Gallery Demo

Well, the past few weeks have been scheduled almost to the minute.  With running the kids from activity to activity, getting the new booth shelves finished, attending a workshop, and now preparing for a gallery show starting in a few hours.

The ice storm a few weeks ago stopped us in our tracks waiting a week for electricity, but we have met all deadlines so far. Whew!  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, our bisque shelves are empty.  I guess the next two days doing demos at the gallery will have to go to replenish the stock.

Also with all the rain, the fire danger may be down enough to allow us to do a pit fire.  We did not do any last year and the selection of pit pots is very limited.  I hope I can get enough thrown before it gets too dry.

Its been several, several weeks since I've spun a pot.  I hope I don't make a fool of myself throwing in front of an audience.  I will have my trash can close just in case.

2012 update

Well the 2012 festival season has ended this past weekend.  We have now put the booth away, and put all the remaining inventory back on the shelves for now.  It has been a challenging year, most shows level, few were down, few were up.  Gallery sales have increased which is good.  Since we introduced Obvara in our last 3 shows, it has comprised of 70% of our sales.

Fall is the time we submit to a few exhibitions, We currently have two active now the 5th biennial South Dakota Governor's Show that opens in it second venue, SD State Art Museum, later this month on its 18 month tour.  Also the 1st Juried Exhibition at the Washington Pavilion is going on now, where we have 1 of 60 pieces selected for the show.

Tonight I'm finishing our annual Paint the Night Pink submission, it's a great night, 10/19/2012, of fun, food,drink and art.  If you are in the area I strongly urge you to purchase a ticket and attend.  Also working on another one, but we have never been accepted, maybe this is the year, submitting two Obvara pieces.

Fall is also the time of year we look for additional galleries, I think we are looking at trying to add one or two  this year.  We are also in negotiations with an interior design firm to market our work to their clients, may have that finished by the end of the month.

With the extreme dry conditions in South Dakota, our fall pit fire is cancelled, so the pits on hand is all we will have until next year unless it is dry again.

throwing

My Mother-in-Law was so kind to point out this week that my shelves were looking rather empty...So a throwing I will go. Bisqued a kiln load last week, and have one starting this morning and enough pots to light it again in a couple days. It's not that I haven't been working, just not as much as I normally have by this time of year.

I hope to do a foil saggar firing in the next couple weeks, but the W2 is keeping me busy working extra hours. Hours that come out of my throwing time. I guess I need the feel the crunch more than I do right now. I do have enough finish work for the 1st few show, lots of great Pits, just no foil or paper saggars. I have about 8 platters ready to go, which don't see to stick around long at shows or galleries, but I want to do more once my drying containers are emptied.

I figure I've throw just shy of 350 pounds of clay in the past couple weeks, for some of you that not much, but it been all I've managed to get done in the half to one day I've been averaging.

I am working on a couple test piece of a new design inspired by Michael Eden, 3 test pots are under plastic drying now, these are much more labor intensive than our standard pots, lets hope they turn out.

So Far this year we will be back at Sidewalk Arts in Sioux Falls, Artburst in Orange City, and Art on the Lake in Excelsior. Also have a piece touring South Dakota for 16 months beginning in May.

Until next time...

professional potter?

Last night, I thought occurred to me that I may have met one of my life goals, on a technicality. For about the last 20 years, I have always said I wanted to be a professional potter when I grow up. Thinking back to the definition of professional in terms of athletics, you were considered a professional when someone paid you to do it. Well I have sold pots for over 3 years now, someone is paying me for my work. I guess by definition I am a professional and have met my goal.

The technicality comes in, when I said that goal, i always meant that would be my profession, and I supported my family on that profession. I never stated the goal was to be a self sufficient potter, just a professional potter.

I don't feel like a professional. What does a professional potter feel like? I know I have people come to me for help with their pottery. Our website is doing well, even thought the search engines ignore it, (i'm working on it). I have been taking more and more custom orders for stoneware, a technique I'm don't do regularly.

I know when I was a manager of restaurants, I considered myself a professional and many of the same things applied. Was it that I reported to someone and they told me I was a professional? Or did I just act the role of the professional because of the title?

In my current night/day job the infamous W2, I am regarded as a professional. Once again not sure it is because someone told me I was or the prestige of a title. I do enjoy my W2 job, it is very satisfying knowing you did make a difference or an impact nearly everyday. On the other side, I have found out things and learned things about people I can never forget and somethings are better to be naive about.

I know I now need to amend the goal. It just feels weird to put professional pottery behind my name. I realize by definition I have obtained that right, but not certain if it appropriate yet.

Whew...

My mind is seriously drained. Over the past 53 hours or so I have built a website, made several modifications, opened an etsy store, and set up payments through paypal, worked W2 in emergency services during a flash thunderstorm/flood where people have no problems driving through flooded streets and upset when their car and belongings cannot/will not be rescue until water subsides, couple structure fires caused by lighting, cars falling into construction holes and man holes were the lid blew off, plus the normal day to day things of being a father and husband. Tonight I have meetings and back to W2.

I did make it into the studio for a short period today, I worked on sealing a couple pieces in tung oil, a new process I'm trying. Also added a google+1 button to the website and began working on making it more search friendly.

My brain is still working the details on a couple new designs, one would be a customizible series and the other new design for my new found, but rarely seen (yet), expression pieces. One will be going to White Crane Gallery in Omaha next week.

Also while sitting sealing pieces i began to rethink the studio layout. I need to think a bit more on that for a while. trying to determine if I should rebuild my drying table for one that has more room, but sacrifice my space for a future slab roller. Definitely need to think on that for a while.