Sierra 5: Throwing Pots

[Coconut Flan]

Continued from here:

Already teaching classes and selling pottery?

Edited April 24, 2021 by Coconut Flan

[clueliss]

Noticed I. Her stories (and I’m not skilled enough given how short they are to capture it) that we have a sighting of those old windows Sierra bought.  She worked with a neighbor and out the girl’s names on them and is hanging the, above their beds as part of the “remdoel”. 
 

Also, she’s using beddy’s on the kids beds.  And while she mentioned seeing them on Shark Tank, my exposure to them comes first from The Busbys (out daughtered) and then repeatedly from the LDS family vloggers I follow.  And I could be wrong but believe the company has LDS ties because there are stores in Utah County.  And for the records I think Beddy’s are genius.

[front hugs > duggs]

26 minutes ago, clueliss said:

Also, she’s using beddy’s on the kids beds.  And while she mentioned seeing them on Shark Tank, my exposure to them comes first from The Busbys (out daughtered) and then repeatedly from the LDS family vloggers I follow.  And I could be wrong but believe the company has LDS ties because there are stores in Utah County.  And for the records I think Beddy’s are genius.

I went down an LDS Instagram rabbit hole, starting from Not Enough Nelson’s. I believe Beddy’s was created in Utah by the Mikesall? family. They are also vloggers I believe and are moving from Utah to Nashville. They are planning to keep the Beddy’s operations in Utah I believe and just keep traveling back and forth between the two because we’re not in a global pandemic or anything. 

[clueliss]

Ahhhhh I know the Mikesall name.  All but one member of that family was in a small plane crash last year.  The father was seriously injured.  

[G33kywife]

Did Sierra get the Beddys gifted to her? Because they are EXPENSIVE! Like $250-$300 for twin size. I’ve been eyeing them for close to a year for my kids, and just haven’t been able to pull the trigger yet and spend that much on bedding!! 

[baldricks_turnip]

1 hour ago, G33kywife said:

Did Sierra get the Beddys gifted to her? Because they are EXPENSIVE! Like $250-$300 for twin size. I’ve been eyeing them for close to a year for my kids, and just haven’t been able to pull the trigger yet and spend that much on bedding!! 

She did tag the company so maybe they were sponsored. I would love to get a look inside their finances. I'm wondering if they've just gone on a spending spree because of the stimulus.

[grandmadugger]

On 4/24/2021 at 7:00 AM, clueliss said:

Noticed I. Her stories (and I’m not skilled enough given how short they are to capture it) that we have a sighting of those old windows Sierra bought.  She worked with a neighbor and out the girl’s names on them and is hanging the, above their beds as part of the “remdoel”. 
 

Also, she’s using beddy’s on the kids beds.  And while she mentioned seeing them on Shark Tank, my exposure to them comes first from The Busbys (out daughtered) and then repeatedly from the LDS family vloggers I follow.  And I could be wrong but believe the company has LDS ties because there are stores in Utah County.  And for the records I think Beddy’s are genius.

So Beddy went on Shark Tank? They were on West Texas Buyer’s too. 

[HereticHick]

All the pottery on Sierra's website is currently sold out: https://sierrajodominguez.com/collections/all

I love pottery but I think her stuff is just so-so. Since its all sold out I can't tell what she charges for shipping, but I can certainly find stuff I like better on Etsy that is cheaper.

 

Also, School of the Dining Room Table strikes again:

"This big, beautiful bowl is decorate with lemons all the way around, and would be PERFECT as a ramen bowl, or a fruit bowl!"

https://sierrajodominguez.com/products/life-gave-me-lemons-bowl-3-5in-x-6-75in

Edited May 26, 2021 by HereticHick

[theotherelise]

20 hours ago, HereticHick said:

<snip>

Also, School of the Dining Room Table strikes again:

"This big, beautiful bowl is decorate with lemons all the way around, and would be PERFECT as a ramen bowl, or a fruit bowl!"

https://sierrajodominguez.com/products/life-gave-me-lemons-bowl-3-5in-x-6-75in

Sierra didn't graduate from the SODRT, she graduated from a public high school and even started attending college for a year. I've mentioned here before that my husband went to high school with her but was a year ahead. They did both do the debate team for one overlapping year. He said he thought she was smart but kind of odd back then. 

