Festival of Lights 2009

For the past three years I've done this festival by myself in my own booth. This year the Greenbelt Community Center told its instructors they could invite their students to share their booths. Karen Arrington (another instructor, and also my student in advanced wheel and wood-firing) and I decided to combine our booths into a double booth, then invited other potters from the advanced wheel class.

For some, this was their first experience with selling their pots, so the weekend turned into a class on selling at a craft fair. This was a lot more fun than doing the show by myself. Not only did we share all the heavy lifting and salesmanship duties, but saleswise we did considerably better than I've ever done by myself at this show. This speaks to the strength of our collaborative display. Generally I think group shows are bad for sales, because the display is cluttered and unfocused. But in our case, each potter brought a clearly focused body of work, with a strong concept tying it all together (advanced wheel), so we enhanced each other instead.

Here we are stopping to take a group photo during setup (l-r) Karen Arrington, Kori Rice (with baby Dexter), me, Chris Coyle, Amy Castner, Vejune Svotelis (photo by Barbara Davis with Kori's camera).

Karen, Chris, and Kori putting the final touches on our display.

Our display close-up (photo by Kori).

During the show ... Karen and Amy ring up sales while our booth is packed with shoppers!

Bethesda Row: A Soggy Mess, and a Lesson About Customers

This year's Bethesda Row Arts Festival was a freezing cold, rain-soaked ordeal. So I left half of my gear at home, just so I wouldn't have to dry it off later, and brought a small display of pots. I had no expectations to make back the expenses of the show, I just hoped that I wouldn't catch a cold.

I was wrong. I was visited by The Good Herd, which is how I affectionately refer to my mailing list of customers. On Saturday it rained non-stop, at times one could look up and down the street and see nobody ... no attendees, and the artists were huddled back in their tents. But I made sales that day to members of The Herd, some of whom have bought my pots often enough that I know their names. They trekked out into the weather because they had something specific to buy, or to start their holiday shopping. On Sunday, the rain was much lighter and more people came out, and the sales were busy all day, to both current and new Herd-sters. Not only did I make back the expenses of the show, I did well even by good weather standards.

So the lesson learned was this ... know who your good customers are, keep them informed about your shows, let them know you appreciate them, and they will make your efforts worthwhile even on the worst weather days.

My brother Won was visiting from California that weekend, so he came to help me pack up at the end of the show. This usually takes me 1.5 hours, but with his help and my "lite" display, we were outta there is 30 minutes! A quick getaway after an exhausting weekend ... sweet!

Wood-Firing Workshop: The Kiln Was Pleased With Us

(l-r) Karen Arrington, Alan Dowdy, Allison Severance, Karen Wilkening, Carol Wisdom, Jill Harbison, me, Vejune Svotelis, Amy Castner (photo by Blair Meerfeld)

The Greenbelt Community Center's Wood-Firing Workshop took place this month. We loaded and fired the kiln on October 3-4. The kiln belongs to Allison Severance of Boonsboro, Maryland, which is a lovely 1.25 hour drive from Greenbelt.

The workshop started very early on 10/3, we met at 7:30am then carpooled out to the kiln. (It's important to get an early start, because after we left that day, Allison began to pre-heat the kiln, which takes several hours more.) As soon as we arrived, Allison announced "Mea you're driving this bus!" meaning she was letting me direct all of the work. Generally, I feel pretty confident about my knowledge of wood-kilns, but I'm glad that she hung around, cuz I still needed to ask her questions sometimes. Some of my students have several wood-firings under their belt now, and their experience really comes in handy too.

After the pots were loaded (here's Carol Wisdom photographing the fully-stacked kiln), we built the kiln's door out of bricks. This job only needed 3 or 4 people, so everyone else busied themselves by stacking several bales of wood. Allison was grateful and impressed! I'll probably repeat this later ... the potters from Greenbelt are the most outstanding people with whom I've ever wood-fired.

The next day 10/4, we divided ourselves into shifts to fire the kiln. Allison and her boyfriend Blair Meerfeld (who heads the ceramics program at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA) directed the stoking through the morning hours. They put the kiln into reduction from 11am to noon, after which we started stoking for heat rise. Shortly after that, when me and my gang had settled into the stoking patterns, Allison and Blair announced that they were going to run some errands, and would be back in a few hours. Say what??!! "Don't worry Mea! You know what you're doing," Allison said. This is the first time I've been left in charge of a hot kiln. I admit I felt uneasy at first, but like I said before, I was surrounded by outstanding potters, and everybody worked together like a clock. By the time Allison and Blair returned, we had gone past cone 8 (nearly 2300°F) and were almost ready to salt. This is me in my official "in charge" capacity, checking cones through the spyhole (photo by Karen Arrington).

This is Karen Arrington tossing a salt-covered plank into the firebox (photo by Alan Dowdy). Overall we threw 10 pounds of salt into the kiln, examples of beautiful salt-glazed surfaces are shown later. During the salting stage, the chimney's dampers were closed to trap the salt gasses inside, at one point flames burst through the door of the kiln.

Yikes. We quickly opened the dampers and soon the pressure and the fire subsided, but it was a good reminder that wood-firing can be very dangerous (photo by Alan Dowdy). Once the salting was done, we went back to heat rise mode, plowing towards cone 10 (almost 2400°F). We reached temperature around 6:30pm, then we went home, exhausted, dirty, and happy.

