Nan Rothwell Pottery

I’m looking forward to next weekend’s Virginia Clay Festival in Stanardsville, VA.  The Festival is open 10 am to 5 pm on September 18 & 19.  I’ll be doing a demo on making wheel-thrown  chickens and fish on Sunday at 1 pm.

Here are some pots from my two recent firings that I will have at the Festival.  The sixth photo includes Lauren, my wonderful new marketing manager, who will be at the Festival with me.

Lauren has created a new Etsy Shop for my pots, plus she is managing my existing Square Online Store.  Now that she is managing that entire part of my process, I am free to do the fun stuff = making, glazing and firing pots.  It feels like pottery heaven!

I’ve pulled back from in-person teaching for now – at least until Covid subsides.  But TeachinArt is still offering my Online Course – Take Your Throwing to the Next Level.  My contact with TeachinArt students is an ongoing pleasure.

I’m looking for someone to sell my pottery for me. I’ve been potting for 50+ years, and while I still enjoy making new work, I have lost interest in marketing it. Ideally, I will find someone who is willing to take on that part of the process, in exchange for 50% of the price, leaving me free to just keep producing pottery. I’m posting this here, hoping my pottery friends and customers will pass it along to anyone you know who might be interested.

Here is how I imagine it might work. I will set retail prices on the pots, and then once the work sells, my marketing person will send me 50% of that amount. I want someone to pick up work from my studio in downtown Charlottesville, and be responsible for all the marketing from that point forward – e.g., photographing, describing, posting, selling and shipping. Since I already have a lot of time and effort sunk into my online store, my new marketing partner is welcome to start by using that site. But there are plenty of other ways to sell pots, in person and online, and as long as the pots sell, I am open to creative solutions.

I have already signed up for the Virginia Clay Festival in September, 2021 and have planned do the Artisans Studio Tour. But if I find someone to take on this job soon, I’ll skip the Tour. I’m willing to attend the Clay Festival, doing it in conjunction with whoever takes on this job, if it feels like a good way to learn about marketing my work. But I can also skip both events – whatever works best for my new marketing person.

I’m looking for someone who:
Is adept at photography and writing
Knows social media and online selling
Will come here regularly to pick up new work
Can handle selling and shipping work
Has space and resources to warehouse the pottery (this final point is negotiable)

I can see this working for an individual looking for flexible part-time work. It could become a starting place for someone who hopes eventually to represent a number of different artisans and product lines. Another possible match might be someone already engaged in marketing something that could combine well with handmade pottery – e.g., someone growing plants and flowers, or artisanal foods.

I make a range of functional stoneware pottery. Here are links to see my pots on my website and online store. To provide a sense of monetary scale for this job, as of today, there is $24,000 (retail value) of stock listed in my square online store. In addition (at a rough guess) there’s another $10,000 work here not yet online and about $4,000 in two local consignment galleries – Cville Arts and Crozet Depot.

Just to be clear — I intend to make what I want, working at my own pace, and then pass the work on to be sold. I have no interest in suggestions or pressure to produce pots that sell. Please help me by spreading word of my search to anyone you think might be interested.

Thanks!
Nan
434-263-4023
nan@nanrothwellpottery.com

I fired again this week and just put new work in my online store.  Here are some of my favorites from this firing (click on each image to see full view):

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My Partnering with the Charlottesville Free Clinic Show closes on September 30, which means there are twelve days left to help the Free Clinic when you purchase some pottery in my online store.  Please note that buying Gift Cards can give you a jump on Holiday shopping or future birthday gifts, while being sure your recipients get exactly what they want.

As a reminder, the Charlottesville Free Clinic provides free medical and dental care and free prescriptions for working uninsured and under-insured adults in the greater Charlottesville community. Open since 1992, the Clinic is volunteer-driven, relying on the generosity of health care professionals who give over 14,000 hours of time each year. Especially now, with unemployment on the rise, access to health insurance and health care is under threat. Many front-line workers, whose services we all depend on, lack access to health insurance and depend on care from the Free Clinic.

Until September 30, when you buy a pot or gift card through my online store, 30% of the sales price will go to the Clinic.

With all my classes and workshops canceled due to the COVID-19 shutdown, I’m really missing teaching.  At first, I welcomed having so much uninterrupted studio time.  But now, although I am still happy to be making pots, I long for the interaction with my students and the lively energy of the places I was scheduled to teach – at City Clay, John Campbell Folk School, and the other regional workshops on my 2020 teaching calendar.  The only ongoing teaching I’m doing right now is through TeachinArt.com.  Details on that course are at https://www.teachinart.com/take-your-throwing-to-the-next-level.html 

Right now, my TeachinArt class includes students in Virginia, Maryland, Sweden and India – a great antidote to how small our world has shrunk during the pandemic.

Here’s a excerpt from “Wheel Throwing With Nan Rothwell,” my teaching video published by Ceramic Arts Daily.

This short video is from my ten-week course on TeachinArt.

I’ve had good sales during May and am grateful to the folks whose purchases will help the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.  There are still three days for your pottery purchase to benefit the Food Bank.  Many of the pots pictured below are now in my online store.

May has been busy!  I fired the kiln three times in a row.  Here are front and back tier shots of all three firings, unloaded on May 19, May 22, and May 25

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In these troubling times, with food insecurity on the rise, I’ve decided to dedicate 30% of my May 2020 pottery sales to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Any pots purchased through my online store qualify. I’m still offering Free Delivery and/or No Packing Charges. There are details about the Sale at my online store

But even if buying pottery isn’t for you right now, please consider making a straight-up donation at www.brafb.org. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank distributes nearly 26.4 million pounds of food annually to 103,500 people each month through a network of 200 community partners – food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools, churches and other non-profit groups. With each dollar they collect, they can feed four people.