Hap, Hap, Happy Girl on Joya Court

Day; 92. Sunny, warm, beautiful. Temperature on outside kiln; 65 degrees.
Firings; Just unloading the last image transfer kiln for the Contemporary Clay Fair.

Writing this blog, doing the dishes, laundry, anything at all to keep me from opening the kiln too soon and cracking all the hard-won pieces that are in there. Still a little hot to the touch so I am giving them all another 30 minutes...

Teaching/meeting with student Kris again this morning and reviewing handles and how to make and attach, I think these pieces look pretty good!...

(Back in 5 minutes, I know I said 30 minutes but I want to see what's in the kiln, damn it..)

Okay, unloaded everything and I am a hap, hap, happy girl. Really some beautiful stuff in there. I wish I could keep some it for myself. Someday  I will begin to do that..! Here are my 3 faves for the show;

Very tempted to keep the two noodle bowls, really love them, oh well, I can always make more, but then I never do?! Feeling relieved and proud of the work, especially as it was touch and go 2 days ago. Now to sand all the pretty bare bottoms so they feel like a baby's you know what and then price and pack. Off to new homes go my challenging children in clay.....

Contemporary Clay Fair A-comin' Down the Pike

Day; 77. Sunny, warm and a bit breezy again. Temperature on outside kiln; 60 degrees
Firings; image transfer firing afternoon/evening to cone 02, about 8 hours total. Off by 9pm. Unload
finished work in the morning! Yipeeeeeeee

I spent this  morning finishing up image transfers that I started on Friday!? Finally got kiln fully loaded and firing by early afternoon. I tried to take  a brief nap for 30 minutes, that is  until dog sled team woke me up to dish out their puppy chow. Somehow they can tell what time it is without being able to read a clock....

Afterwards, I had an early dinner with Adele Devalcourt from Handstar Designs in Louisiana. About 18 months ago I helped her start a crowd-funding project through Indigogo. Her dream was to move back home to Lafayette and open up her own ceramics studio/school. Although the project was not fully funded, she did receive a portion of the needed  funds and subsequently used those to move, find a location, and set-up shop. As I was very involved in the prep work here in Santa Fe ( writing, scheduling, moving equipment, pricing, estimating costs, moral support, etc.... ) it was very gratifying to see her after a year in her new home and find out how it is all unfolding for her.

After fueling up at Harry's Roadhouse ( I know I was just there two days ago....) I continued on to the pre-show meeting for the Annual Spring Contemporary Clay Fair coming up in a mere 3 weeks. We divided up the postcards, scheduled the jobs for all participants for the weekend, and  made up a floor plan for the layout of the show itself. We are pretty much ready to go! Now to just make pots like a crazy woman for the next two weeks and then fire, fire, and fire!!!!!!

If It's Saturday I Must be in the Railyard

Day; 75. Mostly sunny, windy in Eldorado, but fairly warm. Temperature on outside kiln; 58

Now that we have turned out clocks ahead an hour, getting up at 5:30 is really getting up at 4:30, just sayin'.
And in fact that is the only hard thing about doing the Artist's Market on Saturdays,  the f*cking early start time! Really?, set-up my tent in the dark at 6am?  It's not even the hour that is so hard, it is the requirement of hard physical labor at that hour that is challenging. I like to ease into my morning and unloading  a truck full of tables, weights and heavy ceramics in the cold and dark doesn't really consitute ease by any stretch of the imagination.
This morning however I was treated with a lovely surprise; as I was pulling out of Eldorado I noticed the full moon looked a bit strange. It was full yes, but only a sliver of it was lit up and on the opposite side of the rising sun?! I felt like someone in the middle ages wondering what this strange celestial event might presage. Well, I finally figured out that last night there was an eclipse of the moon and for once I was actually up and awake   in order to see it! Bonus! There are good reasons sometimes to be up that early, sometimes...

And after listening to the howling wind all night and wondering how the hell I was going to keep my booth from becoming a sail, it actually was quite nice in town with no wind to speak of as opposed to Wind-o-rado where I live. So it turned into a very nice morning with customers from Denver, LA, China, and of course Texas, always Texas. They talk funny but they like to shop so you gotta love em'. After my weekly lavender and blue corn donut to jump start my system, I ended up having some good sales. I even sold  a piece I have been lugging around for at least a year, and getting good money for it.  I love getting rid of old pieces, such a sense of satisfaction that it has  found a good home at last. Like the mutt at the animal shelter that has finally found his forever humans....
I look forward to next Saturday when I can hang out in the sun with my artists buddies, make money, and connect with people from all over the world. See you here...... I hope next week....

