Mary Richmond Design

Updated My Website

I have been working on my website all day. Funny thing about the internet. Years ago I started my own website. Then I sort of forgot about the website when I started the blog. Then I got active over on Etsy. Now I'm back to working on the website.

I suddenly realized my website was about everything and nothing. I have taken everything off it except my tile work. I get a lot of hits every day looking for tiles but very little follow through. It's not hard to know why when I looked at the website. I was showing about 2 tiles....

So here's what I'd like you to do. Please look at my website and comment and make suggestions, email me, whatever. I'm using a template so the overall design can be tinkered with but not too much. For a while I had it in black but it was too hard to read. I will be updating my photos over the next few weeks, too, but any suggestions are welcome.

You can find the website here.

Ceramic Tile Update

Lately I have been receiving phone calls and emails from folks who would like me to make and paint some tiles for them. One woman has my tiles in her bedroom fireplace and is adding on and would I.....another woman did her kitchen with my tiles in 1994 and has had a water disaster in her home and must redo her kitchen and could I possibly....and yet another woman is a designer I have worked with for years who needs some help pulling together a Delft theme in a kitchen and could I just this once....

And what did I say???? Of course I will!

I am no longer selling tile through wholesalers who don't get what I do....I am no longer doing tile for people who are, shall we say, so entitled they forget to be nice....I cannot do tile for people who cannot be patient for I have a full time job.....

But I can and will do tile for special folks in times of special needs......

When Tiles Are Fun

It's been a while since I posted a picture of my tiles but today I went to deliver a few tiles to this home and had a chance to photograph the kitchen and fireplace I did there this summer. Tile commissions always seem to take a long time. There's the meeting with the client, the first stage of the design, the next meeting with the client, the approval of the design and then the tiles must be made, dried, cleaned and bisque fired before being painted and glazed and refired. Then they get delivered and approved, the tile installer must come to install them and then come back to grout them and well, you're starting to get the picture.

I'm always amazed at the two day projects accomplished on HGTV because my projects sure take longer than that!

These tiles are what I call my Cape Cod Fossil Tiles and have sea horses, shells and sea stars impressed in the wet clay. After the bisque firing I wash them with several colors of underglaze to give them a watercolor effect. After they are dry they get several coats of clear glaze and are fired again.

This kitchen is in a summer home and is almost completely white so the owner wanted something colorful and beachy and yes, a little Cape Coddy, so voila!

The reason I was at this home was to deliver 2 tiles to be fitted into the top row of the fireplace. You can see where they are missing in this photo. After several somewhat panicky calls from the homeowner I was able to work things out with the tile installer and all is well. I brought along a nice handpainted tile with a cork back she can use as a trivet as a little gift to help ease her unhappiness and I have to say all worked out quite nicely. She loves the tiles in both the kitchen and the living room and I will go back to photograph the finished piece in the next few weeks. These tiles are from my Cape Cod Delft series and have a somewhat floral corner design in cobalt blue.

Thanks to all who wrote comments and sent me emails about my decision (or lack thereof) about my tile business.

I've decided to not give it up but to not actively market and pursue it either. I'm just going to let it do its organic ongoing thing. Right now I have three tile orders on my order board and another on the way. None are big but all will make a nice contribution to my travel fund/ IRA. That's what I've decided to do with the money I make from my tiles so it's still a business but not what I expect to support me. This way it is fun and I can take the jobs I want. I have contracts in place to use for every order and I think this past year of errors has taught me alot about myself and my work habits. I've been overbooked and overwrought and it's been showing.

Most importantly, I've learned to not overpromise and underdeliver. By the way, the paper that gave up all its freelancers has just taken my column back so that's pretty cool too.

Raku today!

What's one of my favorite things to do on a beautiful day? Raku with my friend and potter extraordinaire, Diane Heart.

Two other potters joined us today and we had a splendid time loading and unloading kilns, getting smoke in our eyes and noses and scrubbing down our finished pots and tiles.

Tiles are interesting to Raku because they want to bend and crack. Of course this isn't anything I want them to do so right away there's a nice little conflict going on. I have to sort of go to the Zen place with this and since this is Raku, that's a pretty good place to be.

These are some of my tiles drying after they've been glazed. I use a white low fire clay and the Raku glazes I used today are copper sand and copper penny with a touch of Higby blue here and there for accent.

