How Was The Show?

How was your show?  That is kind of a loaded question.  How does one define a good show?  Is it in sales?  Is it in how exhausted you are when you finally get back home?

For the past two years, I have not really known how to respond to that question after the Catawba Valley Pottery Show. It was a good show in that it is generally very well organized and run. Jeff and I enjoy ourselves eating dinner with other potters on Friday night before the Preview Party and visiting with folks who attend.  I sell some pottery that I wouldn't if I didn't participate. 

So what's my deal then?  Why do I not feel like I can say this was a good show for me?  Both years, I've felt like it was an OK show, but not a great one.  The biggest thing is that it is expensive.  The booth fee is high (compared to others that I do), the charge to have electricity is high, and it requires a night in a hotel for us because of the late night Friday coupled with the relatively early start on Saturday morning.  I briefly considered not getting the hotel room this time, but good sense won out. That Friday afternoon post set up nap in the hotel was critical to my health this year.

When I can get the money thing out of my head, I can say that it was a good show.  We had a good time.  We got there early enough on Friday that set up should have been a relaxed, enjoyable thing. We finished setting up early enough to go get a bite to eat, find a Michael's to purchase that extra plate stand that I didn't bring, and we were checked into the hotel early enough for me to get a nap and for Jeff to watch Gardner-Webb scare the snot out of Virginia in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.  I slept pretty well Friday night, so I started Saturday rested.  Things seemed to go smoothly during the day, and we were packed up and driving home by an hour after the end of the show.

Jeff took some pictures...

If you provide them a vase to use, the volunteers will fill it with fresh flowers.  I NEVER have flowers, so this is very nice for me.

Setting up...

I had to wait to put stuff out on the shelves until the convention center people finished dropping the power for my booth.  That should have been done the day before.  I was annoyed.

The right side of the booth.

The back of the booth.

The left side of the booth. 

(I have no idea what happened on the left edge of this picture. Weird.)

Evidence that Jeff was actually there with me.

I also remind myself that somethings you do because they are good exposure. In my mind, this show counts in that category.  So did I have a good show?  Yes.  I think so.  I would still like for my sales to be higher, but considering everything, it was a good show.

It's a Big Week

The Catwaba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival is this weekend! This will be my second year participating in this show, and I am really excited.  I have worked very hard to get ready, so I'm pretty pooped at this point too.  I spent a lot of time over the weekend getting things packed up and ready, so I hope that I can just load up the truck on Thursday night and be ready to roll out early on Friday morning for set up. My hope is to try to rest up during the week as much as I can, so that I am red hot and raring to go for the weekend.   Set up is during the day on Friday and then there's a Preview Party Friday night before the actual festival all day on Saturday.  By the show end at 5 pm on Saturday, I will be exhausted.  Let's hope that I'm exhausted but with significantly fewer pots at that point.

I have been so focused on getting things ready and packed up to go that I haven't been as good about photographing the process as I would have liked, but I do have a few pictures that I can share of some of the new pieces that will be with me in Hickory on Friday and Saturday. 

I have been working with a new clay body and I'm pretty happy with how the first pieces have turned out.  This is a very dark brown clay.  Ryoko Cream glaze shows off the texture. 

I have also used a turquoise glaze on this clay that has turned out really nicely.

I am excited to have this new work to show off at the pottery festival.

Do you remember my lamps from a few weeks ago?  It was so much fun to make them and I'm really happy with how they turned out too. 

Glazed and in the kiln.

First look after firing.

(Aren't those bowls on the left shelf nice?  Credit to Vicki Halloran for those beauties)

Happy so far.

And here is the finished product!

I discovered last year that the lighting inside the Hickory Metro Convention Center is not the best.  I hoped to have a couple of finished lamps to help illuminate my booth.  We shall see how it all looks when I've got it all together.  I will have these two lamps that I plan to put on the low shelves plus a couple of lights that I will mount on the tall shelves.  I hope that will help make things will look nice.

If the lamps look familiar it is because they are very much like the ones that Allen used to make.  I figured that I need to start somewhere, so it made sense to start with what I knew would work.  After this success, I'm excited to make more.  I want to try some different shapes and even some that are wheel thrown instead of hand built.  It would be GREAT if these two would sell quickly. 

Throwing an Oval Shaped Casserole

I made these oval casseroles a few weeks ago.  

Since wheel throwing involves making round forms (that is the hope at least), altering the forms to get oval or even square shapes take a few extra steps.  For these, I started with throwing the sides.  I opened the clay all the way to the bat leaving no clay on the bottom.

After allowing each piece to dry to leather hard, I cut it off the bat and squished in the sides to make an oval ring.

Scored and slipped the bottom edge.

 Then stuck it to a slab to make the bottom.

Trimmed off the excess.

(Not shown is all the work to make sure that the joint was really strong between the sides and bottom.  If not joined correctly, cracks can open up. That is never a good thing.)

Added some texture for interest.

Attached handles and done!

As you can see, these two pieces are different from the ones at the top of this post. (Check out the handles)  There are so many different things that can be done with the handles.  I can't decide what I like the best.

I will share pictures of the finished pieces when I've got them.  I am very excited about these and hope they turn out well.