American Bonsai Potters

[thams]

I hope you aren't upset with me for not getting back in touch with you about a write-up.

Truth, I feel what you have put together is so great, I've been stalling for of whenever sales stall.

Hope you've been well!

Sorce

I'm not upset at all! It's hard to keep up with regular life, which is why I've slipped on the website as well.

I think there's a lot more I can do with the website to make it more useful and interesting. It needs a facelift and some better search functionality - maybe by geographic location since city searches turn up a lot in the site analytics. It could also be a better platform to drive sales for potters as well. Most people who comment are trying to reach the potter to purchase pots, but can't find contact info outside of my website.

 

[Vin]

Hi everyone, after a long hiatus from b-nut and my American potters website, I've finally decided to get back into updating the website. I know I need to update some potters' info and add to the list with folks who aren't yet included.

Aside from a brief bio on each potter, their signatures or chops, and examples of work, is there any other information that would be helpful to include? Would more extended blog-type posts for potters be cool to read about? Virtual studio tours? Interviews? Videos or pictures showing how various potters make their pots? Kiln firing stuff? Glaze formulation?

I'm open to any suggestions and criticism!

Thanks for what you've done. I use the site all the time.

 

[thams]

Thanks for what you've done. I use the site all the time.

I appreciate that. Sometimes when working on a project like this you wonder if folks are even looking at it or find it useful. I think it can be substantially improved, but I plan to keep the core purpose of the website the same.

 

[ABCarve]

Given that the majority of potters listed don’t have a website (including me) it would be nice if there was a means of contact for potential buyers. I don’t know how you do this without listing emails and the like, exposing those to massive spam attacks. Thank you for what you’ve done so far. It’s been helpful and I refer people to it often.

 

[thams]

Given that the majority of potters listed don’t have a website (including me) it would be nice if there was a means of contact for potential buyers. I don’t know how you do this without listing emails and the like, exposing those to massive spam attacks. Thank you for what you’ve done so far. It’s been helpful and I refer people to it often.

Yeah, publishing contact info can be risky. I've been exploring different ways to get potential buyers in contact with potters directly. I don't like being the middle man in getting potential buyers in contact with potters. It bottlenecks sales and slows down the buying process. I've had a few potters ask if I'd be willing to sell pots through drop-shipping directly from the potter. I'm not looking to get into that at this point and it would reduce profit for the potters, which is counter to why I set up the website in the first place. I'll keep thinking on it, but I appreciate that you find the website useful!

 

[LittleDingus]

I appreciate that. Sometimes when working on a project like this you wonder if folks are even looking at it or find it useful. I think it can be substantially improved, but I plan to keep the core purpose of the website the same.

I assume one of the goals of your site is connecting artists with c
Potential clients? I've come across your website several times when trying to find a potter to commission for a special project. I ended up finding a potter for that project through Etsy.

Why?

3 reasons, I think.

1) I knew something of the style I was after but nothing of potters. On Etsy, I could easily flip through pages of pots picking ones in the style I liked. After a bit of this one starts to recognize the styles of various potters and generally one or two potters rise up as providing the style of interest.

There are quite a large number of potters on your sight...which is awesome! But paging through individual artists to see their wares wasn't quite the same. On Etsy I could query by keywords like unglazed to narrow down. I could also favorite pots I liked to quickly find them again.

2) Once I found a potter or two that I liked on Etsy, their stores provided a general range of prices to expect.

As an only occasional purchaser of art, this is a major source of trepidation for me contacting someone it never bothers me what price an artist charges for their wares. What bothers me is I know some art is out of my affordability range. I don't ant to insult an artist or waste anyone's time by asking for a commission I can only spend X on when the artist generally charges Y.

3) Some of the dates on your site were several years old and it wasn't clear to me if the potter was still active and, if so, are they taking commissions??

Anyway...I'm not sure if I was using your site for the intended purpose, but thems my thoughts I do have a couple of more pots I'd like to commission later this year that I haven't found an artist for yet so I may end up back on your site. This time I want some carving work done which is less popular to find on Etsy...

 

[LittleDingus]

Given that the majority of potters listed don’t have a website (including me) it would be nice if there was a means of contact for potential buyers. I don’t know how you do this without listing emails and the like, exposing those to massive spam attacks. Thank you for what you’ve done so far. It’s been helpful and I refer people to it often.