I was hoping for black to happen and it did to some degree but on others barely at all. I also had quite a bit of cracking today, more than usual, which was sort of not fun, if you know what I mean.

These 4" tiles will be used in wall pieces put together sort of like tile collages.

Here's the kiln firing its first load and the barrels all stocked with sawdust and newspaper ready for their first load.

Here's me with a face full of smoke as I prepare to put a tile into a barrel full of paper that will light as soon as it touches.

There it goes!!! A cover was put on very quickly after this shot.

After cooling awhile the pots and tiles get put in cool water which shocks them, causes the glazes to really stand up and take notice and then they get scrubbed up a bit to polish them off.

Part of all our potter meetings is a nice pot luck spread and today's was no different. We all had brought garden goodies and Diane's lovely pottery made it all look wonderful.

 

By the end of the day we all had lots of cool pots and tiles. Even the broken ones were pretty cool in their own ways.

A great way to spend a day, especially if you're a potter!

You can see more Raku shots here on my Flickr site.

Catching Up on Overdue Work

One thing that happened this summer was that my move got put on a big, big hold due to my working full time, writing 5 or 6 articles a week and doing a few tile jobs on top of all the usual family and friend commitments. I am still unpacking boxes and as I am finally getting around to setting up a studio once again I am finding all sorts of unfinished projects that need attending to.

In the plastic bag are tiles that were ripped out of a kitchen I worked on years ago. The house was destroyed by interior flooding and the owner would like the tiles redone. They dropped off the tiles but we have not communicated in months. I think there are blank tiles, too, but I don't have the tiles to paint on so we are at a standstill (these are on customer supplied tiles, not my hand made tiles).

In the tote are some unfinished little sculptures that should have been delivered to a shop back in May. The yellow bowls are color samples for wall tiles I was to do for someone's kitchen and the wooden sign was supposed to be finished back in May as well.

There are other unfinished projects as well. At the moment they are all lined up on my desk. I've been making calls and surprisingly everyone's pretty cool. I'm very lucky they are so patient. They all say they, too, have had a busy summer but if I could finish the work now, that would be great.

This is a great example of what NOT to do in business. Of course I lost some sales by not having my sculptures in a shop this summer and I will lose sales this fall since I can't take on more work until I've finished the work I'm already committed to.

Several weeks ago Alyson Stanfield suggested all artists should underpromise and overdeliver. She said many of us do exactly the opposite and I know I for one am one of those. I overpromise and underdeliver.

From now on everything goes on a calendar in the studio and gets done on the day assigned to it. As I mentioned yesterday, I have a tendency to over commit myself. I think it's time to get real, both with my time and my energy as well as my commitments.

Showing this picture of forgotten and unfinished work is embarrassing but maybe it will help someone else take a good long look at their own work habits and then it will at least have been useful as well.

Etsy Update

Over the next few weeks I'll be selling off lots of the small things I had in my shop. These ceramic mosaic pieces are hand cut, hand cleaned, bisque fired, hand painted in underglazes, glazed and fired again. I did a whole bunch of them for some projects I was working on and these are some of the leftovers. I just listed them over at my Etsy shop. I'll be adding cards and prints and other things over there as the days go by. Please check it out here.

Paying Attention to Promotional Materials is Key

Just before I closed my shop in April I had been hard at work designing new promotional materials for my custom ceramic tile business. This is a picture of the latest brochure which I am using to send to designers and tile shops. It has photos of installations and murals and invites people to my website. It is sent in a package with small sample tiles and several other brochures showing more photos of murals and individual tiles.

If you read this blog regularly you know I took a full time job as I was closing my shop in April. This meant I spent very little time on my tile business at all and actually spent very little time thinking about it. As of last week my job became part time and I can once again focus on the tile business. Although I closed my shop I never intended to shut down the business. I just needed some time to reconsider what direction I was going to head in next.

I have had a ceramic tile design business since 1979 and it's a funny thing. It has a life of its own. I tried to leave the business in 1995 but people still found me. When I opened my shop in Mashpee Commons three years ago I thought I would give the tile business another shot at going full time, especially since it seemed to be picking up some speed again. The truth is that it is not a full time business. It's a dribble here and a dribble there, enough to qualify as a very small business, maybe even a micro micro business. It's fun, it's simple, it's interesting and I always think it could do better. And I always wonder if I want it to do better. Making tile is very labor intensive and hard on my arms, wrists and shoulders. I can hire people to do it but they never do it with the same attention I do and it's discouraging.

