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Discovered! 505
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How to Make
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Small Business
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Selling her own ceramic pieces isn't exactly what this young mother expected to be doing when she signed up for a course in ceramics two years ago. "At that time I just felt the need of getting away from household chores once in a while," says Mrs. Green. "I'm as surprised as anyone else to find I'm in business today!"

What Mrs. Green did in order to relieve the tension and pressure of home duties was to engage a sitter for one afternoon a week to take care of her children, Anzie, age five, and Dickie, three, while she joined several other young mothers in taking pottery lessons from a talented artist in town. "After just one lesson," says Mrs. Green, "the pottery bug bit me hard. I wanted to make a career for myself in ceramics and made up my mind to learn the craft inside out."

Anne Green believes that ceramics ought to be studied under professional guidance. "Even a few lessons can save you a lot of painful headaches," she says. Instruction in ceramics is given by professional ceramic studios. Often the Y.W.C.A. provides class instruction at small cost. In addition to professional instruction Mrs. Green studied the techniques of established potters. She read magazines and books on the subject. She asked questions of everyone she knew in the business.

"Books are invaluable as a supplement to class instruction," says Mrs. Green. She recommends for beginners "Ceramic Handbook," a seventy-five-cent paperback book. "Another good book is 'Ceramics for All,' by J.A. Steward. It is worth a lot more than the $1 it sells for," says Mrs. Green. "Pottery in the Making," by John B. Kenney, is a real textbook and may be obtained at almost any public library.

MRS. GREEN does not pretend to be a large-scale ceramist. Because her primary concern is with her home, she still functions in a rather limited way. "I don't even have routine work hours," she says. "But now I do see to it that a sitter comes at least three times a week and takes the children out to play, during which time I work on my ceramics. Of course, whenever I have a free evening, I also work."

Although she has been selling ceramics for a year, Anne Green still considers herself new in the business field, and is quick to acknowledge that a home business has plenty of problems and trials. "When you work at your hobby professionally," says Mrs. Green, "you have to put your profits back into your business for at least the first six months. There is always new equipment to buy, and supplies cost money. The popular idea of the homeworker earning a handsome living overnight is a myth!" However, Mrs. Green believes that operating a little business in your home is a vitally interesting project; and she thinks more hobbyists should go in for it.

"With the children still so young," she says, "it is hard for me to find time to produce enough to make what you might call 'big' money; but the fact that I average about $2 per hour profit from the sale of my items, does, in my opinion, make the venture worthwhile."

But money isn't the only reward that comes from a home business like hers asserts Mrs. Green. She likes the fun of meeting people. She enjoys the thrill of filling special orders. And she thinks that creative work is a wonderful way to keep fit and alert and happy. "Perhaps I don't always get enough profit from a hard-to-make item—such as a lamp or large vase which uses a lot of material, fills the kiln, and takes several firings," she says. "But I like what I'm doing. And when the finished piece turns out to be something extra fine it gives me a big thrill. That's compensation!"

Besides selling her pieces from her home-studio, Mrs. Green now has them on display in an exclusive handcraft shop in New York City and in a gift shop in Wilton, Connecticut. Her items include piggy banks, out-sized coffee cups, ash trays, vases, flower pot holders, children's personalized mugs, plates, bowls, infant footprints and hand prints. The prices range in price from $1 to $10.

"I make so-called 'useful' things," says Mrs. Green. "Not knickknacks and figurines. Many of my things are children's items, perhaps because I can test these articles out first on my own two children. Besides, children's items seem to sell readily throughout the year; and everyone in business wants to make sales!"

LIKE MANY another hobbyist, Mrs. Green came upon her first sale quite by accident. A neighbor dropped in to watch her at work one day, and was attracted by the personalized drinking mug Mrs. Green was making for her daughter Anzie. "She wouldn't leave until I promised to make an identical mug for her little niece," recalls Mrs. Green. "Her obvious appreciation of what I was doing encouraged me to ask any visitor I had to look at my things. And I made a surprising number of sales!"

According to Mrs. Green, customers crop up from the most unexpected sources. "One of the moving men who delivered my new clothes dryer (being paid for by my pottery) noticed a wall plaque bearing the imprint of my daughter's hand," says Mrs. Green. "He liked it so much he's been back twice to place an order for similar plaques for his niece and nephew.

