Booth Ideas

This is kind of random, and also long and rambling: one of those processing-out-loud posts I sometimes do. I have been thinking once again about a future art fair booth. We have all seen those booths that compel you to enter: I want to go to there, à la Liz Lemon. At the same time a booth has to be highly portable, and collapse into as little space as possible: every square inch that the booth takes up in your vehicle is space that could be carrying inventory. It needs to be lightweight, because who knows how far you'll have to lug it? And for me at least, it needs to function indoors and out, so, waterproof, more or less, and able to withstand wind. It will also have to conceal wear and tear, because all that wind, rain, lugging and packing can take its toll. Add in the necessity of frugality, and designing this booth starts to sound like a daunting task.

The photo above is of my long-ago booth set up; I think that shot was taken at the ACC fair in St. Paul in maybe 1998? It works in some ways: The pedestals nested for travel, and the textured paint hid chips and dings. But it has long since been repurposed, bit by bit. And I would like to do better in a few ways:

• The old booth does not take advantage of wall space, either visually or for the display of work. If I used painted hollow-care doors, I could attach short shelves at varying heights, to highlight special pieces. Those doors aren't heavy, but they are awkward in that they don't get any smaller, so I'd be lugging this 7-foot slab of wood, sometimes a whole city block. Hard to transport on a hand truck, too. But what if I alternated with panels of wooden lattice?
  
• Or, hey, how about this: if I reinforced the lattice on the back with a frame of 2x4s, and if it was only a couple or maybe 3 feet wide, it would be sturdy enough to hold hooks for mugs, making use of the space for display. The lattice would let the wind through, making it Omaha, Nebraska-proof.
  
• Panels of painted canvas would diminish the weight and the packing space consumption. I could alternate them with the lattice panels or hollow cores doors. Not both, as the whole will start to look like a mishmash. Or - making it complicated now- maybe hollow core doors for indoor shows, and lattice panels for outdoor shows? I'd have to get the expensive spray-on stuff to fireproof the canvas, but it's a one-time pain in the ass. Not that ACC ever carried out the threat to fire-test the rugs or wall panels, but they could; and also, it's just safer, with so many booths in the hall, if they are flame retardant.
  
• Okay, the floor: ugh. I had that rug because I didn't want to pay $80 to rent a 10 x 10 square of grey or beige carpet for three days, a couple times a year. That shit adds up! (That goes for the curtains, too. Lesson learned long ago: always bring your own.) At outdoor shows, the floor will probably just be the grass or pavement...for indoor shows, maybe I could do a pattern, with colored duct tape? Or would that look cheesy? Hmm.
• My old booth was somewhat lacking in storage pace for extra inventory, shopping bags, packing materials, price stickers, pens, sunscreen, a cooler, just all the stuff you need during the day at the event. Two of the pedestals were open at the back with shelves for such things, the circular ones had lids so I could store things inside, and the back curtain was two feet forward from the perimeter or the booth, but it was clumsy and inconvenient. When I plan the new layout, I will take those things into account.
  
• Pedestals: I think I can build them, cheap and light, from foam insulating board. I plan to make a small one, to discover how best to cut the board and smooth the edges. There are hot wire tools for this, as cheap as $7 or over $100; it might be worth seven bucks to make this big job easier.
  

There's more, I can feel it rattling around in my skull like marbles in a coffee can. I haven't even touched on creating the "I want to go to there" feeling. But that's what I've got for now. I've been thinking about a new booth for years, but suddenly the mode has changed form "thinking" to "planning," and that's all to the good.

One-Handled Bowls

So, I got this idea: why do serving bowls have to have two handles? Unless they are enormous, I guess, and then you need them for helping to keep a grip on the full bowl. Bur outside of that, the handles are pretty much decorative, right?

As that thought percolated, another joined it: hanging bowls. Bowls that you can hang on the wall, when you aren't using them. We make platters with holes or hooks or outward-curved feet, to accommodate a hanging wire. That doesn't work as well for a bowl, because of the weight distribution, but what about hanging the bowl from handle? The single handle, there for the purpose of hanging? The bowl would have to hang bottom out, which is fine because the foot of soda-fired ware often has a subtle beauty; and then I wouldn't feel like the decorating I do on the outside of bowls is a waste of time: the outside would be on display whenever the bowl was not in use.

These bowls are five pounds, and a little bit thick; I've been trying to throw thicker lately. For something like this, a batter or serving bowl, I think it's more functional.


I made sure that the rim stayed pretty flat, after I bent it inward to accommodate the handle. I think this will ensure that it hangs well, and not at a weird sticking-out angle, and it also allowed for simple trimming - no need to throw a wet chuck or a donut to work around an undulating rim. (Which is nothing against undulation! I love me an undulating rim, I'm just saying they do require some accommodation.)

Here's the trimmed, drying bowl. Now I am thinking I may brush or glaze-trail a small image or pattern into the circle within the foot; something that gives the user a reason to hang it.

Map of Maine Pottery Tour 2012

....so far!


View Maine Pottery Tour 2012 in a larger map

I am eager to add pins to this map, so, local potters, give me a shout if you'd like to participate. The tour is happening May 11-15th.

Embryonic Pottery Tour!

When I lived in Minnesota, I looked forward every year to the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. I still have a Robert Briscoe pitcher and a Linda Christianson mug from those days. It was a sign that spring had arrived and a fun way to spend a day with friends - or family, since the tour always lands on Mother's Day Weekend.