What's encouraging is that the tile business just keeps on humming, even without me. With virtually no attention, no marketing, no thought whatsoever, the tile business hummed along this summer even while I was doing other things. People find me. They find me through word of mouth, an old ad or through the internet. Some, like the last two calls I had, were former clients who are either building new homes or renovating that wanted to incorporate more of my tile. None of these are big jobs. None will pay my mortgage. But they do pay for themselves and for some other things so I keep on going. I'm not sure how big or small I want this business to be and I think that's always been my problem.

Although all my work is custom my clients have always wanted to see a brochure. This little black and white one was the first I ever designed in 1980 or thereabouts. It was before the computer was commonly being used and was drawn with black ink on blue graph paper (because the blue ink didn't show in the printing process!) It was hand written and believe it or not, I sold a lot of tiles with this little brochure.

I had (and still have) a separate price list and information sheet. I also have portfolios that go out to the tile stores that represent me and one I carry around with me.

   This next brochure was huge step for me. It was done with a printing company in Rhode Island and my husband and I schlepped all the tiles down there for a day long shoot. It took weeks to get printed and I think I paid about $1000 for about 1000 copies, a pretty good price in those days. This was probably done around 1984.

There were two others in between, both of which I still use but they are packed up somewhere. I'll put them up when I find them.

This was the last brochure I had professionally printed and I still use it. It is a 4 page brochure and has been very useful over the years I've had it.

I also had a postcard done at the same time which has been very convenient to use as a handout.

The next few shots are of the same brochure, different pages.

This is the center panel, showing the border designs I offer as well as the different color palettes. The color printing was not what I hoped for on these pages but was close enough to work well. The tile business is one that uses actual samples way more than pictures so clients use these as introductory materials as they plan their projects.

This last page has always gotten a lot of interest from lookers but very few actual sales. It has occasioned a lot of talk, however, that has lead to other interesting work over the years.

As I look back at all these brochures I know it is time to upgrade and update my materials.

Yet, these still work. They are something the client takes home. At the shop they look at the portfolio, the actual tile panels and samples or go to my website for more information.

Right now I am putting most of my attention into updating my portfolio. Up to now my portfolio has been a big looseleaf notebook with lots of photos from jobs I've done over my 28 years in business. My new portfolio is being put together on the computer and I am hoping to have it bound as a book. I know there are places out there that do this with photos so I just need to do a little homework. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to suggest away!

These are the first pages of the portfolio I am putting together. They include some basic information about me, the business and the tile making process.

This is just a beginning but I had to start somewhere. It's interesting blogging about this but I am open to comments, suggestions, etc.

Last year I redesigned the package I sent out to designers and when I was doing that I took a bunch of idea samples to my goal setting group meeting and we looked at all of them, talked it over and I ended up having a great sample package to send out that brought in some really great business.

I'm still working on my goal setting for the end of the year. As someone who juggles a custom tile business with freelance writing, illustration and painting as well as working partime as a naturalist/educator, planning and goal setting are more than a little interesting. Sometimes putting my day together is like putting together a giant floor puzzle.....on too small a floor! And I wouldn't trade any of it for anything!

Perfect Raku Day

For the last few weeks I have marked a day on my calendar to go do a Raku firing with my friend, Diane Heart of Diane Heart Pottery in Brewster. One day we even got so far as to get everything glazed and ready to go into the kiln but when we went out to the kiln enclosure it was just too windy. If you are wondering why wind would matter just think fire and how quickly wind can move it along....

Today dawned bright and sunny and the forecast was for a mild day with little wind until afternoon so we decided to go for it.

Diane and I discovered a few years ago that we are very compatible doing raku firings for my tiles don't take up a lot of shelf space and her vessels fill out the firing for my tiles. We get an amazing number of pieces out of each firing. This shot is of the kiln loaded up with glazed pieces just before the cover was put on.

Raku is an ancient form of firing pottery and is very dynamic. It is somewhat predictable but the real fun is in the unpredictable results that sometimes conspire and mingle and create a truly memorable piece.

We got our share of wonderful pieces today. We got a few duds, too, but for the most part it was an incredibly productive and fun day. Not only did we get some great work out of the day but had a chance to catch up with each other and hang out in the sun on the first really nice day we've been able to get outside and enjoy.