Warm Sun, Blue Skies, Short-lived Pottery

Day; 69. Sunny, warm, incredibly beautiful. Almost like summer. Temperature on outside kiln; 70

The most beautiful day I have seen in many, many moons... Really incredible! Warm, no wind, the bluest sky and views of snow-covered peaks from downtown Santa Fe, I am feeling lucky today!

I spent the day in my ez-up tent downtown in the Railyard District selling pots outside the Farmers Market.

 I love Saturdays in the Railyard! ( as opposed to Sundays when I fall asleep from boredom), so much energy, incredible food, musicians, kids running around, friends saying hello, it just feels good. And it is really satisfying to set up my tent in the middle of it all and talk to people from virtually all over the country, and most often, the globe. A real cross section of humanity strolling through the market... great fun. ( except for the 4- 35 pound sandbags  I have to lug with me to keep my tent from becoming a kite.. Did I mention my trip to the chiropractor 3 posts back?!)

And I sold a lot of pots today.. Including one of my favorites... (large white and yellow bowl on the right)..

Sadly it had only a few more minutes of life left after I sold it. I warned the man that the bag I had  with paper handles would not hold it's weight and to carry it from the bottom. He assured me he would, however he was back 5 minutes later looking very chagrined. He was handing it to his wife and let go of the bottom, consequently dropping it and shattering  into countless pieces. I felt really sorry for him, he really loved that bowl,  we even  haggled over the price for a minute or two in order for him to be able to purchase it. 

What to do? I warned him!...But I felt slightly responsible so ended up giving him another little bowl in consolation. I offered to throw all the pieces of the first one away for him but he refused, he insisted he was going to go home and glue it all back together!! Poor man, he must of really liked that bowl!....

I think I will look around on the internet for some cheap plastic handled bags that can carry some weight!

Taking My Show on the Road....

day; 54. Sunny and warm again. Temperature on outside kiln; 55

Everything is out of the kiln!!:

I'm a hap, hap, happy girl! Pepe and I sanded, priced and packed for 3 hours today and consequently everything is ready for the  Albuquerque and NCECA Shows. I even got a special order all packed and ready to ship. We rock! The studio looks so bare, just a bunch of boxes and plastic bins... Tomorrow I will load display stuff into the Tacoma ; tables, coverings, cash station, curtains, tent, bags, paper, etc... Everything one would need to set up a mini-store for 3 days.

Also had the semi-annual Contemporary Clay Fair jury last night for a couple of hours.. 31 spots with 35 applicants. Not too bad, in the fall we had to jury out 15 potters, and of course we knew most of them so it was hard to say no to your friends! So,  two potters didn't make it and two are on the waiting list. It was good to take all the application fees to the bank today so we could pay for the venue rental, buy some ads, and print some postcards. It's always interesting to be on both sides; to participate in the show but  also to produce it. A somewhat different skill set....It is shocking to realize just for our little show it costs us 6K to put it on!! Thank god we have a wonderful group of 7  potters willing to take this on 2x/year and look after the endless amount of small detail it takes to successfully do this...

.Just enough time to recover from the current show and start over again making inventory for this one!! I hope Pepe the studio assistant/ceramic intern isn't planning on graduating anytime soon, I need him!

Just in the Nick of Time

Day; 53. mix of clouds and sun, but very spring-like. Temperature on outside kiln; 52
Firings; unloaded 1st image transfer firing, loaded up the 2nd and last transfer firing at 4pm.

Last firing for the Spring Show in the Duke City is under way!! Whew, that was a close one. Ah, who am I kidding all my show firings are close and down to the wire! Some sanding and pricing to do, but all my little lovlies are going here.... on Thursday;





I am really pleased with the results, the best of the bunch in my opinion looks like this;

  I am really loving the white background. This is a new design and I think it sets off the images really well. I just sort of paint the other colors on top of the white and it seems to work.

Today is my boy Oso's very, very first birthday and he went from this last May.....

To this on his first Birthday March 9th......

                                                            Happy Birthday my darling boy!!!