{"id":137,"date":"2009-02-17T17:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2010-01-09T09:01:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-09T16:01:50","slug":"the-mud-pie-dilemma-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"The Mud-Pie Dilemma Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mud-Pie-Dilemma-Master-Potters-Struggle\/dp\/1574981692\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; color: #000099;\">The Mud-Pie Dilemma<\/span><\/a> is the much-loved book for all of us baby-boomer potters.Written by John Nance, it chronicles pottery legends <a href=\"http:\/\/tomandelainecoleman.com\/\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\">Tom and Elaine Coleman<\/span><\/a> and their struggle to earn a living selling pots back in the 1970s.  After observing the couple for a number of months, the author concluded that their effort to put together a showing of the best pots of their career netted them a sub-minimum wage for the endeavor.  But the photos of the pots in the back of the book are <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">to die for<\/span> and this text was a true inspiration for me when I started making pots for a living over thirty years ago.  Fortunately, Tom and Elaine are far more financially successful now, and their work continues to boggle the mind.<\/p>\n<p>With slow sales in the Wallyware line, I&#8217;ve taken on a mud-pie dilemma of my own.  I agreed to <a href=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZtdO5GFbXI\/AAAAAAAAAQI\/03jDVCjuQxI\/s1600-h\/Noahvase.jpg\" onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303935496584785266\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 248px; height: 310px;\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZtdO5GFbXI\/AAAAAAAAAQI\/03jDVCjuQxI\/s320\/Noahvase.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>throw fifty pots in a collaborative show with <a href=\"http:\/\/newsarama.com\/comics\/020901-Noah-Vansciver.html\"><span style=\"color: #000099;\">Noah Van Sciver<\/span><\/a>, cartoonist nonpareil, really nice guy and my oldest daughter&#8217;s boyfriend.  We&#8217;ve got a show lined up at the Earthwood Gallery in Boulder and the opening night is March 6th.  Noah has been working on the pots for a couple of days now, and he should have them finished sometime next week. There are some really nice graphics getting painted on these pots.  I was amazed that the very first thing he did in the studio was to decorate the two most ambitious pots of the series: a pair of vases. He knocked them out in a relatively short period of time and they are lovely.   So it&#8217;s going to be a fun show and we are in the process of trying to peddle our situation to various media outlets.  It is a really sweet story: the potter\/caroonist dad and the cartoonist boyfriend working together in the studio with the Brian Jonestown Massacre blaring in the background.  Ahhh&#8230; the lives of a struggling artists!<\/p>\n<p>But the finances of this gig are not going to be the best.  I think we&#8217;re going to beat Tom and Elaine Coleman in the profit margin category, but not by much.  That&#8217;s the problem with taking your time and doing your best work.  It doesn&#8217;t always pay off very well financially.  But the pots are going to be cool&#8230; way cool!<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZtg6Zu573I\/AAAAAAAAAQQ\/v0kQrmdv9rk\/s1600-h\/noahmugs.jpg\" onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303939542615191410\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZtg6Zu573I\/AAAAAAAAAQQ\/v0kQrmdv9rk\/s400\/noahmugs.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZthFInLq6I\/AAAAAAAAAQY\/_cTPczdltpk\/s1600-h\/Noahplate.jpg\" onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303939726997957538\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_f4aa9hFY87M\/SZthFInLq6I\/AAAAAAAAAQY\/_cTPczdltpk\/s400\/Noahplate.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\">Note: This series is now for sale in our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goestores.com\/storename\/thomassedwards\/ViewDept-266496.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">online store!<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mud-Pie Dilemma is the much-loved book for all of us baby-boomer potters.Written by John Nance, it chronicles pottery legends Tom and Elaine Coleman and their struggle to earn a living selling pots back in the 1970s. After observing the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/?p=137\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[121,120,51,103],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art-pots-cartoons-on-pots","tag-collaborative-pots","tag-noah-van-sciver","tag-tom-edwards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wallypots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}