"Most hobbies can be expensive and ceramics is no exception. For that reason no one should think of going into ceramics without trying it out in a very small way in order to find out whether it is the career-hobby she wants. If you don't have any established craft groups offering lessons in your community, you'll find listed in the yellow pages of almost any telephone directory the names of many ceramic supply studios which will give instructions and supply materials and firing at a small cost to you. So, a beginner need invest only the price of clay, or greenware (castings made of slip and clay), studio time, a few jars of glazes and colors, brushes, and firing, in order to begin making ceramics. In money outlay, about $10. Anyone who simply wants to make Christmas presents, dishes for the house, figurines, etc., should start and stop here. Of course, the more you make the more it costs!

"A kiln of your own is a nice thing to have, but you don't really need a a kiln when you first begin making and selling ceramics. Most pottery studios will fire your handmade clay pieces. Then, too, until you become adept at modelling clay or making castings from molds you can buy greenware from commercial art studios and hobby shops. All you have to do is paint and glaze the greenware, have it fired, and presto! you have a piece of ceramic ware."

WHEN YOU start from scratch, and model your own designs, you should know that potter's clay must be bought at a supply shop—you just don't go into the back yard for it. The substance ordinarily used for ceramics is clay powder. To bring it to plastic form you simply add water to it until it becomes soft and pliable and holds any form in which it is molded. Softness beyond this point is excessive. If the clay is not used immediately, it must be placed in a crock with a cover, and a thoroughly moistened Turkish towel over it. Clay, once worked up, should never be permitted to dry out.

Anne Green's studio is now equipped with an electric kiln. She finds a hobby kiln (eleven-by-eleven-by-eleven inches) a practical size for the type items she makes. Such a kiln sells for about $100 and operates on 110 volts. She also has on hand a variety of molds, most of which she has made herself; others she purchased from commercial houses. In ceramics, a mold is a construction of plaster in which the object to be cast is formed; and by means of which identical copies may be reproduced. A simple mold consists of two pieces which fit together; but you can work with molds made up of several pieces.

"To make a mold is a tedious, time consuming job for a beginner," says Mrs. Green. "Before going into this end of the craft I think it is essential to take a few lessons in mold-making, so that the process can actually be seen." Until you learn how to make molds Mrs. Green suggests you buy ready-made molds from ceramic supply houses, hobby shops, or, perhaps, from an individual potter in your locality. Prices, of course, vary according to size and number of pieces in the mold. Simple molds can usually be obtained from $1 up.

Mrs. Green's Studio is well stocked with gallon jugs of slip which she uses for casting her pottery. Slip is a mixture of water and clay, thinned out to the consistency of cream. Many ceramic supply stores sell slip in the liquid form ready to pour. However, you may buy it in powder form in 100-pound bags to be mixed by you once you begin turning out castings in large quantities. An average formula is one quart of water to three pounds of powdered clay. To mix: slowly sprinkle clay into water, stirring it often. It may appear thick by the time all the clay has been added. But don't add any more water! Cover it, and stir again in a few hours. You will notice it is thinner. By the next day it should be thin enough to pour easily. Remember, slip should be kept in a covered container, in order to prevent a hard scum from forming on the surface.

A few other essentials necessary for the making of ceramics are paints, glazes, brushes, and cones. "Cones," explains Mrs. Green, "are used to permit measuring the temperature of your kiln. A cone is made to melt at a prescribed temperature and different cones are used for different temperatures. For instance, I use cone .08 for a bisque firing; .06 for glaze; and .018 for a gold or china overglaze paint firing."

ONE OF Anne Green's most popular items is the personalized drinking mug, bearing the original drawing of a child. Why not follow her directions and see what you can do with a similar piece? If you don't want to make a mug, you might reproduce a drawing on an ash tray or hot plate tile.

"In making the child's drinking mug," explains Mrs. Green, "I use a two-piece ready-made mold which may be purchased at a ceramic supply shop for about $2. From this mold you can make any number of mugs. Before pouring slip into the mold, you must make sure that the mold is held tightly together with heavy cord or a couple of wide elastic bands. Then pour the slip in a steady stream into the pour opening in the top of the mold, until it comes all the way to the top. If you pour evenly and slowly you will not be troubled by air bubbles. The slip will settle down a bit after a minute or two; and you'll then have to add more slip to the top again. The settling is a result of the moisture being absorbed into the plaster mold."

Mrs. Green now lets her mold stand for twenty minutes, at the end of which time she pours the surplus slip out of the top and back into the slip jar. This leaves a one-fourth-inch thick shell of clay in the shape of a mug adhering to the walls of the mold (formed by the process of the plaster mold's absorption of water from the slip that touches it.)

