Ever find a fabulous piece of art and then go into sticker shock over the price?
Many people who have never done art don't have an understanding of what goes into a piece of art. Having been involved with the pottery process for so many years, I can now look at other art (glass, painting, etc.) and have a better idea of why it is priced as it is.
For the purposes of this explanation, I will give you some idea of the time and materials which go into the creation of FossilFire Ceramic Chocolates.
First, my time is money. My time is spent on my business, which is structured based on 25 years of working in offices. I am responsible for shipping and receiving, accounting, production, research and development, and marketing, among other things. Therefore, I am worth a certain number of dollars per hour (both to myself and to an employer if I worked for one). Not all artists have a business background; but all artists should place a minimum dollar value on their time. We are creating beautiful works which are appreciated in other peoples' homes. It is no different than working for someone in an office, or warehouse. We provide a commodity.
Introduction
First, I am not giving away any trade secrets. This information contains standard pottery practice methods.
FossilFire Chocolates begin with a bag of clay. Clay has historically been cheap, and still is, but has recently gone up in price due to the cost of transporting it. Clay is a heavy commodity; so are the glazes. What I do to combat that and not pass price increases on to the customer is use every scrap of clay that I can. Clay is reclaimable—meaning even if it dries to (literally) dust, it can still be regenerated with water. Therefore, whenever I am working on something such as throwing bowls, I collect scraps from trimming and put them in a container with water. When the container has enough, I pour off the excess water and spread the slop onto plaster to dry out a bit. Once enough water has evaporated, I work the clay by kneading it until it is soft like bread dough. Reclaiming is particularly useful for small items such as the chocolates. When clay is reclaimed, it does lose some of its original strength, which can be damaging if it's used for dishware or high-use items. But for the chocolates, it is perfect.
Reclaiming on a regular basis puts me into "Green Company" status. Also, I work mostly from home—I am thrilled to be one less person on the roads during the rush hour.
Individual Chocolates
Individual chocolates are usually processed in batches of 300-500. Each chocolate is either cut with a tiny cookie cutter, or rolled (round truffles) by hand. They are allowed to air-dry on racks which means they will dry faster in summer than in winter. Once the pieces are dry, they are sponged down to remove rough edges and small imperfections. Then they are bisque fired (this matures the clay to accept glazing). Bisquing is about a 20 hour process in a kiln.
Once out of the bisque, they are visually checked and any cracked pieces are tossed (cracked pieces are unusable and unreclaimable). Then all pieces are glazed by hand with a heavy coat of base color. Once that dries, the decoration is piped on using a small bottle of glaze color and a tiny nozzle. Then they are clear glazed.
When enough are ready, they are fired in a glaze firing. Since glaze becomes liquid glass during the heating process, each chocolate must be "stilted" on tiny stilts which hold them up on little points so that they do not adhere to any surface during firing. Stilting is a bit time-consuming as each one must be mounted, and the kiln must not be bumped or any tumbled chocolates will adhere to the kiln shelf or to another chocolate next to it (this has happened!). Glaze firing is approximately 4 hours.
Out of the glaze firing, the chocolates are reexamined for perfection and those which might have "crawling" (exposed bare clay spots) are set aside for reglazing and refiring. All others are put into inventory.
At any given time, there are racks of chocolates in my workspace in various stages of the process.
Chocolate Boxes
The boxes begin with clay which is rolled out on a slab roller at my studio to an even thickness. I use stencils to cut the boxes and the sides (or "walls"). I will generally cut 15-20 boxes and wall pieces at a time, and these pieces are all transported to my home. This is a trickier process as the pieces need to remain as flat as possible at all times. Clay has a memory—if the clay is bent at any time during drying, it will more than likely remember that bend during firing and curl. Therefore, at all times the pieces are kept flat.
The boxes are built by hand at home. The base and wall are "scored" with tiny cuts around the edges so that they will adhere to each other. A "slip" (milkshake consistency mixture of clay and water) is painted into the scores and then the wall pieces are affixed and secured. Once the box is completely constructed, the interior is weighted down with dried beans on top of a piece of newspaper cut to the size of the interior to keep it from warping upward during the drying process. During drying, clay dries from the outside inward, which can cause warping if the base is not weighted. Shrinkage also occurs as water evaporates and the clay hardens.
The boxes stay on trays during drying. Once they are set up to leather hard, they are also sponged down so that the seams between the walls and the base disappear, and small indentations are removed. Then they go through the same bisque firing.
Once the boxes are bisqued, they are waxed on the bottom (to keep the bottom of the base from being glazed) and dipped into the glaze. Or, in the case of custom pieces in colors, they are brushed or sprayed with a color glaze. Glaze generally takes only a few minutes to dry, and they are ready for their final firing.
The final finished pieces are put into inventory.
Beyond Building
Time consideration also includes the process of packing each box with its selection. The chocolates are cemented into brown glassine candy cups, which are then cemented into the ceramic box. A company sticker is affixed on the bottom, as well as the small round felt pads which keep the bottom of the box from marring furniture. Then they are packed into boxes which have my company card cemented on top. They are wrapped in bubble wrap to further safeguard them during transportation, and each box includes a care card.
To Wrap Up
As you can see, this is a business like any other. There are many aspects which go into producing these chocolates. Each piece takes time. And with pottery, time is the largest part of the cost.
But it is work I love doing. There is no aspect I don't like about it. I feel excitement during each phase, particularly when I open my kiln and see all those individual chocolates staring up at me, and I think about how they will end up on someone's desk or coffee table, creating an excitement in the new owner. I am honored that people enjoy my art, and it is an honor to create it for you.
Missy James
