Spruce Pine Potters Market

The Market has just finished with some very good traffic and quite a few folks carrying bags of pots. As a general statement, no surveys or market analysis taken, I think most of the sells were in the moderate to mid level price range, but the best is that people were buying. Saturday was a strong selling day for everyone that I had spoken.
The show keeps growing and the quality of the work is high. A note for show organizers, when you bring in junk to a show, your educated buyers will not show up, they don't want to go to a flea market. I've seen lots of shows bite the dirt because organizers were just making extra spaces to jam in as many booths as possible. I feel that these shows will usually self destruct, but with most of the expense, usually thrown on the backs of artist doing the show.
I had gone to south Florida to do a show, several years back. The promotions had declared the shows virtues and its visitors/ sell numbers were very high. Well, there was no mention that a lot of the booth were low and in a flood plane. If it had rained, I would have been fishing from my pedestals. An "artist", used very loosely, sat in his booth and cried most of the show, this raised the water level up an inch or two. Then, there was the young couple who bought a double booth on another side of me and they brought most of their living room suit, to make the customers comfortable, while they, the customers, looked on to black velvet paintings, that kept me nauseated most of the show. Actually, I was waiting for the belly dancing to start. So, to make my point, If I had not won best of show in clay, I would have had to max out my credit cards to get home.
I have a point to this story. I believe that craftsmen are going to have to ban together and create their own specialized shows, potters markets, glass shows, and/ or sculpture shows, etc.. Inflation, gas prices have made a demand for centralized markets. We are fortunate here, in that there are enough studios to make a fairly large show, with an above average quality of work.
In this economy, artisan works are usually the first thing that will slow in sells, and it is usually the last thing that buyers will start buying after money has loosened up. So, creative thinking will be the way we can survive in a tight economy. Let me know your ideals, I'd love to pass them along and give me a better insight to selling in better ways.

Mint Museum Potters Invitational

It occurred this weekend, and I was able to go around a little bit and say hi. Folks were buying and a lot of the potters were busy up till closing. That was very refreshing to see, most shows have been very slow with a lot of potters going home not even paying for their booth. Charlotte was very comfortable for me this year, we got lost going in to Charlotte the first year and then Maria and I got a bit sick from the stress I had self imposed. But, this time we had a couple of decent meals and just rested. Maria had a sinus and ear infection and was not up to par, but she hung in there for the show and enjoyed herself.
Can anyone guess the mystery potter in the first photo? My flash did not go off. It looked like a good contest.



This is Shawn Irland talking with a buyer.

This is a shot of Ken Sedberry and his guardian series.

Jane Pieser is with some buyers and Terry Gess is in the back ground.

Terry Gess was the mystery photo.

A return to functional work

Just unloaded the kiln on sunday, to a very nice firing with temperatures no more than 10-15 degrees top to bottom, with consistant moderate reduction all the way through. Some of my bad clay (too much silica on board) snuck through, so a couple of pieces bit the pit. Maria and I clean up the rest of them and packed them up for the show this coming weekend in Charlotte at the Mint Museum. If your in the area stop by, there will be some very good work to select.

Potoviewr Photo Gallery

I found this today and thought I would pass it along. It adds alot to the blog, excuse the repeat of photos, but they were the only ones I had on Flicker. I had to do this in two post, sorry. I haven't tried it yet, but you might be able to click on the upper left corner ID and it should take you to the site.

FotoViewr - Create your 3D photo gallery

Paul's Photos

Wanted to pass along some shots my son Paul took the other day on top of the "Roan".

good stuff

Just wanted to pass along a search engine that I just spotted. www.bing.com . I was wanting to look at images of wood fired anagama kilns. I clicked on the images menu (left side of page) and then entered "anagama kilns" in the search bar. It literally loaded thousands of photos of pots, kilns, and people associated with my search. Then, if you find something that interest you, just click on picture and it will yield lots of info about the photo. This is good stuff.

I have been focusing on the garden and getting work done for the Studio Tour this coming weekend. I'm trying to stay positive about traffic to the gallery and I think that we will be seeing more folks coming from regional areas close to Mitchell and Yancey counties. Gas pricing going up and the general condition of the economy I'm sure will affect us. Good Luck to all this weekend and may crowds be in your studio.