The reel that took off was the ugliest thing I've ever made
Made a vase that came out of the kiln looking like a sad potato with a neck. Warped, blistered, whole thing leaning like it had been drinking. I was so annoyed I filmed it for like 4 seconds just to vent to my group chat, posted it onto tiktok as a joke, didn't even edit it.
That thing has 200k views and I sold three pieces because of it. Meanwhile the pieces I spent actual weeks on, perfect glaze, beautiful lighting, those get me maybe 40 likes each.
I don't know what to do with this information. Do I just... make more sad potatoes on purpose? That feels like cheating. But also rent is due and the sad potato paid it.
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The sad potato has 200k views because it wasn't trying to be anything. I think that's the whole thing. When you spend weeks on a piece, people can feel the effort, and it makes them admire it from a distance. But the ugly thing, they look at it and see something they could have made, so they feel closer to it, and then they buy the nice pieces because now they like you as a person.
I don't think you make potatoes on purpose. I think you keep making the real work and let the ugly stuff just happen when it happens. You can't fake the thing that's actually working about that video, which was you being real and annoyed. 🙂
okay this is hitting weird because I think you're actually right and I don't love that. "people can feel the effort and admire it from a distance", that's exactly it, and it kind of stings. I want people to feel like they can live with my work, not like it's in a museum behind a rope.
the "you can't fake the thing that's working, which was you" part got me though. I was so annoyed in that video, I wasn't doing anything. so maybe the lesson is less about ugly pots and more about... being a real person on the internet instead of a gallery brochure. I don't know, that's scarier somehow. easier to hide behind a beautiful glaze.
but you're right that I shouldn't force the potatoes. forcing it would make it fake, and then it'd just be another sad piece, but with worse views probably. thanks for this, genuinely. think I needed to hear it said out loud like that.
That commenter is right, and I'd push it one step further. The potato worked because it showed the process, the real kiln, the failure. People don't buy from people who are good, they buy from people who are alive. The weeks of careful work doesn't show them the aliveness, it shows them the polish. The potato showed them the person.
But here's the thing nobody says: the 200k views are not the point. The three sales are. And those sales happened because you had real work in your shop for people to land on after they laughed at the potato. If all you had was potatoes, nobody buys anything. The ugly thing is the door, the real pieces are the room behind it.
So no, you don't make potatoes on purpose. You keep the ugly stuff when it happens and you let it out into the world instead of hiding it in embarrassment. That's the actual lesson. Not falsifying the failure, just not hiding it.