A book review for the book "Practical Pottery: Pottery Projects and Techniques for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More" by Jon Schmidt, the creator behind "Jon the Potter" YouTube channel. I was very excited to read this book this week. In this review I am going to tell you about some of my impressions of this book, as well as an overview of it's main topics and content. This is a positive review. I found this book to be a very helpful guide for both pottery and business. I really appreciate Jon's experience both as a YouTuber and an entrepreneur, I would recommended this as a great art and business book to read. The book isn't incredibly long, so add it to your books to read list.
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Where to buy this book:: https://amzn.to/2ULL5Qs
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Jon the Potter YouTube Channel:: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH2HYp8yVlUxHgDPkxW8-yg
Hi guys and welcome back to my channel. My name is Tori, this is Blue Nose Trading, and today I'm going to be doing a book review on Practical Pottery: Pottery Projects and Techiques for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plate, Bowls and More, by Jon Schmidt, who is the creator behind the Jon the Potter YouTube channel. If somehow, you've managed to find this book review, and like, weirdly you're not already following Jon the Potter, go follow him. Because he is an amazing content creator and a very inspiring potter with a lot of helpful videos that can help you learn a ton. Whether you are experienced, or just starting out, he has a video that will teach you something, I promise. So let's get into this book.
Overview of it, my main takeaway point was that it was concise. It was very to the point, helpful, it had a fun energy, it had a bit of reflectiveness to it, and it was also really inspiring. So, overall a really excellent vibe to this book.
It starts off with an introduction that takes you through a little bit about Jon's story, and how clay became and obsession for him. Which was super relatable. And how he was a barista once, which for me, I was also a barista once. So I can't help but wonder if there is something in the stars where, if you make coffee you have to develop this obsession with finding a way to make things to put it in. It also was awesome to kind of see the serendipity in everything, and how like, you do all of these things in life and it comes together as this one thing eventually, and all of those weird side quests that you did suddenly just make sense, and you find your thing. I love that part about it.
Overall, inside there's a lot of helpful charts, guides and pictures that are going to help you if you are a beginner potter, in creating forms, glazing, the works. It's a really amazing book for getting started, and it has a lot of excellent information. And like I said, it is easy to digest. It's very to the point. It doesn't go overboard. It's not overwhelming. He goes over tools, and how there's a ton of tools but realistically you are probably only going to use a few, although you can collect about a thousand. I relate to that, seriously because, when I'm painting I have a roll of fifty brushes, but I only use like three or five... ever. I got the other ones when I was learning and I just haven't thrown them away.
There's another chapter on setting up a pottery studio, and how to optimize your space for efficiency. That is a super helpful chapter because setting up your space to be efficient, why would you not do that?? So lots of great tips in there on how to be efficient with your space.
One of the most important, and the best chapters near the end, was his chapter on business tips. There is one quote there that says "I'm an entrepreneur first", and that, that's it right there for me anyway. I also majored in entrepreneurship and art was just this thing I did on the side, and now, I'm an entrepreneur, who happens to be an artist, and I really really resonate with that. I think it's important that all artists understand that you are a business when you are an artist, and that you are a brand, and the brand is you. There's a lot of amazing information on where and how to sell your work, pricing, branding, tips on shipping. That shipping chapter was so helpful. Especially for me because I've never shipped anything that was quiet this fragile before. So I'm definitely going to be following those tips.
All in all, if you're a beginner and you've never touched clay before, this book is excellent. It's an excellent book. It's extremely well written, and it's very very very to the point. Like, the takeaway here is that this book is to the point. Excellent pictures.
So if you want to go ahead and buy this book, I'm going to put a link in the description below, and if you haven't already for some reason followed Jon the Potter, I'm also going to link his profile down there. So, buy this book, read this book, follow Jon the Potter and inspire yourself to create amazing artwork. I hope you found this video informative and helpful, and if you want to see another video, I will see you next week when you subscribe.
One final note, I love reading and if you have a book recommendation, drop that in the comments below because I would love to hear your book recommendations. I'm always looking for a good book to read.
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