For a few years, I have been thinking, "Why can't we do that here?" There certainly aren't isn't any shortage of potters.This year, finally, I did something about it: I invited 23 potters of my acquaintance to open their studios the weekend of May 11-13th. I'd already decided to have my studio sale then, and will do so regardless of the response; but I just think it's a great opportunity to combine resources and all benefit from the visibility. I am thinking a Kennebec Valley Potter's Tour; but it will depend on who wants to participate.

I chose Mother's Day weekend, because it lands before we all get crazy-busy with summer events and projects, and because it seems like a fun way to spend the day with your mom, shopping and visiting studios; and because there's at least a reasonable chance that the weather will be neither too hot nor too cold.

I already have one enthusiastic "Yes!' My friend Malley Weber, of Hallowell Clayworks, has agreed to participate. Thanks, Malley!

Watch here for updates, but it's a go. We're doing it.

Update: Liz Proffetty, a potter from Newcastle, ME, will be joining us also!

Thursday Inspiration: Elizabeth Kendall

See lots more of Elizabeth's work here.

Queen of Cups

100 Mugs in 100 hours is, of course, last week's news; but I gave myself a laugh this morning when I remembered that my signifier card, back when I read tarot, was the Queen of Cups.

I can't say I ever believed that tarot cards have any special powers: they are cardboard and ink, where's the magic? But even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

102 Mugs in 84 Hours

I reached my goal last night around 8 pm: 100 mugs in 100 hours. I ended up with 102 mugs - I was on a roll, why stop? - and actually completed the challenge with 16 hours to spare. A couple of thoughts about this project:

• It was a lot of work, but it wasn't a crazy lot of work. It required prioritizing studio work over errands and such, which is always hard for me, and also can't happen every day: I do have to go to the bank and return library books and get cat food sometimes. But it reminded me that I could be getting a lot more pots made than I actually do. Remind me of that the next time I am whining about not having enough inventory.
  
• This approach was so effective that I may try it in other forms. I couldn't do 100 butter dishes, for example, or even 50, in 100 hours (which suggests right off the bat that maybe I am under-charging for the butter dishes?) but I could probably do 20. Setting a more specific goal (as opposed to "make some casseroles today") seemed to help keep me on track.
• Obviously, this will only work for those days dedicated to wet work; but glazing, glaze-mixing and kiln-clean-up days already have a built-in specific goal, in that it all has to be done by loading day.
  
• I made mugs in multiples of 12: 12 of this shape, 12 of that, and in some cases I felt I wasn't done with a shape after 12 so made another dozen or half-dozen. I made some mugs that I probably wouldn't have thought of, except I had exhausted (temporarily) my interest in my go-to shapes.
• And, just YAY! I did it, and without making any sloppy or thoughtless mugs. In fact I wedged up two, because they were ugly, in that trying-too-hard way. I was afraid that by focusing on quantity I might be tempted to rush past the details that distinguish studio pottery from production pottery, but that didn't happen. Even when I chose to forgo decoration or throwing marks, it was with an eye to what I might like to do with glaze.
  

Thanks to all of you who followed along on Facebook and Twitter. It was a great motivator to know that people were watching. You are the best, mwaaahh!

Thursday Inspiration: Matt Nolen

Matt does lots of other work, besides bathrooms; but it is the bathrooms that most make me laugh with simple delight. See lots more of Matt's work here.

100 Mugs in 100 Hours

Holy cow, tomorrow is March 1! My dedicated stretch of playing is at an end. Not that there won't be plenty of playing going on in the studio, but I do have to get busy with production.
And what do I always, always need more of? Why mugs, of course! To kick off my shift in focus, I am planning to spin out 100 mugs in the 100 hours between 8 am Thursday and 12 noon on Monday. Unlike the original 100 mugs challenge, I will not be trying to make each of these unique, not more than the natural variations of the process. I have 4 designs in mind, although I will feel free to veer off plan as the mood strikes me. I'd like to start today, but I really need to grind, sort, price, pack, etc, all the work from last week's firing.

It doesn't sound like much: I know potters who can make 500 mugs in a day, but I am not one of them. On the other hand it will definitely be a challenge to my discipline more than to my skill. Like a weight-loss program, making this resolve public provides additional motivation.

New Pots!

Pots from the last firing!

Shino Experiment Results...Sort of

I tried a new technique in the hope of achieving some nice iridescent shinos without glazing two weeks in advance. It worked, and it didn't. These bowls were side-by-side in the kiln. I have known that one side of the chamber gets heavier reduction than the other - I can tell by observing the back pressure - but I have never seen a noticeable effect on the glaze results before. Holy wow, what a difference!
It doesn't really answer the question of whether keeping the glazed pots under plastic improves the results, but it does serve to remind me how very, very sensitive shino is to differences in atmosphere. I can try to keep all my shinos on the west side of the chamber - yeah, right - or I can maybe toss some sticks in the soda port periodically, on the east side.
Anyway. Interesting. now I have to return to the not-interesting task of editing all these photos. Why do I take them, again?

I'm Taking a Poll....

Here are a couple of shots from the Thrown, Altered, Assembled workshop at Portland Pottery yesterday. I only hope the students had as great a time as I did! As I usually do, I demonstrated and talked for the first two hours, and then opened it up for students to try some of the shapes.
And today I had a thought. I always like an interactive workshop, but maybe people would prefer to see/hear more from me, and then try the techniques in their own studios? I could easily fill three or four hours with demos. What do you think? I promise not to take it as criticism; I am just always looking for ways to improve the workshops, for next time.

I've created a poll, in the right hand column; or feel free to respond in the comments.