Art City Ad

I haven't been excited for a Craft Show in a long time I'm looking forward to this one. Maybe it's all the great food I'll get to eat while downtown.

Art City Austin from Lucky Rabbit Films on Vimeo.

Well....

...I don't really know what to say...Boston, the economy,  the new work, the new show, the new location?  It was rough.  

Craft Shows can be tough....I started doing them in 2002.  My first show was Crafts at the Castle, which this show is replacing.   On the very first day of our very first show Evangelina and I were wrapping pots and passing them off to customers as you would pass a hot dog down the row of seats at a baseball game.  

This show...not so much.  It was frustrating because this show was the first time I was showing my new work.  For me it was the culmination of 7 months of work switching from soda/salt/wood to reduction firing.

New work...new booth...new expectations....uh oh.  

I know that I can't take it personally when things don't go as planned.  Thank you to all who did show up and have added some of my new work to your collections.  I'm grateful and I hope you enjoy your new pieces.  Even though this show didn't pan out as planned I have some positive things to bring back with me.  The feedback I got on my new work was tremendous...especially from fellow artists and long time customers.

Now...obviously I would have been ecstatic to sell all of the work that I brought with me...and that was my plan.  But, that is well beyond my control.  We are beginning an interesting time for our country with an economy that has over-leveraged and over-consumed.  I have joked with my customers over the years that I lucked into pottery by taking a class one summer at Skidmore.  I always said that because of that one class I actually graduated college with a skill.  No matter how disappointing a single show is, it pales in comparison to the fact that I have created something.  My pots are here...they exist...they are real.  

So...enough dwelling on a disappointing show.  I had an entire weekend to do that. Tomorrow it begins again.  I'll start small....probably by unloading the van.  Perhaps that will lead to cleaning the studio and with that clean space I'll be able to figure out where this last round of pots will lead me to next.  

Oh...and while I was gone, did anyone happen to clean my bisque kiln full of blown up pots?  See...I have things to do.  

And to put it all in perspective...when I got home I went upstairs to see my kids who I haven't seen since sending them off to school on Wednesday.  I still had my name tag hanging around my neck which led to Alejandra asking me..."Wow...did you win a medal?"  

I said yes and I gave her my medal.

I just went up to turn out her lights...this is how I found her.  I think she has created a pre-school for her dolls.

CraftBoston, Setting Up.

Well...I'm wireless blogging up here at CraftBoston thanks to my father's 3g wireless connect card.

I'm just about done setting up the booth as the picture above shows.  I just need to tweak a few things and make sure that everything is priced.  I forgot a lot more booth stuff than I should have.  I wanted to hang that large platter but I have no wire to hang it with.  I could use a few extra shelves to deal with all of the extra orange space on the walls.  And, if I could find some tape that would keep my nice sign up on the wall that would help.  But...these are all little things.  The plan is that people are looking at the work instead of the booth....right?

I'll get some pics of the work up soon.  I'm hoping to see all of you living in the Boston area.

Boston....

Tomorrow, these will be in Boston...

Tomorrow is set-up day at CraftBoston.  I meant to snap some photos of the newest pots but I ran out of time.  Don't worry...I'll be able to take some during the show and I'll even try to find some time to upload them while I'm in Boston.

So..tomorrow, I'll try to figure out my new booth set-up and get a good amount of work done so that Thursday is a little easier of a work day before the show starts Thursday night.

It should all go really smoothly because Ben helped put together an awfully cool booth. It should set up really easily and I shouldn't need to ask any friends or neighbors for help....that doesn't mean I won't.  I'll get some pics tomorrow during the set-up.

Now it's off to find all of those power cords, power strips and all of the other little things to make a booth work.

Lists

My list of things to get done seems to be getting longer.  

I've been more productive in the studio than I have been in a while...but the list keeps growing. I haven't tried to turn-around the reduction kiln this quickly in years so there's no post firing rest this time.  On the upside...I'm actually unloading the second kiln-load with time to spare before I load up the van for CraftBoston...and that's unusual for me.

I  got a little more throwing done today but probably not enough to fully fill another bisque kiln. Unless I somehow manage to find some more energy tonight and throw another ware-board full of pots I'll be loading a not quite dry and not quite full electric bisque tomorrow night.  Then, it's off to the races as I get ready for another firing, figure out a booth setup and try to find some time to update my website with the new work.

Still Cooling

While the kiln cools I'm trying to throw lots of small things to fill up the little spaces in the next kiln...more importantly...they need to dry quickly so I can cycle them through and fill up another bisque or 2 before Wednesday.

I planned on making some cups for bourbon but these are a little taller and might have lines that are a little too elegant for bourbon.  We'll have to find another function for them.  I thought of turning them into mugs but I want to play around with decorating the 4 sides of these guys.

Here are some little shot cups...they're all about 1/2 pound of clay or less.  I'll play around with glazes on these little guys....and it will be good to have something under $20 in my booth up in Boston.