Road Trip to the North Country

Jeff and I took a quick trip to North Conway today to deliver some things to a friend of his. We also stopped at the League of NH Craftsmen gallery located in town. They carry Jeff's work and it was good to see in person, just what they have left. It's a beautiful space both inside and out. North Conway is nestled in the White Mountains, not far from Mt. Washington. It's a bustling place year round, catering to skiers, hikers, leaf peepers, and of course shoppers. Like many tourist areas the outlet strip malls have overtaken much of the landscape. But it's still beautiful and it was nice to get back there, even if it was brief.

The weather here in New Hampshire has been great. The temperature has been hovering around 73 degrees. Chilly enough at night for flannel jammies! Tomorrow we head south to New Haven, CT. 

Friends at the Fair

 The best part of the fair is catching up with my NH potter friends. I also got to see Suzie (aka the blogger smartcat) again this year, what a treat!

Martha and Wendy worked in the information booth all week

 Andy Hampton, the sweetest, nicest potter. Beautiful work and a booth with a BRICK floor and bamboo walls! 

Paul Haigh, Wiley Hill Mudworks. Awesome pyromaniac. This was his first year at the fair. Below are his new lighted pedestals...

I wish I had time to take more photos of friends and their booths. Time just got away from me.

Booth Neighbors

When you do a nine day show you get to know your booth neighbors quite well...

 Next door to us was Lee Spiller. We already had a couple of his vases at home and this year we added two more to the collection.

 We think hauling pottery to shows is heavy, can you imagine lugging all these stones? On the plus side, they aren't breakable!

Our across the aisle neighbor for the 2nd year in a row was Sarah Heimann...

 The details on her carved pots is amazing. If you click on the photo above you may be able to see that the knob on the right is a vacuum cleaner and on the left is dresser!

A bonus for the week was having the opportunity to see a sink that Jeff made for a good friend that lives in the Sunapee area. He hadn't seen it installed...

Do you see where Jeff set his beer down to take the photo? I guess we won't be using this photo for advertising!
Ha, ha, ha, I just enlarged the photo and it wasn't his beer... it was a bottle of hand lotion that must have been on the countertop!

the debriefing...

We have been back in Seagrove for nearly a week and I am just getting around to a blog post. It seems that after this 9 day fair, it takes another week to sort ourselves and our belongings out. The trailer is unpacked along with the suitcases... the laundry is almost caught up.
I have spent some time reflecting on the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair and it has made me realize that it really has become an important part of our lives. It's a time to reconnect with friends and family. Some of whom we only see during this nine day show. There are so many amazing people that are part of this community. This year a couple who has volunteered at the fair, and lives near Mt. Sunapee, offered a couple of rooms in their home for $25 a night with breakfast included. We were lucky to be one of the first responders to take them up on their offer. Janet and Lou not only gave us breakfast each day, but also offered for us to join them for dinner any night! They were amazingly gracious hosts, and it would have cost us more to camp than stay with them. Come to find out they also had some of Jeff's pottery in their curio cabinet. A big thank you goes out to Janet and Lou for making our long work week much easier!

The League of NH Craftsmen also has retail galleries scattered throughout NH. The Littleton Gallery, situated in northern NH in the White Mt. region is run by two amazing ladies, Beth and Michele. Each year during the fair, they visit each craftsmen and deliver cookies... there are 350+ craftsmen at the fair so that's a LOT of cookies. This year Beth and Michele decided to try some new recipes and had a few problems. Long story short, they had no cookies this year. So instead they wrote and printed a little book about why there were no cookies...

they even included a tutorial on how to draw a chocolate chip cookie...

AND... we got a little bag of M&M's to replace the cookies. Beth and Michele, you are awesome!

Remember my friend Jane Kaufmann who I posted about recently? The book about her incredible journey through life as an artist was published this summer, and I was able to purchase a copy. Each year the NH Potters Guild has a meeting during the fair and I asked Jane to sign my copy...

I read most of the book during the evenings while we were staying at Janet and Lou's home. It was great fun to read Jane's recollections of the fair during the 1970's. One tradition she talked about that still continues today is the craftsmen's kids sliding down the mountain on sheets of cardboard. There are lots of kids who have grown up at the fair. Many of the kids are budding artists. The league even gives them their own tent to sell work... the tent is called "The Next Generation". Some of the work these kids are creating is amazing! Another tradition Jane writes about is the annual craftsmen baseball game... it was called "The Potters against Everyone Else", because back then there were more potters than jewelers! But alas, the baseball game is a thing of the past. I think it ended when they no longer let you camp on the mountain.
I feel like I am starting to ramble, so I think I should quit for the night! I haven't had time to post in the morning because I am actually getting up early and walking everyday. Eventually I will get my new schedule worked out.

a special message

I have spent much of this week taking a break from the internet. The the craftsmen's fair has filled our days and whatever energy that was left in the evening is spent connecting with friends or crashing at our hosts home with a glass of wine and some reading.
Tonight I took a quick look through of some of the blogs I follow and noticed that Alyssa, who owns a tea shoppe in NH, did a blog post about the fair. Alyssa carried John's work in her shop.
Her post this evening made me catch my breath.

apotheca

Look who I met at the fair today...

