Bon Iver= Good Music

I'm no longer hip and I'm not a big fan of small, crowded places but I would love to see Bon Iver. I'm going to miss 2 shows here in Austin in October as we'll be in Portland, ME that weekend.

I found this on twitter from @birbigs

Settling In

We're adjusting to life in Austin pretty well so far. The toughest thing is the heat but I'm proud of myself for dealing with it as well as I have been. Mainly, I'm planning on not being embarrassed about sweating anymore. It made it up to 106º again today.

I've spent the last few days tooling around the city trying to find a new studio. My friend from Skidmore, Mike Merritt, has been living in for Austin about 12 years and lives on the East Side of town. I drove around with him the other day looking at the neighborhoods and brainstorming about studios. We even stopped by fellow potter, Ryan McKerley's studio. Ryan rebuilt his kiln recently and had a studio full of work that he was getting ready to fire. He shares a studio space with jewelry artist Lisa Crowder, whose work we had carried at our gallery. It was nice to catch up and see what's going on in town here.

I looked at a couple of spaces yesterday and today. My dilemma is, do I want a space close or within a retail area or a space a little further away and one that will be purely a studio space? Obviously, there's a price difference between those 2 ideas. The benefit would also be the ability to sell pots out of the shop, something that I'm very used to.

Right now I'm leaning towards leasing a place a little further out. It's a new space in a brand new live/work development in East Austin. It's a little further out from downtown but nothing is too far in this small city.

I'm going to look at a few more places but hopefully I'll have a studio soon.

Here's where the new studio might be...

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And I'm Off...

View Larger Map

Thank You

I've been putting off this post until the last minute. Those of you who know me well probably won't be surprised to hear that I've been procrastinating. Today is my last full day on the Cape as a "year-rounder" and in classic Cape fashion, it's cloudy, grey and foggy.

I'll be spending the day loading the mini-van, taking Javi to his tennis clinic, getting some beach time in with everyone(if it clears) and enjoying a great cookout at my folk's house(what am I cooking Dad?).

Today feels awfully strange but I'm trying not to think about the actual saying goodbye thing. Here's a little note that will be on our gallery door and posted up to our website shortly:

Thank You All

After 12 years on the Cape I want to thank everybody who supported us through the years here at Kreeger Pottery. Many of you have seen my work grow from the very beginning. You have also seen the gallery expand from an extension of the studio to become one of the premier contemporary craft galleries on Cape Cod. It has been so nice to meet you all and get to know you through the years. We are honored that we became a part of your summers for so long.

For those that don’t know, we are relocating our studio & gallery and moving to Austin, TX. We’re excited to make the move but saddened to leave the wonderful support you all have given us through the years.

I hope that you enjoy everything that you have gotten from us for years to come. Keep in touch and thank you for your many years of support.

You can view and purchase all of our current work at www.kreegerpottery.com. Check out the site and sign up for our email list online so you can keep up to date with us. I'll let you all know once I get the new studio up and running.

Best,
Keith & Evangelina Kreeger

On The Way

Well, the truck was a few hours late but by about 5:30 this evening it was fully loaded with our stuff....lot's of stuff. Actually, it was half loaded with our stuff and then off to another house to fill the other half. My stress level was high until the end. That's when they loaded the important stuff onto the truck. My electric kiln and motorcycle made it onto the truck without a problem. Now, let's just hope that everything makes it there in one piece....and hopefully by the end of next week so we're not waiting too long once we're down there.

Next up is to enjoy the weekend and load the minivan with everything that didn't make it onto the truck.

Load 'em up

Just like stacking a kiln, right?

Packing Day

The gallery full of boxes...
The house full of boxes...at least the first floor.

The movers are here packing up everything that we didn't. Evangelina has been a packing monster in the house. Yesterday I finally got up the nerve to enter the studio and figure out what's coming and going. Yeah, yeah....last minute as usual...what can I say, I'm a potter, right?

I had packed up most of the gallery but left a few larger pieces for the movers to pack. We're pretty much set in the gallery. All of my new and current work is coming. All of my older work and seconds will stay here for a seconds sale next summer up here.

The studio was a little more complex and is still a mess but I'm making some progress. I unhooked the electric kiln yesterday and it's ready for the truck. My wheels are clean and ready for the truck tomorrow. My nice metal shelving is ready to go on the truck. The bats as well as the throwing and trimming tools are ready to go. I really only want to bring the essentials. I have accumulated way too much junk over the years and I don't want to repeat the same mistake in Austin, let alone, spend money moving it. Once I find the space, all I'll need to do is build a wedging table and a nice work table and I'll be ready to go.

Tomorrow I'll clean and organize the studio so that I can then figure out where all of my dry materials are going as well as whatever big stuff I'm leaving behind.

The moving truck comes tomorrow to pick up everything. Then it's one last weekend on the Cape before I hit the road Tuesday morning.

Yeah...The goodbye post is coming....I promise