As an occasional seller of wares (woodworking) I keep a special email just for sales contacts. It's a pain to remember to check...but it keeps the spam out if my personal account.

I do often switch the buyer to my personal account after contact...which I suppose opens up the spam risk again, but my volume is so low I've yet to have it be a problem.

Just a suggestion. Yours are some of the pots I've seen on BNut that I really like. I've been looking for an excuse to reach out for something of yours but I don't know where to go to see your inventory and I don't have anything worth commissioning for (unless maybe if you carve?) at the moment

 

[thams]

I assume one of the goals of your site is connecting artists with c
Potential clients? I've come across your website several times when trying to find a potter to commission for a special project. I ended up finding a potter for that project through Etsy.

Why?

3 reasons, I think.

1) I knew something of the style I was after but nothing of potters. On Etsy, I could easily flip through pages of pots picking ones in the style I liked. After a bit of this one starts to recognize the styles of various potters and generally one or two potters rise up as providing the style of interest.

There are quite a large number of potters on your sight...which is awesome! But paging through individual artists to see their wares wasn't quite the same. On Etsy I could query by keywords like unglazed to narrow down. I could also favorite pots I liked to quickly find them again.

2) Once I found a potter or two that I liked on Etsy, their stores provided a general range of prices to expect.

As an only occasional purchaser of art, this is a major source of trepidation for me contacting someone it never bothers me what price an artist charges for their wares. What bothers me is I know some art is out of my affordability range. I don't ant to insult an artist or waste anyone's time by asking for a commission I can only spend X on when the artist generally charges Y.

3) Some of the dates on your site were several years old and it wasn't clear to me if the potter was still active and, if so, are they taking commissions??

Anyway...I'm not sure if I was using your site for the intended purpose, but thems my thoughts I do have a couple of more pots I'd like to commission later this year that I haven't found an artist for yet so I may end up back on your site. This time I want some carving work done which is less popular to find on Etsy...

Interesting! I really appreciate your thoughts. It's helpful to know how users intend to use the site - what works and what doesn't. I created the site to generally increase exposure for potters that might otherwise not have a platform to showcase their work. Many artists have a love/hate relationship with Etsy and other sales platforms, so many try other routes to sell their work. I'll consider adding searchable tags to artists indicating what they specialize in and whether they take commissions.

The post dates are a problem. It's largely a function of using wordpress as the site builder. Perhaps it's too in the weeds to explain, but I'm planning to convert the post (artist profiles) to pages. This will eliminate the post date, which will be less confusing to users as to the recency of the information. I'll then use the dated posts to write articles that may be interesting to some people (blog-type posts). I'm still considering the new structure of the site. I don't want to sacrifice the usefulness of the site with the new structure, so I'm going slow and considering everything before making changes.

 

[LittleDingus]

Interesting! I really appreciate your thoughts. It's helpful to know how users intend to use the site - what works and what doesn't. I created the site to generally increase exposure for potters that might otherwise not have a platform to showcase their work. Many artists have a love/hate relationship with Etsy and other sales platforms, so many try other routes to sell their work. I'll consider adding searchable tags to artists indicating what they specialize in and whether they take commissions.

The post dates are a problem. It's largely a function of using wordpress as the site builder. Perhaps it's too in the weeds to explain, but I'm planning to convert the post (artist profiles) to pages. This will eliminate the post date, which will be less confusing to users as to the recency of the information. I'll then use the dated posts to write articles that may be interesting to some people (blog-type posts). I'm still considering the new structure of the site. I don't want to sacrifice the usefulness of the site with the new structure, so I'm going slow and considering everything before making changes.

I get the whole love hate Etsy thing...ebay 15 years later

I rarely put anything on Etsy myself unless I'm really trying to get rid of it. I know others that put limited old stock on Etsy but everything else on their own website. You can't promote your site through Etsy, but you can let Etsy promote your wares then include cards to your website when people buy. You sacrifice a little bit of commission but gain a wider audience: which really is what Etsy _claims_ it's business model is. They can't force you to put ALL your wares in your shop though I found a couple sellers that way and now exclusively purchase from them direct...though I continue to browse they Etsy shops...