It's Suzie, aka Smartcat!!!!!

Oh what fun to meet blogger buddies in person. Suzie has family in NH and has made the League of NH Craftsmen Fair a near annual visit. I think we could have talked for hours, if it wasn't for the fact that I needed to be selling pots! She is planning to return one more day to the fair (it's way too big to take it all in in one day) and I hope that we get more time to visit. I still need to have my annual fair ice cream (or two!) so maybe she will join me, and we will have more time to chat.

... in business news, sales picked up a lot today with the cooler weather settling in. We are confident it will continue. In between selling pots, we are having fun catching up with all of our artist/crafter friends. I truly love North Carolina, but it does feel good to be "home".

and now the fun begins!

The hardest work is over, the booth is built, the pots are on shelves, and we were ready for customers when two craftsmen blew the traditional horns at 10:00 this morning.

Wouldn't you know it was a hot day on the Mountain (still not as humid as NC) and the crowds were thinner than usual.

We still had a good day. A visit from extended family that I hadn't seen in years made it extra special. AND... I met blogger buddy Gary Rith's good friend, and newly juried League of NH Craftsmen, member... Michael Gibbons!

This is Michael's first year doing the Craftsmen's Fair and his booth looks great. We are in the same tent and our booths back up to each other.

Day one is done. Eight more to go. Looking forward to a visit from Smartcat!

we are back in the '603!

We always get on the road later than planned, so why would this trip be any different? We left Seagrove around 5:30 on Wednesday, drove to as far as somewhere in PA and slept for a few hours. Around 5:30 pm we arrived at Mt. Sunapee Resort in NH. The great thing about this show is that they give you quite a bit of time to set up. We unloaded the trailer and got the walls of the booth up by 8:30 pm. We could have stayed all night to set up if we wanted to, but we were exhausted, and needed to check in with the folks we are staying with (more on that in another post).

This is about as far as we got on Thursday night...

We worked from 9:30 until 4:00 today, leveling the walls (the joys of an outdoor show), and touching up paint that got nicked up during the trip. At 4:00 we needed to quit and get ready for the annual Living with Craft Exhibition Awards. I somehow was asked to present the NH Potters Guild best in Ceramics Awards... which meant having to clean up and look presentable for a swanky wine and cheese affair.
The gates open at 10:00 in the morning... the first of NINE days, smiling and selling pots... we plan to be there at 8:00 am to finish getting those pots on the shelf... and right now, I am enjoying a glass of wine, and the fact that the room is cool with only a fan running. I wish we could spend the month of August in NH, and the rest of the year in beautiful North Carolina.

let's do the math

Mr. Young commented on my last post, asking how many pots fit into our little gas kiln. It just so happens that we do, on occasion count the pots. So I actually have an answer for him today.

The total number of pots in this firing was 74. The retail value of this kiln load is approximately $2000+/-. 

The goal we set for the LNHC show at Mt. Sunapee in NH is $10,000. Simple math says we need a minimum of five firings for show inventory. We have done three in the last two weeks and we will fire once more, although we are not sure it will be cool enough to pack up for Wednesday! Aside from these three firings, we have inventory fired over the last couple of months to bring with us as well. If there is anything left after the nine days on the mountain, it will go to galleries in NH... we are planning to come home with an empty trailer!

These are a couple of Jeff's that were my favorites from this kiln....

 Textured bowl with nuka and gloss green

Platter with ash glaze, there were two of these and they both are beauties.

Time to get to work. This kiln load needs to be sanded, priced, and boxed. 4 days till departure.

this is our reality.

Our deadline for the League of NH Craftsmen Fair at Mt. Sunapee Resort is looming. We have pots growing all over the yard, trying very hard to dry in this humidity, and get into the bisque kiln tomorrow...

 Not a single spot is spared, not even the giant trash receptacle...

or the two outdoor grills...

pots even grow in the garden here...

 then there are the pots that are getting glazed...

and a kiln to be unloaded... and loaded again to be fired once more before we leave on August first.

aside from the pots, we grow tomatoes too.

 after all, we do have to eat.

Shifting into high gear

This has been the week of the platter. Both of us have spent the last few days throwing them. Unfortunately I lost two of mine to over zealous trimming. Yesterday it looked like we were growing platters in the yard. They were scattered all about so that they would be dry enough to bisque fire today.

Jeff gave me a couple of his to carve. There was a planned power outage yesterday morning, so I worked on the porch so that I could see what I was doing.

The first one has a cool textured rim. It's made with STARwork's new Seagrove clay. It definitely has a different feel for carving. We will save this one for a wood/salt firing.

