Potters' Holiday

My last show for the year, the Portland Pottery Holiday Show & Sale, finished up over the weekend. It was a world of fun - for me anyway! - and I think sales were pretty good although I won't know for sure until early January. Sales are always important, but for me that show is more about celebrating and connecting with my community, and marking another year still standing. I always overdress for it, and this year was no exception.

That was fun but now it's done, and I am on to my next firing, which must happen soon as it will hold an order due the last week in December. Today is expected to be above freezing, which is good news for me as I have shelves to scrape & other work to do to prepare the kiln for a bisque.

As I mentioned before, my mind has already leapt ahead to shows and events in 2018. My to-do list for the rest of December, and into January, looks like this:

• Build booth for wholesale show. I have a lot of ideas, and a couple of sketches, but two needs keep running up against each other: weight/ portability and ease/ speed of construction and deconstruction. It's pretty likely I will be doing these events alone, as Doug can't always take time away from his work, so whatever form it takes it needs to be doable with only one set of hands. 
• Develop product line. This sounds easy - I mean, I already know what I make, and what, more or less, I need to charge for it. What I need to do now is determine which forms I can offer as closely reproduce-able, make samples, make up a price list with photos, make up order forms, etc.  
• Apply to summer shows. The best shows have early deadlines. Right now I am weighing whether to jump in with both feet and apply to shows like the Uptown and Saint Louis, or play it more carefully by staying more-or-less local while I get my bearings in the art fair world again. I know what the smart way to play it is, and I know what I really want to do, and they are not the same thing! 
• PINGO: Pottery Bingo, a game I hope to create for my students.

I feel like I am repeating myself, maybe because these thoughts are chasing each other around in my brain! If Yoda were here, he'd say, "All her life has she looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never her mind on where she was. Hmm? What she was doing.” Maybe I'll make a New Year's Resolution to be more mindful in the present moment. (Is that ironic? I am making future plans to resolve to live in the moment more. 😃)

Well, those shelves are not going to grind themselves.