Hey! Thanks to everyone who came out to see me at the Zonta Craft Sale this (last) weekend! The weather turned sour Saturday afternoon and remained icy through Sunday, but plenty of souls still braved the elements to support local artisans (and other vendors and such...).
This was definitely one of my better shows in terms of feeling prepared beforehand. Everything went smoothly, and I tried out a new-ish configuration for my booth setup that was kind of exciting.
Setting up the night before.
I normally keep my booth space open, rather than closed, but with the way this show was configured that would have left me no room for getting behind the display to pack up purchases, go through stock, etc. - I would have had to do that in the aisles. So I rocked the "Closed L" display this weekend, which worked out pretty well. I ended up with a bonus table inside of my L-shaped booth area, so I used it as a dedicated wrapping/packaging space which was a welcome change from always doing that stuff from under a table in the back of the booth.
My view throughout the weekend.
I of course had more pots than I possibly could have sold over the course of one weekend (and if I had - how awesome would that have been?!), and the new checker/brickwork pieces were quite popular, if I may say so. I have, of course, plenty of work available now to fill any Christmas orders you lovely people may have.
It also turned out to be, in very subjective terms, a very fun sale for me. Lots of chatting with friendly folks and sharing about my work and techniques and stylistic choices. Above average crowd by that measure, actually.
Had to relocate that large mountain vase to place this large bowl. Still looking for a home for that one.
I've realized I may have to adjust certain aspects of my display with regard to marketing my name and brand and such, specifically when I'm doing shows like this that are not quite on the "fine art and craft" side of things, in that for every artisan (potter, painter, jeweler, photographer, woodworker, baker) there was at least one, maybe two booths of retail/resale vendors. Which is great. It creates an environment full of products at all price points and attracts shoppers who may not come to an exclusively "art" oriented show.
BUT.
I'm always amazed (aghast? surprised?) when the first question a person asks me, looking at my display, is if I made "all this." No, wait. The question, usually, is: "So where do you get your pots from?" To which I respond I make it myself, and THEY are amazed (aghast? surprised?). It's just not something I would ever question. My name is on the cards, my name is on the pots. But what I assume is sort of beside the point if it's a matter of uncertainty. I certainly do my best to take these questions courteously and try not to make anyone feel bad for asking the question. But it also begs the question, do people who pick up a bowl, see the price, and put it down again assume that it's handmade or that it comes from some supplier overseas? Because that could make a difference, I guess, in some peoples' minds.
So in the future, Krystal suggested to me (always clever, that one!) that it might not be such a bad idea for sales like this to have some signs that can sit on my booth that say, proudly and boldly, that all pottery herein is one hundred percent handmade, by me, start to finish.
But anyway: I had a great weekend. I think the turnout (and consequently sales) would have improved if we hadn't had our first taste of winter, but I was glad that things were clear and dry for both setting up and tearing down. Looking on the bright side. And I did well enough (sales) that maybe I can buy some Christmas gifts this year. Bolster the economy and all that.
I'm going to try to get back into the studio sooner than later. I'd like to produce a full kiln of work to fire before Christmas, so if you're looking for something special, just le me know. Bolster MY economy and all that.
In other news, I'm starting to see year-end lists or movies and books and music popping up, so maybe I have to get on the ball and share my favorite pottery-making music releases for 2012. Or something. We'll see.
In the meantime, I'm already anticipating an early 2013 album release from Leagues, who have just released the video for their first single, "Spotlight." They released a too-short EP last year which was just delicious and I can't imagine how their long-awaited debut record won't end up on my "Best of" list next fall. Here's "Spotlight," from Leagues:
That's all for now. See y'all later, and thanks again to everyone who came out last weekend!
If you were super cool and followed me on Facebook or Twitter you could have seen this, like, 5 hours ago. Your loss. Overall: very good firing. Couple disappointments.