The hardest part is waiting A WHOLE WEEK before knowing what happened to our pots! But our patience was rewarded, the kiln load was gorgeous. The unglazed surfaces glowed with rich tones and salt glaze. The celadon was clear with color ranging from gray to yellow to green. The temmoku was particularly nice, ranging from amber to rust red to espresso brown. Some folks even got the copper red glaze to work! Here are just some of the beautiful pots ...

Here is a link to Amy Castner's Flickr album from the workshop, she took great pictures, plus she titled and captioned them in a way that really depicts the sequence of events well.

Big thanks to all the potters in the workshop! They made tremendous efforts towards their pots, the kiln, and each other. They have a spirit of cooperation and learning that is a joy to be around. This is why I think the kiln rewarded us so well.

And million thanks to Allison, for all her help, guidance, and trust, and for making us feel welcome at her home and her kiln! It is truly a beautiful place to visit, and to learn, honor, and celebrate this ancient and mysterious process.

Annmarie Garden: The Great Indoors

I love a good outdoor art festival, but doing one indoors is a real treat. Artsfest at Annmarie Garden is still mostly an outdoor festival, which I have enjoyed for the last 7 or 8 years (lost count). When they opened their brand new 15,000 sq.ft. Arts Building last year and offered some indoor booths, I pounced! An indoor show means freedom from obsessing about the weather (good for my mental health), leaving my 75 lb. canopy at home (no physical exhaustion at the end), and a level floor (which lets me create a more polished display, and it's safer for the pots). So now there is another level of quality to what was already an outstanding event.

Special thanks to Anne and Jim Williams, who have been letting me stay at their house in Calvert County during this show for several years. It is fun to hang out with them, plus Mary, Jack, and Eli the irresistible dog. "Pet me." "Yes Eli." And many thanks to Karen Grossman, who was my middle school art teacher, and started me towards a life of art. (good teachers make a difference!) She is now a serious potter too, soon to complete an MFA in ceramics at Hood College. Some of her classmates were also in this show, so she came to wish us all well. And she sat in my booth so I could take a break!

Lots of Reed Handles!

On Saturday, August 1, we wrestled and twisted our reeds into beautiful handles. Many thanks to Carol Wisdom, Vejune Svotelis, Kori Rice, Diana Guillermo, and Kuniko Wallis who took part in the lesson. Here are some of our pots lining up for a group photo (photo by Kori Rice). I can't wait to see all the pots and handles that will be coming to life soon!

Artscape Baltimore 2009: Pottery is like wild bird seed

I recently heard this on NPR ... credit card companies have determined that people who buy premium wild bird seed are the least likely to default on their debts. (On the other end of the scale, people who buy chrome car accessories are the most likely to default on their debts.) I betcha if handmade pottery was sold with trackable barcodes, credit analysts would see that it is very similar to premium wild bird seed. It's something you buy without obligation. It's humble not flashy, though less expensive choices exist. The value comes from daily small pleasures, not from showing off to your neighbors. People like this are probably not living on the edge financially, and more likely to be weathering this recession safely. Which might explain why I just had my record best show ever at Artscape Baltimore this past weekend.

It also helped that the weather was premium too, not the usual mid-atlantic July haze, but sunny and cool and clear. I also had some very entertaining street theatre performances right next to my booth, which made for a big and happy crowd nearby. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself, my pots were a big hit, I saw a lot of friends, I was entertained, I got a tan, all without sweating myself into a puddle.

There was one bad thing ... about $150 worth of things were stolen from my booth. My next door neighbor had some artwork and his iPod stolen. Probably by people who buy chrome car accessories. But this is the first theft I've experienced at Artscape, so I don't hold it against the event, but rather the recession.

Here's a photo of me in my nearly empty booth, towards the end of the show (photo taken by Quianna Douglas, one of my pottery students).

Reed Handle Workshop

There are still a few spaces open in this workshop I am teaching at the Greenbelt Community Center on August 1. 

Learn how to create sturdy, lightweight, and good-looking handles for your pottery by weaving them out of basketry reeds. Ideal for teapots, baskets, trays, and more. Participants may bring their own pot; a cardboard "substitute pot" will be provided for everyone else. Each student will receive enough reed to build one handle during the class, and a second one later on their own time. All materials provided. All skill levels welcome.

To register, call the Greenbelt Community Center at 301-397-2208 and register for the following:

Reed Handle Workshop

Activity #353242-1

August 1, 2009, 1pm - 5pm

Instructor: Mea Rhee

Tuition is $30 for Greenbelt residents; $40 for non-Greenbelt residents

Right now, I am a full-time potter

This is how my studio looks these days, all the tables and shelves are covered with drying pots. And this is the hallway where the finished pots gather, while waiting to be shipped. I have never made pots at this pace before.

My "desk job" as a graphic designer usually takes up most of my time. I've been growing the pottery business on the side in my limited spare time. But this year, 2009, things have changed.

In February, I took my pots to the Buyers Market of American Craft (BMAC) in Philadelphia, fully expecting to earn some experience but not much more, given how the economy has been pretty rough on the arts. To my surprise I came home with a healthy stack of orders, and I've been potting like crazy ever since.

It won't last (sigh), I will finish the last orders next month, after that I probably won't keep up this production pace (my arms are tired). And big design jobs are on the schedule for later this summer and fall, so it's back to the desk job soon. Don't get me wrong, I am ever grateful for my design clients (from talking to other designers, I know I have the best clients), but it was nice to be a full-time potter for at least a few months.