Measuring Tips

Do you always find yourself looking for the right ruler, caliper or protractor to measure your pots? Do you end up with a meter stick when you wanted a yardstick? Do you forget how to convert inches, cm, feet, yards,and grams? Here comes the tip...ALWAYS USE YOUR OWN YARDSTICK!

All those terms are just ways of talking about and recording how far it is from point" a" to point   " b". European cabinetmakers lay out an entire set of cabinets on a couple of sticks by holding them together, sliding them  until one end is at" a" and one end is at" b" then making a mark.No words needed. No math, no conversions. Are you making lids for pots? Calipers can be awkward and are easy to bump.Clay covered rulers are hard to read. Decide how big you want the seat for your lid to be and cut a strip of wood to that length. That's what you measure with. End of stick to end of stick. Use again to measure the lid. Perfect fit. Write Med. Casserole on it with a marker and save it. Use it again next time. If someone breaks a lid, no problem you've got it covered. No scale to read, no numbers to remember. End of stick to end of stick.Making plates, flat bottomed bowls, or baking dishes? Make your own ribs from heavy plastic.They should be the radius of your pot.Slightly round the outside corner and rib that bottom.When the left end of the rib gets to the middle of your pot, quit.

One more example and I'll let you go. Last weekend I did a sale with friends from CORE CLAY.  I ended up selling a few pots but measured in strictly monetary terms I did not do well. I could have felt dejected, doubted my self, cried, consumed large quantities of alcohol and hidden under a rock until the feeling passed. What I did instead was make sure whose ruler I was using. I am fortunate that I don't have to sell pots to pay the bills. Don't get me wrong, I like cash but it is not the only reason I do this.I was warm and dry. I spent the weekend with people that I enjoy and do not get to see often enough. I ate tasty snacks off the treat table. People told me nice things about my pots. I've had worse weekends.

This business can be tough . When you have had a bad show,when you doubt yourself, when you want to chuck it all, make sure you are using your own yardstick. Don't let your Mom's view of success run your life. Make your own scale of what's important and set your own distance between point "a" and point "b" and keep it handy, you'll need it.