I've been thinking of getting into ceramics for a while now. Not only am I just feeling really drawn to it, but it seems like it'd be so much easier to monetise than other forms of art. Currently, painting is my creative hobby of choice, but it's not something I expect I'll ever be good enough at to make any money from, and even if I were, the market for paintings feels really vague and elusive to me.
But with ceramics, it seems like a far more practical skill that can be retooled based on what's selling. No one's buying sculptures? Make bowls. No one's buying bowls? Make jewellery, etc. There's so much room to pivot and it seems so marketable, I feel like the average person is more likely to splurge on something like one nice handmade bowl that still has a practical use than to take up wall space with a random, unnecessary painting.
I'm hesitant to take the leap, considering it seems like a fairly big time/money/space investment. If I had no other creative outlet, it'd make sense to give it a whirl, but if there's no scenario where ceramics is likely to lead to at least a bit of side money, then I'm probably better off just leaving well enough alone and sticking with recreational painting rather than learning an expensive new skill from the ground up.
I'm not in a position to take any classes at the moment due to my schedule (I've hunted but literally every class near me takes place during my work hours, plus they're pretty pricey), but I'm toying with the idea of just buying a bag of clay and fucking around with it at home to see if I take to it. Apparently you can even grind down and rehydrate dried shit that you're not happy with for reuse, so it seems fairly low risk. Then if I come up with anything I like, there are drop-off/pick-up firing services I can take it to, and maybe in a few months I'll be in a position to take a class - or if I suck and I hate it, then I'm just out the price of a bag of clay.
Does that sound like a reasonable idea, or is it dumb?