Discovered one of my kiln shelves is completely wash-free and has been stealing bits of stoneware from the feet of my post. Hadn't really noticed it before, but it's become noticeable. 1.5" chunk pulled out of the foot of a beautiful vase, another one inch wedge pulled out of the foot of a bowl. Have never had this problem before. I guess it's time to re-wash the shelves before my next glaze firings.
Saturday // 11.10.2012 // 9 AM - 5 PM ..... Sunday // 11.11.2012 // 9 AM - 3 PM
Held at the Ramkota River Centre.
And stalk me here:
Also, for those interested: Music I've been listening to heavily as of late.
1. The O.C. Supertones. Because they have a new record out today, their first in (7? 8?) years and ska is not dead.
2. sosaveme "The Garden." Because I just can't get over how great this album is. Period.
3. Vintage (or what seems to be getting close to) CCM from the likes of Audio Adrenaline and dc Talk (for example). Sometimes you just need nostalgic, feel-good music with a message, as they like to say. Shuffly mix courtesy of Apple Genius mixes provided plenty of Bleach, Pillar, Third Day and the like. Solid stuff.
4. More and more appreciative of Jack White's "Blunderbuss" the more listens I give it. Funky, experimental, enjoyable.
Well, I suppose I've been away long enough - two weeks past the Art Sail (my big summer event this year) and I'm ready to get back into the studio. Trying to plan the coming batches of work to be efficiently productive for fall sales and also with enough room for creative growth. I squeezed a little bit of experimental work into the last batch of pots for the Sail, and I'd like to go back and pursue those further. Looking forward to mixing some things up.
But first, a look back!
A great big thank you is in order for any and all who came out to the Art Sail at the end of July! It was a wonderful day for an art fair, with plenty of sunlight, moderate cloud cover and just enough breeze off the lake to keep things refreshing. The sun never stayed out long enough for things to get truly HOT, but it was never cloudy enough to scare anyone away. Rain fell north and south of town, I heard, but we stayed dry all day long. Late that night, after the pots were long packed away and I was tucked into bed, the thunder finally rolled in and we fell asleep to the sound of the rain pelting the window panes. Beautiful day.
Looking down Main Street USA the morning of the Art Sail.
Sales were steady and, as far as I'm concerned, very good for a one day event. Seeing as how Clear Lake is my hometown there were a lot of familiar faces - folks I haven't seen in many cases for close to ten years. But great fun catching up and sharing what I've been up to.
Booth Shot.
I didn't know quite what to expect for this show as it was my first year doing it, but the Clear Lake Art Sail attracts quite a crowd from all demographics - young, old, local, vacationers - all sorts. And getting to meet everyone is just such a treat.
Pedestals in action.
My favorite incident from the weekend came in the form of a man who approached me while I was standing out in the street in front of my booth doing some people-watching. After asking if that was my work, he began with "You know, I really don't like pottery," before continuing, "but man, I really like your stuff!" Even from out in the street, he said, the decoration stood out boldly amid the shapes and colors and really exuded the style of my work without getting busy or overpowering. We chatted for the better part of 15 minutes, going over my process and stylistic influence and he left with one of my sgraffito bowls with a Retro Blue-Green interior.
It's for the stories like these that I love the shows.
It's for a lot of the rest of the stuff that I wring my hands and fret and become a mess. I had a few "Ah, #$%&" moments while loading up the chariot for the commute to the show before finally squeezing everything in with barely enough room for my copilots.
That's what we looked like 2/3 of the way through packing. No rear view? No problem!
And then the first in-the-field trial of tent and pedestals and such brought their own challenges (shout-out to my father and brother, Paul and Noah Langholz, for some assistance in my set-up and tear-down!). But overall, I think I'm figuring things out pretty well. Maybe a couple more of these things on the schedule next summer? We'll just have to wait and see!
In addition to the sales the day of the show, I was grateful for the opportunity to fill a wholesale order for the owners of a couple local jewelry & gift stores in northern Iowa, and also took some time to restock the Clear Lake Arts Center with more of my work for the gift shop. All told, I was able to come home with half of my bins empty, which meant that I had a functional rear view for the drive home. Hot dog!