I'm hopeful for Sierra right now. They haven't announced a pregnancy for awhile and she's stuck with the pottery thing for a fair bit of time. I think the stuff looks pretty decent and she's also teaching some pottery classes. I would love to see her older kiddos start at public school next year. 

Sierra was 18 and Mark was 26 when he first started dating her. She is a CSA survivor and had just dropped out of college. In the process of dating him, she was brought into his version of Christianity. People are very vulnerable to cults and high-demand religions in their late teens and Sierra has professed feeling "unworthy," "broken," and a "mess" during that time. 

Fingers crossed she is making a turn. 

[HereticHick]

41 minutes ago, theotherelise said:

I'm hopeful for Sierra right now. They haven't announced a pregnancy for awhile and she's stuck with the pottery thing for a fair bit of time. I think the stuff looks pretty decent and she's also teaching some pottery classes. I would love to see her older kiddos start at public school next year. 

Sierra is crafty and has a lot of drive; I'd love for her to stick with this pottery thing too. But--she's only, what, 31? I fear that she's got several more pregnancies ahead of her, and as soon as another happens, she will have to drop most of the pottery work.  

[Knight of Ni]

7 hours ago, theotherelise said:

In the process of dating him, she was brought into his version of Christianity. People are very vulnerable to cults and high-demand religions in their late teens.

Yep, yep, yep. I got briefly pulled into my college’s “non denominational campus ministry” group for a while. Stressful time, eager to make friends... you get the idea. It took a little bit but I gradually got really uncomfortable with what they were teaching and how. It made me eventually re examine my entire belief system. I slowly transitioned from this group to atheist. It was a very slow process with a side of self doubt. I called myself agnostic for a while because it felt “safer” and “less bad” than atheist. Now I can  comfortably call myself atheist. 

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

8 hours ago, theotherelise said:

Sierra didn't graduate from the SODRT, she graduated from a public high school and even started attending college for a year. I've mentioned here before that my husband went to high school with her but was a year ahead. They did both do the debate team for one overlapping year. He said he thought she was smart but kind of odd back then. 

I'm hopeful for Sierra right now. They haven't announced a pregnancy for awhile and she's stuck with the pottery thing for a fair bit of time. I think the stuff looks pretty decent and she's also teaching some pottery classes. I would love to see her older kiddos start at public school next year. 

Sierra was 18 and Mark was 26 when he first started dating her. She is a CSA survivor and had just dropped out of college. In the process of dating him, she was brought into his version of Christianity. People are very vulnerable to cults and high-demand religions in their late teens and Sierra has professed feeling "unworthy," "broken," and a "mess" during that time. 

Fingers crossed she is making a turn. 

Yeah, not to throw Ontario public education under the bus, but many of the spelling/grammar mistakes that fundies make are also made by high school graduates here.

[HereticHick]

Sierra's pottery business is doing really well (even though I think some of her stuff is way overpriced) and now she's bought herself a pottery wheel. Would love for some potters on FJ opine on what her's might have cost. Looks like you can spend under $150 or over $1,000 on one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ2i9XVriXm/

 

I think she may have bought this one (about $170): https://www.amazon.com/Mein-LAY-Updated-Pottery-Removable/dp/B08JY8VJNT/ref=asc_df_B08JY8VJNT/

[mpheels]

1 hour ago, HereticHick said:

Sierra's pottery business is doing really well (even though I think some of her stuff is way overpriced) and now she's bought herself a pottery wheel. Would love for some potters on FJ opine on what her's might have cost. Looks like you can spend under $150 or over $1,000 on one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ2i9XVriXm/

 

I think she may have bought this one (about $170): https://www.amazon.com/Mein-LAY-Updated-Pottery-Removable/dp/B08JY8VJNT/ref=asc_df_B08JY8VJNT/

Pottery wheels can be reasonable, especially if she bought used. The real expense is a kiln. I used to throw pots at a community arts center. The sold monthly passes that included open studio time throughout the week, plus on block of clay/month, and unlimited access to glazes and kiln time. They did not allow “outside” clay in the kiln since every batch of clay has specific kiln requirements and they didn’t want to deal with messes from unknown clay getting fired too hot or too cold. 

