Road Trip to Fallingwater

I'm not even sure my good ol' Subaru is supposed to hold five adults, but that didn't stop me and four adventurous friends from piling into it and driving 3.5 hours to Fallingwater. (from left to right in the photo: Karen Arrington, Neil Morgenstern, Karen Morgenstern, me, Vejune Svotelis) There was a pottery-related reason for the trip ... I had to deliver a large order of pottery to the Fallingwater Museum Store. So in addition to five people, there were three large boxes packed full of pottery in the back, as we climbed over the mountain ridges between DC and Pittsburgh. Fallingwater is a stunning and glorious place to visit. If you have any interest in art, design, or architecture, go as soon as you can. Here's their website fallingwater.org

Thursday Night Teapots

My Thursday night Intermediate Wheel class has been asking to make teapots for months, so this session we took the plunge! We did several projects to lead up to this form, like throwing spheres, throwing enclosed forms, and pulling lots of handles. The pots shown above were made by throwing an enclosed form, trimming it on a chuck then cutting off its lid. Then we added thrown spouts and pulled handles. Also in the photo are some of the jars that preceded the teapots. I think they turned out great! The pots in the photo were made by (vaguely from left to right) Lorraine DeSalvo, Carolyn Neuendorffer, Melanie Choe, Andrea Waters, Jeri Holloway, Kuniko Wallis, Quianna Douglas, Margaret Lukomska, and Jamie Consuegra.

Hip to Be Square

This is a project from my Friday night Advanced Wheel class. This project started last November when several of us went to see the Winterfest show at Baltimore Clayworks (my pots were in that show, along with about 20 other potters). We were all impressed by the pots of Sequoia Miller that we saw there, and soon after I came across a blog post on Sequoia's blog describing how to make Square Lidded Boxes, and we decided to try it! This project was very challenging, we all learned a great deal about altering and assembling, not to mention patience and precision. Furthermore, right after we threw our walls, it started snowing and didn't stop for 3 weeks. ok I'm exaggerating, but due to cancelled classes and the Buyers Market, we didn't get to assemble the pots until 3 weeks after we threw them. I'm happy to report that most of them survived. In this photo, many of the pots are still works in progress, but trust me, the finished pots were outstanding! From left to right in the photo, the pots were made by Karen Morgenstern, Chris Coyle, me, Kori Rice, Christina Guidorizzi, Karen Arrington, and Amy Castner.

After the BMAC: I'm going to be very pale this year ....

.... because I will spend the next 6 months in my basement making pots! I had a really successful show. I took 19 orders, including 9 from existing accounts and 10 new galleries. Thanks to everyone who wished me safe travels to Philly, the roads were pretty clear and the driving was ok, plus the Rosen Group made our arrival times flexible. The hard part was walking through ankle-deep slush puddles between the convention center and the hotel.

I don't want to sound overly celebratory, because it seemed the show overall had a down atmosphere. And what feels successful to a growing, part-time business might not relate to anyone else's pottery business (my advice to aspiring professional potters, always measure your success by your own self-defined goals, comparing yourself to others is bad for your sanity). My business will grow considerably this year, in spite of a continuing recession, and for that I feel grateful and optimistic. Still no plans to quit my design practice, but like last year I am giving myself permission to make pots full-time for the next few months!

Getting Ready for BMAC: The Big Chill

So one week before the BMAC (Buyers Market of American Craft) I was feeling pretty good about my planning ... all my pots were fired, my pricelist was printed, I actually had some free time to work on an early order. And then ... we got buried in two feet of snow! My power went out on Saturday morning, and didn't come back until Monday evening. That was 2.5 very cold days, wearing layers of fleece and trying not to stand still.

My Friday night pottery class was cancelled, we rescheduled it for Monday night and it got cancelled again ... because the area roads were still being cleared. We had thrown some pretty ambitious pots the week before, we were planning to alter and assemble them ... now we have to hope they don't dry out before we meet again, which won't be until after the BMAC.

I spent the day Monday packing up my booth for the show, and moving everything into my car. This was partly to stay warm, and partly because there's more snow coming tonight! Another foot or so is forecasted for the DC area and for Philadelphia ... ugh. Now I plan to spend Wednesday night shoveling snow again, and hoping the roads are safe to drive to Philly on Thursday morning. I'm trying not to feel down, I bet every artist in the show is stressing out about traveling this week. I'm telling myself that Thursday will be a long and challenging day, but after that the forecast looks clear, so buyers should be able to attend.

At least I'm glad that all of my planning and packing is done. All I can do now is hope the power doesn't go out again, and brace myself for the next few days.

Holiday Open House 2009

I held my Holiday Open House on December 12-13. This year I was very pleased to be joined by my friend Nan Rothwell, who brought her salt-glazed functional pots from Faber, Va. (near Charlottesville). I'm a big fan of her work, and of the workshops she conducts at her studio. I got to trade with her (an elephant for a mug), and her pots were fascinating and highly educational for my students who came to see the show. The attendance was great, especially on Saturday! This is my third time holding an open house, so I've figured out a pretty good system now ... transforming my living room into a showroom ... picking the right dates and hours ... what works in terms of marketing, and what doesn't ... this year it felt really easy, like I didn't waste any effort. Can't say the same for Olive, my cat, who was a bit wigged out by the commotion (she forgave me soon).

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!