Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Hurrican force winds definitely put a damper on pottery sales

The Calgary Clay Arts Association held their annual Christmas pottery sale this past weekend. Saturday was a pretty good day in terms of foot traffic and dollars spent. Sunday however was an entirely different story. As you may, or may not, be aware, Calgary, and the southern half of Alberta is blessed by a weather phenomenon called Chinooks. A Chinook is a rain shadow wind, caused by the moist Pacific air meeting the mountains where it loses its moisture on the upslope side, and then the resulting dry wind blows down the east side of the mountains onto the plains. As the wind loses it’s moisture it also becomes warmer and more energetic. The tell tale sign of a Chinook, if you are not outside to feel the wind, is the classic Chinook arch. This arch is a band of cloud that forms east of the mountains. Imagine -20 weather and then a Chinook blows in and in less than an hour or so, the temperature can climb above 0. Snow can disappear in a heartbeat, and the wind is warm, although not very gentle. Anyway, Sunday was a doozy. The Chinook that blew in on Saturday night developed wind gusts during Sunday that were classified as a class 1 hurricane in terms of speed. It was so powerful it blew windows out of downtown skyscrapers, and caused the City to shut the downtown core. No vehicle or pedestrian traffic was allowed, and it also stopped the light rapid transit system from going through the city centre.

Many large trees were uprooted, and the damage will be quite high once the figures get added up. Unaware of all the carnage going on, we were sitting in our little sale wondering where all the people were and commenting on how windy it was. Little did we know that there was a wind warning and people were being advised to stay home due to the dangerous driving conditions, flying debris, and trees coming down all over.

 

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Very strange dream

I finished day one of the CCAA sale today and when I got home I ate some dinner and then had a little nap that turned into a 2 hour sleep. These naps always yield the strangest dreams. This time was no different.
I am in a crowded building somewhat like a very busy hotel lobby and I meet a guy with really disheveled long, curly, dirty blond hair and he is wearing a really big overcoat with a hood, or a hat. Somehow I end up following him and trying to have a conversation, but he is walking really fast and leads me into another area, that while still part of the hotel lobby, appears to be where his "office" is. Anyway, he takes off his coat and all of a sudden, his hair is short and no longer messy. It looks like he has a wig of sorts sewn into the hood. Now he looks like Mikey Teutle (American Choppers fame) but with short well groomed hair. The "me". In the dream is like Zooey Deschanel. I ask about the "hair" and he says something weird like "it's ethnic representation" whatever that means. As we are talking, one of the employees makes smart alec comments about how he is actually talking to a girl and another one is standing at the counter and it looks like he is getting hairier by the second so that now he looks like Michael J. Fox in that teenage werewolf movie. The most bizarre thing was that it was very vivid, like I was watching a movie and the dialogue was totally clear and made absolute sense, at the time of course.
Weird

Thursday, November 24, 2011

One last load buttoned up

I managed to get the last few pieces loaded into the kiln last night. Turns out I really only had about 4 medium sized bowls, a large casserole, 1 mug to re fire due to a wax mishap the first go round, another single mug that did not make it in the last time and 4 small soup bowls. I filled the gaps in with student work, and one of our resident genius’s pieces. The genius I speak of is Walter. His work is usually very intricate, with a lot of carving and piercing. The piece I  loaded last night was a tall vase with all this carving and a very delicate pierced rim. It made it into the kiln by a hair, it was almost too tall.  In reality, there won’t be much from this load for me to take to the sale as one of the mugs, and 2 of the large bowls are for an order I am filling for a friend for Christmas, but I am a firm believer that the piece that someone really wants when they don’t buy something at a sale, is probably sitting on the glazing shelf back at the studio, so I try to get everything I possibly can to the table. I will have to seriously think about what to bring to the sale though, and will probably thin out my selection. I tend to try and cram as much as possible on a table, but when the table is open, people can see the work better and it is more inviting to pick up instead of reaching over and around other items. I always worry that I won’t have enough work. What if I sell out and my table is empty? Ya right, I wish.