The power places like Etsy have is they have the resources to satisfy buyers. They do so at the expense of the seller while all the while claiming not to. But it is just so damned convenient for the consumer to browse Etsy (Amazon, Ebay, etc...) and see a crapton of wares and click a button...

 

[Owen Reich]

Very happy to see this resource among others emerge. I use the North American potters resource and others often as I buy collections. Got some new signatures for ya at some point.

As for contacting a potter for commission, some hate and others love. Can’t hurt to hit someone up on a messenger and and type up something to share with a given artist. It’s not advisable to ask 5 potters for one design and get them all going only to buy one (it happens). Don’t think you’ll do that, but it needs to be mentioned.

Establishing a bonsai ceramics history for those who make bonsai pots outside Asia is a pretty big deal; both for hobbiests to know what they may have acquired and for tracking down a maker to get more pots from them. Just saw some locally made containers yesterday that are close to show quality and the guys only on his first year.

Something like the EU potters collective could happen here, but there was a ton of work behind it. Possible for sure, especially with the sheer lack of exhibitions and increase in bonsai popularity.

Looking forward to @William N. Valavanis ’s National Exhibition and Winter Silhouette events this year with serious anticipation. An extra year to commission containers and prepare the trees......

The 2018 National Exhibition was a solid indicator of the level of quality in North American Bonsai, and a tangible point of reference for what’s possible with your own trees with time, work, and investing in worthy display elements that match the quality of the bonsai. Having lived and worked in the Japanese bonsai scene, my in-person point of reference for what is possible is different. If you can go to the National Show just to see the exhibition, it’s well worth it.

Hope the pottery database needs consistent expansion and updates for all the new potters taking the arguably risky endeavor of full-time ceramicists.

 

[thams]

Very happy to see this resource among others emerge. I use the North American potters resource and others often as I buy collections. Got some new signatures for ya at some point.

As for contacting a potter for commission, some hate and others love. Can’t hurt to hit someone up on a messenger and and type up something to share with a given artist. It’s not advisable to ask 5 potters for one design and get them all going only to buy one (it happens). Don’t think you’ll do that, but it needs to be mentioned.

Establishing a bonsai ceramics history for those who make bonsai pots outside Asia is a pretty big deal; both for hobbiests to know what they may have acquired and for tracking down a maker to get more pots from them. Just saw some locally made containers yesterday that are close to show quality and the guys only on his first year.

Something like the EU potters collective could happen here, but there was a ton of work behind it. Possible for sure, especially with the sheer lack of exhibitions and increase in bonsai popularity.

Looking forward to @William N. Valavanis ’s National Exhibition and Winter Silhouette events this year with serious anticipation. An extra year to commission containers and prepare the trees......

The 2018 National Exhibition was a solid indicator of the level of quality in North American Bonsai, and a tangible point of reference for what’s possible with your own trees with time, work, and investing in worthy display elements that match the quality of the bonsai. Having lived and worked in the Japanese bonsai scene, my in-person point of reference for what is possible is different. If you can go to the National Show just to see the exhibition, it’s well worth it.

Hope the pottery database needs consistent expansion and updates for all the new potters taking the arguably risky endeavor of full-time ceramicists.

I appreciate your insight Owen - I really value your opinion considering the experience you have. I was just looking at Alex's site yesterday and wondering what it would take to start curating pots in the same way he's managed to do. I think it's a worthy exercise and would certainly elevate American bonsai in general if it was executed properly. It would require a bit more upfront capital to get rolling, but I'm already 4 years into this thing, so why not take it to the next level?

I welcome any and all pottery signature photos, photos of pottery, potter information, potential leads. I don't mind reaching out to folks personally if I have a name and a way to contact them. I've reached out to many potters that were on the fence about being featured on the site (granted this was a while ago). I can understand the hesitation with all the scams and whatnot. Since the site has been around for a while I'm hoping that more potters will start reaching out to be included. I don't mind passing along my email address to anyone who wants it.