[CarrotCake]

I feel like Sierra is starting a new business every year, investing a lot of money in the tools and resources and then moves on to the next project. 

[HereticHick]

3 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

I feel like Sierra is starting a new business every year, investing a lot of money in the tools and resources and then moves on to the next project. 

yes. She does seem quite successful at this one--she's teaching 2 classes a week and more demand from buyers than she can fulfill. However, the studio (5th Street) where she fires her pots and teaches is in Bentonville, and she lives in Siloam Springs, and I think its at least a 40 minute drive, so the commute back and forth may become a problem. She always carries on about how Mark works crazy long hours, so someone (maybe Mark's parents? Her parents live about 2 hours north in Missouri) must be watching the kids while she works. No way can she drag 7 kids, including 2 toddlers, to the studio.

[MaryOrMartha]

How old is her youngest now? Surely there'd be another blessing on the way by now, right?

[HereticHick]

3 hours ago, MaryOrMartha said:

How old is her youngest now? Surely there'd be another blessing on the way by now, right?

He was born Sept 28, 2019, so yeah, she should be on track for announcing another. I really hope that she can slow it down--she's only 31, right?

[Not that josh's mom]

I dont want to like Sierra. She would drive me crazy on a day to day, face to face basis. But my life is pretty much in the doldrums, so what attitude since my husband's death. I wish I could find a tiny bit of her wonder and positive enthusiasm. Her love of her flowers is actually fun to watch. I'll get there again sometime, but for now watching her is good for me.

[Grace]

1 hour ago, Not that josh&#x27;s mom said:

I dont want to like Sierra. She would drive me crazy on a day to day, face to face basis. But my life is pretty much in the doldrums, so what attitude since my husband's death. I wish I could find a tiny bit of her wonder and positive enthusiasm. Her love of her flowers is actually fun to watch. I'll get there again sometime, but for now watching her is good for me.

I agree. I'm a sucker for gardening accounts and DIY backyard projects

[baldricks_turnip]

She actually seems to enjoy her kids too.

[Snarkasarus Rex]

I don’t like Sierra but It’s nice to see her happy. Hopefully this is something she can stick with and not add any more kids.

[HereticHick]

On 7/10/2021 at 9:11 AM, Snarkasarus Rex said:

I don’t like Sierra but It’s nice to see her happy. Hopefully this is something she can stick with and not add any more kids.

I certainly hope she doesn't add any more kids either, because she's got the 7 kids crammed into 2 bedrooms so she can have an office, according to an Insta post yesterday. I admire her hustle, but what is just crowded now maybe become unbearable as the kids get bigger and a few more are added to the brood. As for the "4 businesses" she's alluded to several times--I'd guess that 2 are the pottery sales and the pottery classes. Unsure what the other two are, since she's tried and stepped away from some many side hustles-- wedding/event planner; purveyor of chocolates and (far from shatterproof) desserts in a jar; Lipsense MLM distributor; Luluroe MLM distributor. Perhaps one of her businesses is simply social media Influencer (which may be more lucrative that all the others). Oh, and Michelle Duggar would faint at such as showing of thigh.

Edited July 12, 2021 by HereticHick

[HideousGreenShirt]

Apparently the keyboard for her home office that Mark insisted was absolutely essential, sells for $170-200.

Spoiler

She bought a wheel, she decorated and furnished her home office, Mark bought her the "entire rainbow" of glazes and a whole host of pottery items... 

Spoiler

How do they afford all this? 

And how/why is she still homeschooling? 

Fine, have your 4 "businesses" but no way can she be efficiently schooling her 7 kids and keeping up with everything else. She has repeatedly said that Mark is constantly working and yet he magically appears at their lake vacations and breaks with her family. 

Their finances and insistence to homeschool are a permanent mystery to me. And while I hope she and her family are happy, I find it difficult to like her. 

[Lurker]

She sells stickers and keychains as well as her pottery.  I guess that is counted as another business.  She does the random sponsored post, would you count paid influencer as a separate business?