I've made a serious upgrade to my pottery booth, which I am a little too excited about. I have a new shelving unit that I was able to design exactly for my needs. These will replace a shelving unit that I've been using for years, which I bought off-the-shelf. The old unit was fine, it was attractive, easy to transport, and sturdy enough. But it had two issues that nagged me for years. First of all, I could choose where to place the shelves to some extent, but they were never at exactly the right height for me. And secondly, they had a straight up-and-down vertical design. Like I said, they were stable enough, but in the back of my mind I always worried that they could tip over. 

The new design is based on plans from fellow potter Mark Cortright of Liscom Hill Pottery in California. He uses custom-built wooden display racks, and he shares these plans with anyone on the Ceramic Arts Daily Forum. The wide footprint design of his display racks inspired me. They look impossible to tip over. I wanted mine to be built of black metal, to match the look of my previous shelving unit. So I drew up my own plans, and found a metal fabricator to build them for me.

The heights of the shelves are exactly where I want them, specifically designed for the pots that will be displayed. And now I have six shelves, compared to the four I had before. The narrow top shelf will be for a single row of mugs and tumblers, and maybe a small flower vase. The wide bottom shelf will have two jobs. 1) It will be for pots that customers have reserved in advance of a show. That bottom shelf is too low for many people to explore, so it's perfect for pots that are already sold. Or, 2) at shows where I don't have many reserved pots, I will make a pretty tabletop-like display down there. I've long wished to have this element in my booth, but I didn't want to give up valuable space for it. With my previous shelving unit with four shelves, I put stacks of dinner plates on the bottom shelf. I sell a lot of plates, but I can also see how hard it is for people to bend down that low. Now, the plates will be on the second shelf. Speaking of plates, I cut down each shelf to be 44 inches wide, which is exactly wide enough for four stacks of plates. There will not be a wasted cubic inch of space! 

​First show of the year is coming up soon! ACC Baltimore, February 24-26. I'm so excited to start using these!

I wrote about my first photostand back in 2013. I think this post gets shared across social media or something, because it gets tons of views to this day. Now I've decided to add a second photostand to my business. One that moves in the direction of "lifestyle photography" which has become so popular. I have mixed feelings about lifestyle photography. I understand that the point is to make customers visualize my work inside their homes. And I understand that this can be a very powerful tool. There are lots of businesses doing this now, and some of it is gorgeous and tasteful, and some of it is way too cute or twee. I decided not to include other household items or food in my photos. They are still very simple straightforward photos, only the pots look like they are in a room surrounded by lots of space, rather than in a lightbox. And that the light comes from a window, rather than a bulb. 

 
I stole the small table from my camping gear. The pedestal is a piece of furniture that I already owned. It's a little worn out, but I chose it because it's made of mahogany. The color and character of the wood look nice with my gray pots. I painted a white patch on the wall behind the photostand. The existing paint color was a little too yellow. 

​Here are some of the photos I've taken:

 
I'm not ditching the first photostand. That is still my main photostand, which I will use to document my work, apply for juried shows, and for most of my publishing needs. These new photos will mostly be used electronically, such as my emailed show announcements, and for social media. (If you don't know this yet, I am now on Instagram @goodelephantpottery. Daily pats on the back for working hard, what's not to like!)

I've already ordered some new mahogany boards so I can build a slightly larger pedestal, and put my furniture back where it belongs.