As I begin attending more shows post-COVID, I'd like to start photographing American pottery being exhibited. It would be cool to see the same pots make appearances year after year in different shows. Will certain pots eventually become American bonsai treasures similar to famous Japanese pots? Who knows - maybe in my lifetime, maybe not. I think there are MANY worthy pots being produced here in the states though. I own a few really nice pots from Roy and Steve Ziebarth that really should be displayed in shows. I have zero show worthy trees, so I've always wondered about reaching out to see if anyone would be interested in showing trees in them - sort of like a pottery loan I guess. I love looking at them on the shelf, but they really deserve to be shown.

 

[0soyoung]

Given that the majority of potters listed don’t have a website (including me) it would be nice if there was a means of contact for potential buyers. I don’t know how you do this without listing emails and the like, exposing those to massive spam attacks. Thank you for what you’ve done so far. It’s been helpful and I refer people to it often.

I understand this concern, but businesses cope with it every day. I think one could simply create an email account for your business - say, formedceramics@yahoo.com, as an example.

Most ISPs basic services (e.g., Xfinity, Ziply, Wave) offer one the option to create multiple email accounts/addresses (6?). An account with the cloud guys (e.g. Gmail, MS Outlook, Yahoo!) is usually free and doesn't chain your business to your ISP.

EZPZ, I think.

 

[sorce]

I think it would be easy to open seperate pages on your site, that individual potters are allowed editorial control over, where they could sell their pots directly. It may be a slight pain to individualize their payment methods, PayPal, Stripe, Square, blah blah blah.

Without the headache, and fees of opening an actual site, I would consider paying you half for maintaining it, domain, and hosting fees pretty fair, which could make it a decent side hustle, that would definitely make it an entirely different, but highly worthwhile resource.

You technically wouldn't have to do anything once it's setup, except answer questions from people who can't figure it out, but we're potters, we'll figure it out!

I think it's an excellent resource, it seems like it's asking to be a purchase platform.

I think it would be a fabulous venture.

Sorce

 

[thams]

I think it would be easy to open seperate pages on your site, that individual potters are allowed editorial control over, where they could sell their pots directly. It may be a slight pain to individualize their payment methods, PayPal, Stripe, Square, blah blah blah.

Without the headache, and fees of opening an actual site, I would consider paying you half for maintaining it, domain, and hosting fees pretty fair, which could make it a decent side hustle, that would definitely make it an entirely different, but highly worthwhile resource.

You technically wouldn't have to do anything once it's setup, except answer questions from people who can't figure it out, but we're potters, we'll figure it out!

I think it's an excellent resource, it seems like it's asking to be a purchase platform.

I think it would be a fabulous venture.

Sorce

I'd have to really look into that. Wordpress functionality might not allow for that kind of thing without sharing admin rights to the whole site. Plus using Wordpress isn't all that intuitive, so potters would have to learn the ropes to editing their pages on top of maintaining their sales and inventory.

BUT! I hate coming up with excuses about why something won't work - I'm sure there's a solution, I just have to find it. There could be a separate, but linked sales page that visitors can hop over to for purchasing. It would have to figure out taxes and likely register as a business at that point, but it's doable with a little leg work. I imagine it would be a lot like drop shipping since I wouldn't be maintaining the inventory or doing the actual shipping.

I like the idea of gathering very curated pots that are unique or high end to sell that really showcases potters' talents. Like maybe do special write-ups on pots that are unique creations.

 

[RH-W]

Brian Soldano is making some great pots.

 

[thams]

Brian Soldano is making some great pots.

Yep, and he's a good dude to boot. I'm especially a fan of his crescent pots.

 

[Carol 83]

Brian Soldano is making some great pots.

Absolutely, the first nice pots I bought were from him, after some Chuck Iker pots. Most of the pictures were lost when my old computer died, but here are a couple from him.

 

[Pitoon]

@thams I suppose you can add me once I get my pots glazed. My focus is on mame/shohin sized pots.
My chop is my avatar or just the hummingbird.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[thams]

@thams I suppose you can add me once I get my pots glazed. My focus is on mame/shohin sized pots.
My chop is my avatar or just the hummingbird.

I'll keep you posted.

Yep, I would very much like to include you. Reach out out whenever you'd like and we'll get it squared away. There are a few members that I need to contact here about being included.

 

[Sekibonsai]

There is also Josh Jeram and myself.