2016-05-13 - Friday - Loading up

I've fallen behind again. Time to catch up.

Friday I packed up the van for the Carolina Clay Matters Spring Pottery Festival.

While pulling my bins out of the garage I noticed a vine growing through the wall of the garage. Nature never rests.

I loaded up the van and checked off the items on my list.

I had some empty bins left after loading which means my inventory is down. I need to make some more pots.

I'm pleased to report that the ferns we rescued from the woods before the land was developed are doing very well in our yard.

.

2014-05-10 - Saturday - Pottery Festival and Knights game

Saturday I set up my booth at the Clay Matters Spring Pottery Festival.  I decided not to use my tent since the greatest chance of rain was going to be late in the afternoon and I thought that either we'd miss it or I would have a wet tent right at the end of the show.

I had a good day with fairly steady sales until the heavens opened up at around 2:30 pm.  It rained for 15-20 minutes and then it cleared again and we thought we were out of the woods.  It started raining again in squall bands from around 3:30 until almost 5:00 pm.  Needless to say, we were all soaked by the end.

I'd like to give a special thank you to the two women who purchased a raku pot from me in the middle of the downpour at about 3:40.  I had already packed up most of my pots, but they found one they liked and we carried out the transaction in the middle of the monsoon with no cover.  It was a surreal moment of soaked money, wrapping a pot with wet newspaper, and other than occasionally wiping water from our eyes you'd never have known it was raining.

Pottery enthusiasts are not afraid of a little bit of rain and I'm just glad I don't sell water colors.

After packing up and hurrying home I grabbed a quick shower and we left for the Knights game.  The credit union where Karen works was sponsoring a get-together at the stadium for the employees and it was a chance to see the new stadium.

Unfortunately I was pretty tired and the game was a yawner, with the Knights way behind early.  I was having trouble keeping my eyes open so we left early.

.
.

2014-04-30 - Wednesday - Slip and Creamer Sets

Wednesday I applied slip to some pots I plan to raku and made some creamer sets.  I don't know whether I'll get any of them done before the Carolina Clay Matters Spring Pottery Festival, but I'll try.

Slipped greenware.

Creamer sets and trays.

.

April 13 - Monday - After the festival

Saturday turned out to be a really nice day with the threat of thunderstorms that never materialized.  We had a great turnout and I was so busy that I never turned on my iPod, which is usually a fixture in my booth.  I only got a couple of photos during the show, but my friend Edson Scudder took lots of them.  He is a very good photographer and I am proud to be including some of the ones he took of me and my things.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the pottery festival.  It was great fun.

I was not the last person to arrive, but I was absolutely the last person to leave.

Folks shopping in my booth.

Some of the garden stakes I made with terra4m
(except the pig, Elaine made that one).
Photo by Edson Scudder.

Latest face.
Photo by Edson Scudder.

First wood-fired face.
Photo by Edson Scudder.

The mad potter of Charlotte.
Photo by Edson Scudder.

For reference, George Ohr - The Mad Potter of Biloxi.

Talking to people --go figure.
Photo by Edson Scudder.

Let the unpacking begin...

.

May 10 - Friday - Pre-Festival Prep

Well boys and girls, it's time again for the Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Festival (formerly known as the barn sale).  In fact, it's tomorrow (so much for my great blog-marketing skills, eh?).

I have been doing prep work for about six hours now, taking a break to cook and eat dinner.  Patching my shelving, testing my new EZ-Up tent, packing the van, rounding up stray pots, etc.  Oh, and also getting psyched up about the sale.

I love doing sales since I get to talk to people who love pottery.  I can't describe the feeling I get every time I see someone get excited about something I've made.  It's amazing.  I love it when people tell me where they are going to use a piece or how it's going to be displayed.

Folks have purchased my pots for their vacation homes in the Florida Keys and the NC mountains.  They have sent my pots to relatives in the far corners of our country and to their children living in Europe.

I'm proud that people like them enough to give them as gifts.  I feel it's one thing to buy something that you like for yourself and quite another to buy something for a gift.  I think it represents another level of admiration for the pot.  If you like it so much that you are sure the person you are giving it to will also like it, that's pretty high praise indeed.

In the end, the whole process is about feelings.  I love the feeling I get when I'm making pots.  When the creativity is running right it's like channeling energy through you and into the work during each part of the process.

When your work makes other people feel things you've done your job.  If they are enthused about it, that makes me happy and I can get that rush of creative energy about it again.  I also get a touch of pride that other people like my work.

If they are gifting my pots I think about the feelings the buyer has for the recipient and I feel that extra sense of pride about my pots as gifts.

It's all about feelings.

May 12 - Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Festival

Saturday was the Carolina Clay Matters Spring Pottery Festival (formerly the Barn Sale) and the first time I had a booth by myself.  It was a great day: warm, but slightly overcast so it wasn't unpleasant.  I was lucky to be able to back my van up to the booth so I could sit in the shade without using my tent.  Without the tent the sun shows the full range of the glazes and they really show their depth.

Good neighbors make a good day and I was lucky to have Angela and Ann next door.  They had a great first time at the sale and we enjoyed joking throughout the day.

My open-air booth.

Angela and Ann.

Some of Ann's new work from my side.

.