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!

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.