel.
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I am very curious about your shipping? How do you source your boxes?
Not very scientifically. I have been in this neighborhood for a long time and it used to be a very industrial neighborhood and there was a box store, all these old guys in a gritty old building that sold boxes. Our neighborhood has changed a ton and stores like that aren’t here any more and those guys moved out somewhere else but they still have really good prices so I try to buy it from them.
Do you have the name for them?
They are called Colin Box.
When you package do you double box or do you single box with really good packaging?
I have gone back and forth. I used to always single box and I had one pot break and I was really so mad that I went to double boxing and then I thought, I think this is not really worth it. So I went back to single boxing but just making sure it is super well packed.
How does your packaging get paid for?
You know, it is sometimes absorbing into the price and sometimes not.
When you are packing are you also wrapping in bubble wrap first?
Yes!
So tell me about the materials you use to actually wrap and package your stuff. Fifty percent of your sales are online so this is a big deal for you. So how do you actually prepare it before you tape the box shut?
I bubble wrap and then I wrap it with the stuff you can use instead of tape. Sort of a cling wrap. Then I have some of that corrugated cardboard and I wrap it some more in that. Then I use crinkled paper generally, like used newsprint to nest it in the box and hold it really securely. Depending on what it is I might use some of that corrugated cardboard rolled up to really hold it in place so it is not going to shift at all. I shove more paper in there. If it’s a big box I will skip over to peanuts instead of paper.
Have you ever calculated what the cost is for packaging one item?
No. I kind of don’t want to. It is like when I used to make a lot of small things and people would say, Don’t you think someone might steal those when they come to your open studio? I say, I don’t want to know. I hope they don’t. I don’t think they are and I am not going to count them because I don’t want to know if they did.
You are using the USPS. How do you get it to them? Are they coming to pick it up or you dropping it off?
Both. I live a ten minute walk to the post office. The big main, giant post office. So sometime I will just put it in these giant bags and throw it over my shoulder and that is my walk for the day. I have even gone there with a dolly. That whole thing where you call them and they come to you, that is new to me this year. I didn’t know you could do that and it’s free so I do that sometimes.
How do you calculate your postage? Do you do it online and how does that work?
Yes, I do. You have a click and ship account and I think you have to weigh and measure your boxes and then you just enter in the address and you can keep them in an address book. Then you print it on the computer and tape it on the box. Depends on the box. If I am shipping internationally I always do it on the computer because I can do the customs forms on there and it makes it easier. If I just had a web sale and I have a lot of boxes sometimes I will just drag them on over to the post office. I will drive over there and have them weigh and measure them.
I want to get a glimpse inside your studio. What is your favorite tool to use?
My favorite tools change all the time. I just got the Diamond Core scraffito tools and I really love those. What I especially love is that they are so sharp if I forgot to carve off one little detail I can do that after it has been bisque fired.
My last question for you is: What potters that are alive today do you love and would want to spend time with if you could?
Oh man! There are too many.
Okay. Give me two.
That is one of the things about Instagram is that I have all these friends from different parts of the world that I never get to see or very rarely get to see or hang out with, but I feel like I hang out with them inside my phone. I would love to pop in and see Karen who is Adrift Pottery in Wales. Adriana Christianson did come to visit me. Those are the first two that popped into my head but there are many more.
Book
Maiolica Italian Renaissance Ceramics
Contact:
gabrielleschaffnerceramics.com
Instagram: @gabrielle_schaffner