"Next, I stand the mold in such a way that the handle of the mug is pointed down," says Mrs. Green. "This allows any surplus slip to flow into the handle of the mug and thereby make it solid so that it may later be washed without any fluid flowing into a hollow handle. I leave the mold in this position for at least an hour—until the 'wet look' of the clay is gone. When the plaster has absorbed most of the moisture from the clay, the piece will loosen itself from the mold. It is time now to remove the cord or elastic bands which have held the mold together. Wedge a knife between the sections of the mold and gently pry them apart. Do this carefully, though, so that the tip of your knife will not mark the piece you have just cast. Remove the mug, handling it gingerly at this stage so that you will not mar its shape. It is not yet hard. The mug is then put aside to dry for two or three days, depending on the weather."

Because of this long drying process, Anne Green always pours several mugs at one time. This permits her to build up a stockpile from which she can fill an order without the delay of having to wait for a mug to dry.

WHEN THE mug is thoroughly dry it is regarded as a piece of greenware. Mrs. Green smooths the top and the seams, left where sections of the mold came together, with a knife and fine sandpaper. She then goes over the mug with a damp sponge (making sure the sponge is perfectly clean) in order to remove any of the scrapings from the sandpapering. Now the mug is ready to decorate.

Perhaps you'd prefer to try your luck on a commercial piece of greenware! If so, you'll have less manual work to do. As we mentioned earlier, you can purchase greenware at your local hobby shop; or by mail from advertisements you will find in magazines.

"To reproduce the child's drawing onto the mug," says Mrs. Green, "I first trace the picture as faithfully as I can, using regular tracing paper. Incidentally I sometimes have to cut down the size of the drawing a little—perhaps omitting a bird flying in the air, or a section of grass—so that the drawing will fit on a piece of paper that measures three-by-nine inches, the circumference of the mug. Next, with a very soft pencil, I black the back of the tracing paper. Then place the black side of the paper against the mug (you may hold it in place with Scotch tape) and carefully go over the lines of the traced drawing, using a hard pencil this time. The drawing is thus transfered to the mug."

The next step is to paint the picture you've just transferred to the greenware mug with under-glaze colors, matching as closely as possible the colors on the original drawing. Under-glaze comes in a wide assortment of colors and sells for from forty to sixty-five cents a jar. Mrs. Green warns that in ceramics, reds are hard to duplicate! The mug is now ready for the first of two firings.

Firing is done in a kiln. Mrs. Green points out that beginners who lack a kiln can easily find a commercial pottery somewhere in their locality which will accept ware for firing. Often vocational schools offer such a service; or, an individual potter. The cost of firing is usually only a few cents a cubic inch. If you do your own firing, you ought to know that the length of time required to fire your mug may be determined by placing cones in the kiln along with the pottery. As has been stated elsewhere in this article, these cones are made for varying degrees of temperature. On every glaze formula, the maturing temperature is always given in terms of these cones, so you'll be able to approximate your time. However, good firing takes plenty of experience.

After the first firing, the clay product of the mug is called bisque and it is hard and durable and white in color. And the colors on the drawing have been "set."

"Now," says Mrs. Green, "a transparent, prepared, over-glaze must be applied over the entire mug, inside and out. This glaze comes in a medium suitable for application by brush—the best method for the beginner. It may also be poured over the object, or the object may be dipped into the glaze. Glaze fuses into a glass-like surface over the clay body, making it non-porous. That is why it is essential that the inside of the mug be glazed—because it will be used as a container for liquids. An easy way of glazing the inside of a mug is to pour the glaze in, roll it around, and pour it out. It should be thinned a little with water for this operation. The mug must be fired for the second time before it is ready to be used."

"KNOWING HOW to make a piece of ceramics is no guarantee that you will sell it," says Mrs. Green. "Indeed, the making of a ceramic piece is almost the easiest part of the whole approach. You need a few other elements besides an ability to turn out an ash tray in order to sell that ash tray. Hard work, naturally, is one of these, but not sufficient in itself. Bernard Gimbel, head of one of the country's biggest department stores, explains it this way: 'Business is nothing more nor less than catering in one form or another to human wants.' So, what you've got to learn to do is to channel your talent into an outlet that your community needs."

Most handcrafts can be adopted to present-day fads. When you study the market to determine what sells, and why, you'll find that labor and skill expended on articles currently (or locally) in vogue produce results a great deal more acceptable—and profitable. To point it up sharply—crocheting edges for guest towels is not a money-making endeavor in this paper towel age. Crocheting straw place mats is a money-making possibility.

