A POTTERY EXPLOSION

                  

This year I was invited to participate in about 7 holiday bazaars.  I only did 1.  Why, well all of them were either on Saturday or in the afternoon during the week and I had to work.  I did one because I committed to it early on and didn't want to disappoint anyone.  I left Bruce at the studio alone for 3 classes on a Saturday.  He was such a trooper, he decided to do clay with the kids.  It's an easy project when you are alone...you don't have to worry about standing up and giving a lesson, passing out paints, etc...  But I felt bad that he had to do it alone and I don't really make that much at bazaars and it's a pain packing up all the pottery and unpacking and being happy and cheerful for 8 hours.  I did sell quite a bit of stuff though, so thanks to everyone who bought something. 

 

New color for me.  RED.  It's the most expensive glaze but I like the results.  Alone it's not so good - fire engine red, but I really like it pared with brown.  Most of my colors are blue, brown and green, all cool colors, so I like having a warm color in the mix.

I shared a table with a woman named Rebecca Hahn .  She chose me to share a table with her and that made me smile.  She is a very talented illustrator and it was her first bazaar.  I bought one of her t-shirts for Bruce.

I was panicked getting ready for this bazaar.  It was 1 weekend after I got married and I wanted to make sure I had a big variety of stuff.  I was also doing a very large custom order for a good friend of mine and she wanted everything for Thanksgiving.   And my family was in town for 1 week.  It was crazy.  BUT, I haven't thrown since then.  I would love pottery to be my full time business, but sadly it isn't.  The Studio is my full-time business and it brings in the bucks.  It's hard to find time between cycling (which is very important to me and usually takes 2 - 2 1/2 hours a day to do) and napping (which is also very important to me).  Pottery takes time, you have to weigh out your clay, then you throw your piece, then you trim your piece (or add a handle), then you let it dry, then you  load into the kiln for the bisque fire, then you take it out, then you wax bottom, then you glaze it, the you put it back in the kiln for the glaze fire, then you take it out and finally you are done.  Hopefully if we move to France I'll be able to throw full time.  It would be great to spend 1/2 the day doing stuff that I know sells and the other 1/2 experimenting. 

So, here I am, this small little pottery studio.  I don't do any marketing because it's not a full time job and I just don't have the time and if I market myself then I have to make more and I just can't do both businesses right now.   I sell my ware in 2 stores here in Los Angeles and at our studio.  I have some very loyal customers (thank you if you are reading). So, imagine my surprise when last week I received an email from a writer with the New Jersey Star newspaper.  She was doing an article about handmade gifts, found my website, loved my pottery and wanted to feature it in the article.  WHAT?  So, I send over some pictures and it was in the home section of the paper on Saturday and it's on the home section of their on-line paper for 1 week.  SO hurry and check it out.  Handmade Treasures.  My sister asked me what would I do if all of a sudden I got tons of orders...  I'll keep you posted!