After we were done setting up she ditched me for a long run. Devoted, that.
And no show recap would be acceptable without mentioning that none of it would be possible without the unwavering support of my lovely wife, Krystal. Leading up to the show means sacrificing nights and weekends and free time and many, many fun times of the summer-y sort. And to top it all off she's on-site the day of helping with set-up and tear-down and selling pots while I take potty breaks (<-"Potty" breaks? It's funny!). So she's awesome and y'all should be amazed.
"Oh, hey - thanks for stopping by!" Just your friendly neighborhood Potterman.
Edit: I realized shortly after I hit "Publish" that I'd forgotten something very important. I'd also like to give a great big thank you to everyone who helped make the Art Sail a great experience - it was a very well organized and pleasant event to be a part of. Big thank you to Jacky Garlock as well as Kim Larson and Amy Palmer at CLAC for all their hard work and for allowing me to be a part of North Iowa's premier art festival!
On the non-pottery front, we were very excited to be in-state for the arrival of the newest member of our family, nephew #2 (congrats to my big brother Sam and sister-in-law Kristin on their beautiful boy!). We couldn't have planned it better, and we were so happy to be near enough to meet him right away!
Krystal loves being an auntie!
I got back into the studio last week a little bit, and so will be back to a more regular schedule of throwing now I think. Tackling some larger mounds of clay, right now focusing more on practice and form than intent of finished project - meaning I'm not so attached to these pieces that I won't decide they need to be recycled at some point pre-firing, but here are a few things I've done.
Vase is 12" tall, for comparison. That's a rather large bowl. Not quite sure where it will be going - either stylistically or otherwise.
Yesterday's pot. 25#. Not 100% pleased with the top, but there might be some room for adjustment yet. Decent amount of weight to trim out of the bottom, though not so bad as it could be.
In addition to the big pots, I need to re-stock some of the things that sold well this summer. It's always a little predictable, but there are some things that I do always need to have on hand. I also need to spend a little time this fall hanging out with mugs, trying to find common ground that doesn't harbor any hostilities. Explore creative expression with mug as a canvas. That sort of thing. And, always, a couple commission pieces to take care of and fulfill those obligations.
And I'd be remiss to sign off without recommending some music to y'all. This fortnight I've been rather taken with one J. Tillman's full catalog. He released a record this spring under the moniker Father John Misty, and he may be best recognized as Fleet Foxes' former drummer, but his full catalog is phenomenal. Simple, earthy and mostly acoustic (solo work) and all that + amazing rhythmic sensibilities (especially with the FJM project), he will probably comprise the better part of my "official" fall soundtrack this year. Phenomenal. Check it out for yourself. Like in the video below (or here for the e-mail subscribers).
Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to check me out on Facebook!!!
Monday, May 28, 2012
I haven't been so good at the blogging this fortnight, but I have been
doing some steady potting. Not as much maybe as I'd like or prefer, but a
fair enough amount. Focusing less on producing oodles of product and more on producing high quality pieces. I feel like I'm doing alright.
I also got a new phone, which is really neither here nor there save for the fact that I now want to take pictures of everything via Instagram. And given my proclivity for not taking a real camera into the studio with me, this upgrade is quite exciting and hopefully I'll maintain my curating with greater success once the novelty has abandoned.
So here's what I've been up to, presented via the artfully filtered Instagram:
Biggie vase. Nice lip, that. Decent balance. Some weight in the foot, but that will come out.
A trio of large-ish bowls. Six-to-eight pounders. Focusing on getting the rounder shape as opposed to my traditionally vertically-oriented bowls.
This one was either a 10 or 12 pounder. Probably a little more clay in the foot than there ought to be, but a bowl this big has to have a solid base when throwing or it will collapse on itself.
Some test bowls. I need to be experimenting with some glaze overlays. Looking for dynamic reactions akin to my favorite, as seen here. Only different.