Once this weekend is over, I am going to test some glazes. I am curious to try out the snowflake crackle glazes that John Britt wrote about in Ceramics Monthly. Here is a link to the Ceramics Arts Daily site with this article . http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-glaze-recipes/mid-range-glaze-recipes/crazy-beautiful-crazing-uncovering-the-mysteries-of-snowflake-crackle-glazes/ Although his main goal was to get a cone 10 snowflake crackle glaze, there are several cone 6 recipes that I want to try out. It is strange that I am always intrigued by these specialty glazes that are usually not functional, considering that I usually only make functional pottery. That must be my inner masochist coming out. In the article, he was using a brown clay body, but I usually only throw with white clay, so I will give it a shot. I don’t see why it won’t work, the crackles may just seem more subtle without the contrast of the dark background. If I try it with a little cobalt, it might make the crackles “pop” a bit more.

 

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Aftermath of Studio Sale....gettin' ready for the next one

The studio sale on Saturday was relatively successful. I cannot however make any sense of the buying public. In the fall of 2007, before the market took a nose dive, they were not buying much. Then, in the fall of 2008, they were buying a whole lot more, even though everyone was freaking out about the housing bubble. 2009, in the middle of the World Economic Crisis, sales were flat, but not too bad, and then in 2010, we broke records. This year we are down again, not drastically, but still, what is the thinking? Or is there any? Everyone keeps saying that locally made work is making a comeback as the consumer is thinking more about where there dollars are eventually ending up. In other words, they would rather their money went into the pockets of local businesses instead of China.

I made pretty much the same as I always do, maybe down about $100 overall. This now leads to a bit of a supply crisis on my end. I have a 2 day sale coming up on the weekend, and although in the past, it has not had the best turn out, you never know, there could be hoards this time. The CCAA sale is a new event, and this will only be the 2nd year in this location, and I know that it takes time to build a following, so it is better to always be prepared for the best case scenario.

Anyway, I sold about ½ of my work this past Saturday, and now I need to get into the studio and glaze like a demon and get a load in tonight if possible to help fill in the holes. The tricky thing is that I don’t have a lot of work bisqued. I do have some large bowls and casseroles ready to glaze, but nothing very small to fill in the smaller areas in the kiln and help it fire more evenly. Oh well, such is the lot of a procrastinator. I put off glazing too much, too early, and then I pay for it. On top of all this, I still need to put together a catalogue sheet for this sale. I don’t have to do it for any of my other sales, and I don’t like having to do one for this sale, procrastination wins again. I will have to dig through all my smoke fired pieces to fill in any gaps in inventory and price the ones I don’t want to part with really high. That way if they sell, I am not that broken hearted about it. Money sooths a lot of wounds J

Monday, November 21, 2011

eeeuuuuwwww! and other stories

Well, I have recovered from my busy weekend selling pottery at the Fairview Studios Christmas sale. This sale only runs from 9am-noon on Saturday, but they are the busiest and best 3 hours of the year. I went home afterwards and had a snooze, as I was dog tired and needed to rest up before I went out for beer. My dear mother has the most impeccable timing. I think she has some kind of sick 6th sense that tells her she should call me just as my brain enters the delta wave phase of sleep ( 1/2 step above coma). So I am pretty sure she thinks I don’t like talking to her, but really it is that my brain can’t string 3 words together, let alone carry on a coherent conversation.

Anyway, I revived myself, ate some cereal for dinner, and then headed off to the pub (AKA the Ship and Anchor). It is only about 8 blocks away as the crow flies, but it was super cold on Saturday night (at least -17 celcius), so I drove. Don’t freak out, I only drank Guinness (4% alc. by volume) and I only had 3, and I was there for several hours, and I had a humongous bowl of poutine (french fries, gravy, cheese curds) to soak it up.  Anyway, the purpose of this story is that somebody there that night had the worst case of gas EVER. We were sitting at the bar chatting, and then our eyes would start to water and our noses would burn as this toxic fog would waft over. We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, but man was it powerful, and it never stopped. It would go away for a bit, but then there it was again.  It was so bad that Max (the bartender) was lighting matches and wafting the acrid smell of burnt match heads around to try and “cleanse” the air. Smoking is not allowed in public areas in Calgary, so I am pretty sure that the only reason they keep the matches on hand is to combat foul body odors. Never thought I would miss the smell of stale cigarettes in a bar, but at least you never had to smell that smell.