Anne Green's personalized drinking mug has proved to be a big seller because mothers, grandmothers, aunts all treasure a child's first drawing and want it preserved. As an added touch Mrs. Green paints across the bottom of the mug the child's full name, age, and the date on which the drawing was made. Most days Mrs. Green's mug may be seen in the window of Rabun Studios, an American handcrafts shop in New York City where it catches the approving eye of many a passer-by. Perhaps because displayed with the mug is the child's original drawing mounted on a piece of cardboard so that a prospective customer may see how closely Mrs. Green duplicates the drawing. The mug retails for $5.

"At first, sell through personal contacts," says Mrs. Green. "To your relatives, to your friends. This helps you catch on to what people like, and what they don't like."

THIS IS how Anne Green built up her business. She prepared a mailing list of friends, acquaintances, members of the woman's club, etc., and sent out an announcement card which she had made up by a commercial printer. This kind of announcement is more expensive to get out than just a government postal card on which you write your message. But it looks more professional and indicates that you are in business to stay. Mrs. Green selected a pale green card, with the message printed in black. She spent several days composing the wording for her announcement. She wanted it to stimulate even a languid customer's interest! She began with these words: "Christmas isn't the only time for giving . . . . " Then she went on to state the various occasions when a piece of ceramics makes an ideal gift. Such as: A new baby, a bridge party prize, a hostess gift, a new home. Or simply to pamper yourself.

Many home businesses fail because the women concerned know nothing about promoting sales. Mrs. Green believes that today, even the smallest home business needs some kind of advertising. But don't overlook the fact that in writing up an announcement, or a newspaper advertisement or a poster for window display, you need to use your imagination—and some hardheaded thinking. Keep in mind, too, that simplicity is the most effective weapon.

When you are ready for the plunge into commercial channels Mrs. Green recommends that you take a thorough "inventory" of the small shops in your locality that stock items similar to what you hope to sell. One of the worst of beginner's mistakes is to waste both time and effort by contacting an inappropriate market! Most shops take one-third to one-half off your price—so prepare yourself for this cut.

Competition is intense once you turn to shops! However, shopkeepers are always on the lookout for new talent and fresh ideas of high quality, and they will welcome you if you have what it takes and if you are willing to put as much effort and judgment into marketing your item as you do into creating it. Just a word of caution: If you sell to more than one store in your town, you must standardize your price and avoid competition among your accounts.

HOW DO you go about setting a price tag for your item? Deciding what to charge for any creative piece of work has always been a problem. "I base my prices on those charged by other ceramists who are selling commercially here in town," explains Mrs. Green. "The cost of materials used, plus the time it takes me to finish each piece, must, of course, enter into the picture. Another factor to consider is the originality and the unique charm of your piece."

A popular means of determining a price tag is to base your charges on the rule of thumb given out by the New York State Department of Commerce. Once you have a record of your costs and labor, they tell you to add ten per cent in case you ever wish to get wholesale orders, take these total costs and double them. You then have your retail price.

"Always try a top price first," suggests Mrs. Green. "It is always easier to cut your charge than to raise it. Every article has a top price at which it will sell and beyond which it cannot be moved. The difficulty every beginner runs into is knowing where this delicate point is, since it is determined by the law of supply and demand. Customer reaction is your only barometer."

Did you know that your state may be able to guide you in pricing and selling a handcraft? Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and many other states have well established crafts programs. Privileges for members of these craft enterprises include exhibition of your work at annual shows, contacts for sales, exchange of member's ideas. You'll find names and addresses of craft groups throughout the country in "Craftsmen & Handicraft Groups in the United States," a book assembled by May La Follette. It is available for reference at libraries of state colleges of agriculture as well as many public libraries, but is not for sale to the public.

"Recently," says Mrs. Green, "I had the opportunity to show some of my ceramics at the Arts and Crafts Exhibit held by the Hamilton and Wenham Community Service, Inc. This was a good chance to have my things seen by people from nearby towns and certainly opened my eyes to the advantages offered by craft shows. The beginner can make the first commercial stab at selling things through such shows, of which there must be a great number throughout the country. I know that I did very well at this show."

Once you've set up a little home business for yourself, you'll find that, it is necessary to keep records. In order to prepare a profit and loss statement you will need a listing of your sales and the cost of goods sold. The difference between these is your gross profit. From that you subtract operating expenses and the remainder is your net profit. Simple? Yes, if your bookkeeping is accurate, complete, and always up-to-date. You don't need an elaborate set of books. You do need a few order and sales books which you can buy at your dime store. And—write down every order. Don't trust your memory! Write down to whom you sold, where it was sent, what the item was, and how much it sold for.