My Gallery Opening

So I was the First Friday Artist for the community studio
"Funky & Functional" was the name of the show.  I had a full kiln load fired that was stuff for the show.

And then, with lots of help, the gallery was set up.  Since a lot was dinner sets I thought to do it as a place setting. Since selling a place setting of four has been unsuccessful, I have moved to single place settings.  See if those move better.

And I cooked and bought food and made Sangria

End result?  One of the most poorly attended first friday I have been to at Cup & Bowl.  I had, by my count, I think two sales....
Very disappointing, especially given how much better sales have been at all the art shows.
Well the next day was off to Soda firing and then next weekend off to another art show!

Storage Jars....

New greenware storage jars, created for specific christmas gifts. And them some Garlic Roasters.

So here are the garlic roasters.

This is a salt pig, not totally happy with it.

And finally the storage jars.

Hit The Ground Running...

I made what I could in the limited time.  I loaded the bisque today, that is just enough time to unload in two days, glaze, and fire off the glaze kiln. All in time for First Friday.

I am the featured artist. So I tried to pull together some new work. I am also playing caterer for this gig. We will see who all comes. I admit the people in my life (really only a few exceptions) have tended to not really show up to any of these kinds of things.

Fingers crossed for lots of sales!

Inventory shelf at home below. These pieces have not been taken to art shows. Not a lot of stashed pots, but I have some different stuff in the kiln.

Three Art shows since my last post. None were great sales, but none were bad.  As usual, it was the three of us doing the art shows. The tables show all of our stuff.

Trip to New Mexico and a purchased some glaze materials, this nice small screen for test glazes, and then stems for wine glasses made out of cedar.

Here are the storage jars drying.  Currently they are in the bisque load.

So after the first friday, this upcoming saturday, I am firing off a soda firing at home.  I was finally able to get larger propane tanks.  Rather than fighting the 40# tanks and fighting the freeze ups, I now have two 100# tanks.  I did some modifications to Sabrina. I will post pix when I actually get the firing going.  I am not sure that I really have enough pieces to fill the kiln, but I can do a smaller load.

I am also making a few glazes. Right now a new one, Nuka.  Joel Cherrico created this, it is version 33.  Nuka is actually a high fire glaze (think ^10-^12), so this is an adaptation to make it happen.  I am also planning on making a larger batch of my general ash glaze, this time making it blue.  And finally some MD Shino.

Next in line... more storage jars. Tea pots!! Garlic bakers, Chicken Bakers, and then a stash jar with a breaking tray.

Almost planning for the future...

So really, I would like for this to make up half of my income.  That is not actually a lot of money. But anyway that is more goal....

So for next year I will have my partners in crime list all the places we want to make sure we go to for art shows.  And then we will look and find what we have missed that we really should get to.  Between three of us I think it would be rare we would not be able to make it happen.

and I did start my etsy page, but won't post it yet as there is nothing on it yet!

Other future planning, This is Bertha.  She will be a down draft kiln.  I need to have concrete laid in the yard so I can have a level place. Then I will buy burners, and then hoses and parts to attach burners.  Then get brick and new kiln shelves.  At that point I can start the build.  Somewhere during that time I am hoping to have ended up with the large propane bottles I really need.

Each step is some money, and I think that by summer I can be firing with Bertha.

Last art show was not great.  We did ok sales, and really only because of two buyers.  Luckily entrance fee was negligible and we got some exposure to the local community.

here is a thank you note from CFAM.  This is the farmer's market.  I guess my pot was a hit!

And... another firing....

So, here are the results of the last glaze firing. And then another art show.  Fingers crossed!!

So you can see in the right corner, more bats.  I realized that if I am at the community studio I use up almost all the bats sometimes. So I bought more. Prior I had used the community plastic bats and bought bats for plates that help them dry.

Last set of mugs. I did a close up because I was struggling to get the glaze show up correctly in the picture.

These blue bowls were a commission. They are "rice bowls".  I did a close up because they don't quite look blue in the over shot picture.

And a pitcher... that survived....

This is a larger shallow bowl.

Here is a overview of these shallow bowls, below are close ups to see the oxide designs.

Though not a great shot, here is The Three Potters booth at a local art fair put on by a church.  Inside show, the first one this year.