This is one of my favorite pieces from today. I posted a lot of photos from the day over on my Flickr site, including pictures of work we made and pictures documenting the process. You can see the photos by clicking here.

Studio Projects, Kiln firing and Grammy's

Busy weekend in the studio. I had a few pet ornaments and tiles to do for people who wanted them as Valentine's gifts, such as these. I think my total contribution for the MSPCA through the sale of these is now at about $1400.

This little spaniel apparently always has this blue ball in its mouth and the owners wanted it painted this way. Dogs are so funny with the things they do. My dog likes to growl when she walks around with her treat ball in her mouth. It's a "I think you should play with me right now," sort of growl and she's pretty funny about it.

I finished the little portrait heads I've been working on. I am really not a portrait artist and don't think these look exactly like the kids but I think they each have enough of an essence to be ok. I did the family dog, too.

In order to have these ready to be glazed today I had to dry them out in a warm kiln last night, which was a bit stressful. We watched the Grammy Awards while I was going back and forth to the studio to check on their progress. The pieces are so uneven and undoubtedly full of air bubbles that I was nervous one or more might blow up, as ceramic pieces can do if they are fired too quickly.

I'm a Dixie Chick fan and bought this latest CD the day it came out so had a great time watching them win their awards. I'm not big on award shows but the Grammy's are always fun because of all the music performances. By the time the show was over, the pieces were pretty dry and I left them with the timer set for another 2 hours before I went to bed. This morning they are intact and dry and ready to be glazed and fired. Hopefully all will go well and they will be ready for delivery tomorrow. I am posting more pictures of the individual pieces over on Flickr.

When a Kiln Betrays You...

Snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow morning and I think we're all a little excited around here. The weather people are grinning from ear to ear, the plow guys are getting their trucks and gear ready and everyone's talking about it. Now, you have to realize we might get 2-4", which is not really a lot of snow, but in a winter that has felt more like a spring or fall, it's a big event. We've had a few dustings but nothing that has really stuck around, nothing that has even looked pretty and certainly nothing that has kept anyone home from school or work. This may close schools since it's supposed to be worst in the morning but most of us will just postpone morning appointments to the afternoon, when it's supposed to have blown out of town. I would love a good snow day myself but I don't think this is going to be it.

Here you can see the moon through the tree branches even though the sun isn't completely done setting. The clouds all have a rosy glow and the air smells and feels like snow.

Instead of taking a day off today I took a day at home to play catch up. Since I live above the studio and shop here at Mashpee Commons that meant I could work a little there, too. The tile order I've been working for should have been packed and shipped this afternoon. One tile....just one tile....didn't fire properly so I had to redo it and refire the kiln so I can hopefully ship tomorrow. I am now two days behind on shipping the order. It's not too big a deal as they have time on the other end but I hate telling someone I'll ship on Monday only to have the kiln take too long to cool down and then promise Tuesday only to have one of the tiles come out damaged....it's discouraging. And not unexpected in work like this. I do everything I can to minimize misfirings but every now and then, something happens. I have one tile in the midst of 40 full of pinholes. None of the other tiles have them, just this one. And I don't mean a few, I mean full of pinholes. Unacceptable. Nothing to do but redo it and hope for the best. I often bargain with the kiln or the kiln goddess as some would have it. This is one of those times.

This morning I took a long walk at the Ryder Conservation Area in Sandwich. It was very cold but the sun was just coming up and the light was beautiful, touched with gold coming through the trees. I took the dog and we walked one of the longer trails down around the ridge and along the pond, back up another ridge and so on for over an hour. Only a few birds were calling; some titmice, chickadees and one very loud Carolina wren. A woodpecker was hammering in the distance but other than that it was very quiet. The dusting of snow contrasted nicely with the rich rust of the fallen beech leaves and the exposed roots of the trees as I headed up and down hills. This area is full of American holly and as I rounded a corner I came upon a huge flock of robins taking their fill of holly berries. Later along the same path a small flock of cedar waxwings was helping themselves to berries as well. I gathered some leaves, an old oak gall and a chewed up pine cone to draw for this week's illustration of my Weekly Nature Watch column in the Enterprise papers.

I love to draw the wrinkled and decaying shapes that nature leaves us in pine cones, shells, old twigs and bones. There's something wonderfully organic and comforting in all of it, something sad and yet wondrous, too, about all that cycling and recycling, living and dying and nurturing the next generation with one's own decay....and I find great beauty in the twists and turns nature leaves behind.