Holiday Open House and Something New

In the rush to unload the kiln and pack up the pigs, I forgot that I actually had a couple of pots in there that weren't sold yet.  After making a mug order two weeks ago, I played around with a couple of tumbler shapes and decoration. I decided to add some slip trailing to the underglaze. I am pretty happy with the results.

Today is gallery cleaning/decorating day. This weekend we are having our holiday open house. There are quite a few potters in Seagrove having holiday events this weekend. You could turn it in to your own studio tour! Here is the list of potters having events:

Johnston and Gentithes Art Pottery (in their new location!)
Eck McCanless Pottery
Dean and Martin Potter
Latham's Pottery
Studio Touya Pottery (they have a new gallery this year!)
From the Ground Up Pottery
Windsong Pottery
Hickory Hill Pottery
Ben Owen Pottery
Chris Luther Pottery
Blue Hen Pottery
Bulldog Pottery

the last show of the year

and I am so glad it's over! I have to say that this was our easiest indoor booth set up. We only brought two corner walls and used our EZ frame to secure them and hang the lights.

We have done each of the three booth sizes that have been offered at this show and we have always made the same amount of money after expenses. Last year we decided the 10'x10' booth was easier to set up so why go big if you are not going to make more money?

This year was a little more profitable than last, and the bonus was that Jeff stayed home and kept the gallery open and we had good sales there as well. Last year I stayed home and I only saw a handful of people. We sold a lot of piggy banks, a few big pots, and LOTs of sponge holders and coasters. The funny thing is, we didn't sell a single mug! I wasn't surprised. This is not a juried show and we are competing with mugs that sell for eight bucks. The $25-$35 dollar mug buyers are few and far between at this show.

Now our focus will turn to Etsy. Holiday orders are coming in early this year and we already have a lot of pots to ship out this week. I have a feeling the holiday season will be good for us. I hope that it's good for you too!

The year I was thrown off the Christmas treadmill...

I was never a crazy, over the top, participant in Christmas. A christmas tree, some tasteful decorations, and a reasonable amount of money spent on gifts for family and friends worked for me. It would still get stressful at times, to squeeze everything in, in a few short weeks, and worry if I had forgotten someone, or something.

Some years back my elderly parents announced that they were only buying Christmas gifts for the grandchildren. We adult kids were getting too hard to buy for and they asked us kids to please not buy them anything either. I continued to buy them something every year, I just couldn't imagine not!
...and then there was December of 2008.

John died on the twelfth of December. I obviously had not done any Christmas shopping. I returned to work within the week... the thought of being home alone in an empty house was unbearable. Work would keep me occupied. I drove past the mall everyday, to and from work. Finally one evening I decided I needed to stop and doing some Christmas shopping. I wandered around the mall feeling like an outsider, walking through a world that I didn't belong to. How could all these people be happy and festive? How can the world continue to be business as usual when I have experienced this tragedy? I left the mall and drove home without making a single purchase.

At some point I did manage to get my daughter and her boyfriend a gift certificate and I made some chocolate peppermint bark. Christmas dinner was at my parents, everyone was there... the chocolate peppermint bark was forgotten at home (but I did remember the gift card). It was a really nice Christmas day spent with the family I love. Like the Who's down in Whoville, Christmas still came without all the gifts and fanfare.

Since 2008 I don't stress about Christmas gifts or really buy much of anything except for my daughter, and even there I keep it simple. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

Holiday Open House this Weekend!

Michèle Hastings and Jeff Brown Pottery Holiday Open House

December 8th & 9th 2012

10-5 on Saturday, 12 -5 on Sunday

1423 NC Hwy 705 Seagrove, NC

We have lots of beautiful pots that will make great holiday gifts. 

Pottery will also dress up your own dining table all year round.

We've decked the halls, so come on out to Seagrove this weekend!

The Jeff Brown & Michèle Hastings version of a "Mug Tree"!

gallery rearrange

after a wonderful meal with jeff's family we came and home and went back to work on our gallery space...

we set up a combination of jeff's booth walls and my abstracta shelving in the lower level

this is the view when you walk in the door... i took this shot so you could all the white lights we strung in the rafters... poor jeff had to do all the climbing while i either held the ladder or caught the lights as he swung them around the beams.
we still have some tweaking to do and couple of more shelves to put in place, but for the most part we are ready for holiday shoppers!