Art Success!

Tonight finds me super, duper exhausted.  For the first time in many years I have taken my brand new soda fired pottery out to a small local art fair. By local, I mean four blocks away from my house which was great so could run home quickly for the things I forgot.  I think I went home three times.  The best part about today was seeing and hearing everyone's positive response to this new body of work.  I think that has been more valuable than the sales.  I was really crossing my fingers because I wasn't sure that very many people would be familiar with the look of soda fired pots or that they would appreciate the neutral, earthy peach and orange hues.  I think most people around here are more familiar with the cobalt blue and rutile combos.  Well, I was quite surprised at just how well received the work was.  Not a lot of sales yet but there are two more days to go.  Thanks everyone who came by the booth today!

So if you are near Chico, CA come on over and say hi and tell me what you think of my new work.

I'm going to go flop into bed now.  Have a wonderful weekend and stay cool and hydrated out there.

Dreams Realized!

In the last couple of years, but in the last 5 days specifically, I have learned that if you want something bad enough, work really hard and put yourself out there that mere dreams can be turned into reality.  Before I turned in for bed last night I checked out my Kickstarter project, "Fly Me to Penland," and found out that I had reached my funding goal!  I set the deadline for March 3rd but I reached my goal just five days after launching my project!  The outpouring of love and support from friends, family, acquaintances and total strangers (who I hope will soon be friends) has been tremendous.  I now have everything I need to get out to Penland and buy my clay and pay for firing.

I am still accepting and encouraging support for the project which will continue to accept funds until the deadline of March 3rd.  I figure while I am there it would be a great opportunity to drive around to surrounding communities such as Asheville, Bakersville, Seacreast, Raleigh, and more to do research one the rich ceramic history of the area and to visit the studios of potters and ceramic artists.  Extra funding will also allow me to pay for shipping to send my work out to galleries and and for those pieces that I would like ship home.  I've tried packing it in my luggage before and believe me it doesn't work so well and there is never enough room!

I got some clay work done last night.  I threw some porcelain tea bowls that I will do shellac resist and water erosion techniques on.  I had quite a few pledges that offered these tea bowls as a reward so I figured I had better make some more.  I also got into some Great White, cone 5-6, from IMCO but it was way to soft.  I managed to get a prototype square bowl done and a little lidded jar but I have to let the clay sit out and dry for awhile before I can really get anything done with it.

Happy hump day y'all!