This one is Highwater Aurora, which is like carving through cream cheese.

Yesterday Jeff organized the calendar with what needs to be thrown next, and created a firing schedule. We need to stay on track in order to be ready for the Craftsmen's Fair in August. I was looking at the calendar this morning and realized that we will be gone for nearly 3 weeks!  I am looking forward to seeing friends and family while we are in NH, but 3 weeks is a long time to be away from Sophie, and I know she will miss us too.

Thankfully we have a great kitty and gallery sitter.

just a few more

i think this is the end of pictures from the fair at Mt. Sunapee...

Lulu Ficther working in her demo booth

Mark Ragonese creating his outdoor sculptures. He is the craftsmen that taught Jeff how to make the stick arbors that he created in front of our gallery and around our tomato plants. Mark spends the week at  the fair building sculptures of rocks and sticks, talking about his process with fairgoers as he works.

We ended the week at the fair with the annual NH Potters Guild dinner meeting. This picture was taken by Dick Kaufmann at the site of the guild's community wood kiln in June of 2010. Sitting in the center (holding the cane) is Gerry Williams, long time member and past editor & founder of Studio Potter. It is always fun to get together with the guild and it usually involves great food & wine.

We are almost unpacked from the trip... at least the mountains of laundry are done. I will be happy to be back to making pots this week.

pumpkin season comes early in NH...

The League of NH Craftsmen's fair has lots of demo booths. A new one this year was Philip Jacobs of Earth & Fire Glass Studio. He has a great set up on a stage. He and his assistant were creating glass pumpkins... they put on quite a show set to reggae music. I wish I had been able to capture it on video, the pictures don't quite do it justice...

When the demo was done people flocked to the hay bales to purchase pumpkins!

Booth set up

a few people have asked about our booth set up at Sunapee so i figured i would post some pictures. 

the League of NH Craftsmen sends a jury out to score your booth. my understanding is that your booth score dictates how high up on the list you are for choosing your preferred space for the following year. there are also awards given out for the best booths.

sometimes Jeff has done a carpet, some craftsmen have wood floors that they build on site. we wanted to keep it easy this year so we went with the grass.

the booth is set up so that we can walk behind and have storage space, out of view, between us and the booth behind us... it got messier as the days passed so it's a good thing it was out of view!

Jeff has typically left the booth open in the evening. the fair has very good security. many craftsmen cover the front with a tarp at the end of the day but a few people were using this deer netting that you see above. our booth neighbor Jennifer Mitchell gave us a length of it. it really is only meant to stop people from wandering in after hours and knocking things over. we didn't use it every day because we thought it was a pain. every time we got it strung up we realized we forgot something inside!
more pictures of demo booths in upcoming posts. today we are off to run errands and visit a new smokeless wood kiln that was recently built here in NH... happy saturday y'all!

Hello from NH...

remember me? it's seems like forever since i have blogged! we are done with the Sunapee Craftsmen's Fair and back on Bow Lake where we have both cell phone service and internet access once again. the show was good, we sold lots of pots and most of what is left is going to galleries here in NH. the trailer will be much lighter on the return trip. the next few days we will spend visiting with family and friends and  hopefully getting some time to relax.
i have more fair pics to post over the next few days... the best part of the fair was spending Sunday with my daughter Danielle and her guy Jay...

we will get more girl time in on Sunday before we had back to North Carolina. i will also have to admit i have enjoyed a break from the heat. we had some warm days (80 degrees and some humidity) but the last two days have been in the 70's and down to 60 at night.
that's all for now, i think i will put on a hoodie and relax with a glass of wine :-)

another kiln load

jeff napped on the sofa last night while the bisque kiln was going. he set the alarm on the stove to go off every so often so he could check it. i don't think he got to bed until around 7 am. i was glad to see he had started to un-brick the door of the gas kiln before going to bed, it made it much easier to finish the job this morning.

he is concentrating on the turquoise and shino glaze combo to take to the fair in Sunapee. we are planning to set the booth up with the turquoise together on one side and the wood and salt glazed work on the other.
this week we made the decision to get the largest booth for the Celebration of Seagrove Potter's show in November. it is a double booth and the plan is to divide it in half as well. i guess the NH show will be the test! jeff and i are both all over the place, always trying new things and we know we won't ever stop doing that... but we think that for shows we need to have a more unified look. i think the double booth will let us show the two different types of work that we make but keep the everyday more affordable wares separate from the crunchy, brown, wood and salt glazed forms that we LOVE so much.

we have been having some fun with collaborations while getting ready for this show. jeff threw a bunch of  mug bodies and i pulled the handles, slip trailed & glazed them. my blue slip comes out black under the shino and the white gets lost... i will probably stick to the temple white glaze which is pretty much clear.

this baby kiln likes to go to cone 11. jeff thinks the back stack on the bottom was cone 9 this time... i am heading out to unload so i will find out soon enough. we will load this baby up again today and fire it one last time tomorrow.