Bayou City Recap

Houston, I think I love you!

Thanks to all who came out to Bayou City Downtown during the beautiful weekend. The show was packed but even better was that people were leaving with some new pots. It was definitely one of the more successful shows that I've had in a while and am glad that so many pots found new homes in Houston.

I'd write more but I feel like I'm already behind schedule for the Texas Clay Festival in Gruene(pronounced "Green"). I've got some pots to catch up on so I can have a full booth for the festival. More on the Clay Fest later...it's a pretty cool event and I'm glad to be part of it this year.
One of the cool things about Bayou City was that they had these barcodes for each of us. With an App on your smartphone you could scan it and get right to my website. I'm glad my site is somewhat up-to-date....somewhat is the key word. That's on my list of things to do when I have a moment.

Sneak Preview

I'm just about ready for the big show this weekend. Art City Austin is Saturday 4/24 & Sunday 4/25. I just need to clean up a few things and pack up some pots. I'll be setting up tomorrow night and ready for a beautiful weekend in Downtown Austin.

Here are a few sneak preview pics of the new decal wares. My email newsletter went out today. If you didn't get it, sign up on the right hand side of the blog or on my website. That way you won't miss out on any future announcements.

I'm in Booth 304 this weekend near the corner of Guadalupe and Cesar Chavez.

See you there!

Fluted

I've been playing around with some simple forms for this firing. As I said earlier, I'll be firing them in my friend Ryan's soda kiln which will give the bare porcelain a nice sheen and a nice medium for the decal application.

I fired a bisque yesterday and have another bisque-load drying. I'll make another bunch Monday & Tuesday of next week, then the making is done and it's glazing and firing time. Art City Austin is going to sneak up quick and since I need some time for applying & firing the decals I actually need to be ready ahead of time....yeah right.

Art City Austin

We're back from an amazing trip to El Salvador. We went all over the country and had a blast doing so. We went from city to beach, from city to lake, from city to beach and back. The kids had a blast and this will probably be the first trip to El Salvador that they truly remember. Javi and Ale had been before but it had been almost 3 years so their memories were hazy. With all the fun they had this trip, it should be crystal clear for a long time.

Now that we're back it's time to focus on getting ready for Art City Austin. I don't know much about the show other than it's right here in town, put on by a wonderful local organization that works really hard to promote Art in Austin and that it's going to be in a wonderful location. The show stretches along the Lake on Cesar Chavez from Colorado Street to Lamar. I've only done one other outdoor show before so I'm hoping for good weather. I'll let you all know my exact location when I find out.

I'm also hoping that my good friends Abigail and Steven win the TOGS Competition so I can use their exhibition space rather than set up under a sorry EZ-UP Tent.

Cold Morning....Warm Start.

It's another cold winter day up here.  Seemed like a good idea to start it out with a hot bowl of steel cut oats served up in a bowl by Michael McCarthy.

I'm having some morning time with Clarita until Evangelina makes it back from some morning errands...then it's off to the studio.  I promise...and pics will prove it later today.  I've been working slowly this week but I feel like I'm in decent shape for the upcoming show.  I'm trying to avoid the typical freak-out 2 weeks before where I don't think I have enough work and then realize that I've made too much and will be okay with what I've got.

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.

Ready To Go

Almost.  

The firing finished of nicely on Saturday Morning.  I'm not sure if the all-nighter was worth it though.  But, I will be unloading in about an hour, as soon as I get Clarita down for her morning nap.  With my normal firing and cooling schedule I unload the kiln mid-afternoon....so at least I'll get the pots out earlier today.

I peeked in the kiln late last night and was able to snag a few pieces from the bottom this morning.  The celadon came out really nicely on both the stoneware and the porcelain.  It's very strange how much I'm liking the celadon glaze.  This summer was my first time firing reduction for my work in a long time.  

For the past few years it had been strictly soda, salt, and woodfiring.  Once my little soda-kiln here died I was so attached to vapor glazing my wares that I was driving across the state to "borrow" Mark's kiln.  It got to be a little too much traveling to finish my work...the fact that I have 3 kids added to the time constraints.  I look forward to getting some pots back in an atmospheric kiln at some point but right now the decorations under the celadon glaze are working really well.  I just feel like a celadon glaze is about as far away from a kaolin slip as you can get.  But...it's working....no need to question it. Of course, this show is my first big show featuring all of this new work so we'll see how it is all received.  

Today will be spent unloading the kiln, sanding, pricing and packing up pots for the show and the orders that need to go out.  The new booth walls have a couple coats of paint on them...good enough to go.

Pics to come after I unload and get some work done.  Oh...and Michael (McCarthy), finish building that kiln so I can sneak some pots into a woodfiring!

Firing Day/Night

I turned on the pilots about an hour ago after a marathon glazing session in the studio. 

My studio right now makes that electric kiln below look clean and organized.  I'll hopefully get it back to somewhat normal tomorrow but today I have no intentions of rectifying that situation.  Once again, that apprentice idea for Austin is looking like a smart move.

I plan on letting the kiln climb slowly this evening and then fire it off through the night.  If all goes according to my grand plan I'll be reducing the kiln by 6am and then just wait for some cones to drop before lunch tomorrow.  

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent getting my booth ready for CraftBoston. I have a corner booth but am bringing a new setup that my friend Ben is helping me put together.  The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't know how I'm going to do the lighting.  I usually bring a conduit pipe setup for pipe and drape.  This time I want to avoid having a corner post in the front, open corner.  That leads to the problem of hanging the tracks since I have no way of lighting the front corner now.  Words aren't working with this description.  I'll try to get some pics up this weekend to explain myself better.

Time to brainstorm....if only my brain was working.