This is a big'un. She'll get the IYFC Blue treatment.
A small forest of vases.
Whilst not in the studio, spent some time out at a Harry Potter birthday party. That's perfectly normal activity for a bunch of late-twenty-somethings, right?
Finding "high art" in the mundane. I'm pretty sure that's what Instagram was created for, right?
"Local History," I call it.
So that's that. And also doing some non-ceramic planning for the Clear Lake Art Sail that is now 2 months away. Quite excited and looking forward to bringing my work home, so to speak. Put it on your calendar: July 28th, 9 AM - 4 PM, City Park, Clear Lake, Iowa.
A brief bit of news before I get to some pictures and updates on my studio work over the last week or so.
I'm very excited to announce that I've been selected to be a part of the 35th Annual Clear Lake Art Sail on July 28th in downtown Clear Lake, IA!
Clear Lake is my childhood hometown and I always looked forward to the weekend of "Art in the Park" as it was called in those days, wandering the rows and aisles of tents filled with who knows what you might find. As such, I'm thrilled and honored to be heading back that direction this summer as a participating artist. So now the work begins again.
It's been quite a while since I've done an outdoor show so I will be putting some elbow grease into updating my booth setup to accommodate, but I'm feeling good about the amount of pottery in my stock at the moment, and so I think the time between here and there will still allow for plenty of the summer experimentation I was looking forward to.
Which brings me back to my time in the studio this week. Did some throwing last week, but most time was committed to trimming and decorating of bowls. The throwing time was pretty minor however, and the only item of note was a set of vase/bottle neck studies - still an area of annoyance and importance in my work. I decided it was time to put some effort into experimenting with neck/lip shapes and styles on something other than a vase that reflected a full effort. Instead, I could play around with the neck at the top of a centered cylinder and cut it off when I found a finished result.
The top results of my neck studies.
Of course putting it all together is another story. It's not just the lip/neck that counts, but the way it relates to the shoulders of a pot and the relative sizes and all the interplay. So still getting there. Seems kind of silly to be doing this kind of work, or I feel like it's the kind of thing I should have been doing years ago, rather than having infrequent moments of success and generally mediocre vase tops. I've always known what I was going for but never committed any time to working out how to get there. Better late than never, I guess.
Spent some time this afternoon trying to put these experiments into practice.
Vases! Depending on how these trim down, the majority may be keepers!
So, threw some vases. Also some other stuff. Here's an illustrated guide to the rest of the work.
All of last week's bowls. Or at least some of them.
Some big bowls this afternoon; 6-8# each. Going for a rounder shape vs. tall.
Some mountains.
I think that's a 9-pounder on the left. Vase on the right has a lot of potential, if nothing else.
And so that's that. It's still my intent to spend some time this summer working on bigger pieces. I'm also going to throw a handful of test pots to throw in with the next firing to explore new glaze combinations and potential bleed effects. I'd rather do that sort of learning on little test pots than good 6 pound vases. So that's that.
Oh: and a very Happy Mother's day to my favorite mom, Anita Langholz (that would be my mother, if you couldn't figure it out). Always one of my biggest fans and favorite supporters, even if she is always nagging me for butter bells and sourdough bowls. I'm glad she's my mom and I love her very much. Not afraid to show it.
It's a few years old now, but it's probably one of the better pictures of me and Mom out there. Happy Mother's Day!
First of all, a great big "Thank You!" to everyone who came out to the Zonta Spring Craft Show at the Pierre Mall this weekend! An even bigger "THANK YOU!" if you stopped by my booth to say hi and chat with me about my work, and a ginormous "THANK YOU!" if you purchased some fine ceramic goods from yours truly. Sending my pots off to good homes is certainly a wonderful thing, and I so greatly enjoy making those personal connections.
Thanks also to the local Zonta membership who made the show possible, and everyone at the Pierre Mall. It was a great weekend to be indoors: cold and blustery (read: windy) on Saturday and near-squall conditions on Sunday with windblown rain coming down in sheets. Once we got out of the elements, the hardest part of the weekend for me was probably getting set up right next to "the Cake Lady" and her crew. Because, you know: cake. And cheesecake. And cupcakes. And pie. Did I mention cheesecake? Anyhow, I managed to exercise great restraint and only had one cupcake after lunch on Saturday and a slice of pie after lunch on Sunday. And I brought home a cheesecake at Krystal's request. And a Raspberry Champagne cake that went into the freezer for a special occasion. But that was it. Yikes. Self control. Whew!
The "booth." As usual, click on any of the pictures for a closer view.
I had a fantastic time this weekend. I got to send several significant pieces off to new homes, which is always a good feeling. It can be a little discouraging with some of the larger pieces – bigger vases and wide bowls and large chargers – unpacking them for a show, and packing them back up again after. And those are fun pieces to make, so as long as they’re in stock, I’m not making more of them. All that to say, it was great fun knowing those works are just as appreciated and valued.
I’m looking forward to going back over my inventory and seeing what sold, what didn’t, what am I short on and what do I really not need to make again for a while. Looking forward to getting back into the studio, pushing myself, pushing my style, playing around and mixing things up again.
It’s surprising also at the end of a sale to see what hasn’t sold as well. I had mugs (with handles!) in stock for the first event in several years, and I think I only sold one. Bizarre. The gorgeous cobalt bowls? Sold a couple, but not as many as I thought I would. It’s a funny thing.
I mentioned that I love that personal connection, sharing the stories behind the work in addition to what is seen on display. I had a number of folks who came up and chatted with me for ten, fifteen minutes about my pottery – about the process and my story with the art form. Talking about the design and decoration, where it comes from, where it might be going. Folks that wondered about how I fire them, and how do other potters fire theirs, about the variety that is found within the umbrella of “pottery.” People that were engaging with and learning about the art, in addition to learning about me and my work. And many of them took a pot home. But plenty did not. And you know what? That’s fine! Because my love of the work and my passion for sharing it with others goes beyond nickels and dimes and inventory and sales and business plans. And I would rather spend my time engaging with people in a real and personal way than just try to sell them more stuff. Because it’s worth it for me to be able to share the joy that I take from the process with others, that they might further enjoy the pottery, that our joy may be made complete in the shared experience.
A woman stopped by early in the day on Saturday, drawn to the small cobalt bowls with sgraffito on the broad, flared rims. She knew she wanted to take one home, but to decide which one; we had eight of them lined up and she was so attentive as she compared each to the other, weighing the design work to the varied depths of the glazes and bowl heights. It was a process to find just the right one. And it made my day. Someone who appreciated the work and recognized the distinct individuality carried by each of the bowls on the table. Not just a question of picking something at random because it was a pretty, but finding the right bowl, the right piece. The one that belonged to her, if she only took the time to find it. That’s what the show is all about. That’s what I don’t get out of putting my work in galleries or gift shops or selling online. That human connection, that unique experience.
Engaging in a shared joy.
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That’s the story for now. Check back soon for (potentially) exciting announcements regarding my pottery and new work as I get back into the studio again.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Loaded this up yesterday (Saturday). That's a kiln stuffed to the gills with greenware, now bisqueware. Looks like I'll be doing some glazing this week to get these pots ready for a couple of my spring shows.
First on the calendar, I'll be showing at the Pierre First United Methodist Church Spring Bazaar on Saturday, March 24. That's just a one day deal that won't require my full setup but should be good for local name recognition.
Next up after that is the Pierre/Ft. Pierre Zonta International Craft Show on April 14-15 at the Pierre Mall. Supposed to be a good turnout for these Zonta shows, so I'm looking forward to it. I may still have time to make a few more pots between now and then.
So if you're a local reader, or you're interested in road-tripping to central South Dakota this spring, come visit me at those events! As usual, I'll keep you updated ad nauseum as to the preparations for the shows.