On a side note, If you have never had poutine, and are curious, it is essentially a heart attack in a bowl. I would not recommend having it more than 1 or 2 times a year, but on a cold winter night, when you have only had cold cereal for dinner, it sure hits the spot. Invented by the Quebecois, not sure when, it slowly moved westward in popularity in the late 90’s and 2000’s. Make yourself some French fries, put them in a bowl, top with gravy and cheese curds (squeaky cheese). People call it squeaky cheese because they kind of squeak when you eat them. Anyway, the cheese curds melt all over the fries and into the gravy, and it is pretty yummy. Poutine is very salty, so take your rings off now, and don’t expect to be able to fit back into your shoes the next day. Drink lots of water afterwards.

If you are in Calgary, you should check out the Ship and Anchor as well…here is their website www.shipandanchor.com

 

Friday, November 18, 2011

Never wax your eyebrows when you are bored

I was procrastinating last night. I have a few remaining bits and pieces to price for my sale on Saturday, but I did not want to go out to my car to bring them in to get it done, so I decided to wax my eyebrows. Nothing wrong with that, no disasters, I am not missing half an eyebrow. However, after I finished up with the brows, a thought occurred to me, “hey, I could do a little under the arms”. I have not waxed there before, I am a soap, water and a razor kinda girl. But I had the wax out…so what the heck.

I quickly discovered a couple of things. 1: Yes, it is as painful as I imagined, and 2: My left hand does not do things as quickly as my right.

For those of you who have never waxed anything, here is a visual.

Heat up the water based wax in the microwave to make it easier to apply. It will now have the consistency of honey, and like honey, it will get everything sticky. Spread on a thin layer in the direction of hair growth (ya right, it grows in every direction, and thin is not an option, once it is on, it is on, spreading it just pulls the hair). Press the strip of fabric that comes with the wax onto the area you just put the goop onto. Now, pull or tighten the skin in the opposite direction that you will be pulling the wax off. With your other free hand, quickly rip the strip off in the opposite direction of hair growth. Stop crying and repeat as needed. As you can imagine, when waxing under your arms you only have the use of one hand…. The other hand is reaching so far back behind your head you think the Chinese Circus could use you in a contortionist act.

Now, (once the swelling and bruising subsides) I have pits you could mistake for a baby’s bottom (if you were blind, and the baby was 40 years old) and a car full of pots still to price.



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

upcoming sales

 

catching up on all things pottery and other stuff

It sure has been a while since I last posted anything on this blog. But I have been very busy. I believe the last time I posted, I had just finished up the last of the 150 bottle vases for my sister’s wedding.  Well, that has passed us by, and we are all relatively unscathed by the event. Nobody got too lubricated, well, maybe a few, but nothing out of control. My sister didn’t want people to come to the microphone and make speeches unless they were a bit wobbly anyway. Something about “every good wedding needs a scandal”.

I have a couple of Christmas sales coming up this holiday season, the first of which is this coming Saturday. I believe I have mentioned this before, but it is the busiest, and most financially rewarding sale I have ever been a part of. This would be the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale. It always amazes me how many loyal customers we have. The sale has been going on for probably 25 or more years, and there are probably people coming that have been doing so since the very beginning.

My next sale is the very next weekend (Nov 26th and 27th), and is the Calgary Clay Arts Association’s 2nd annual Christmas Pottery sale. Although last year was not as well attended as I would have hoped, I am giving it a 2nd chance. I only participated in the Sunday last year, so I thought I would go all in and give both days a shot. I will be at Mount Royal Station on Saturday and Sunday from 10-4pm. So if you are reading this, and live in Calgary, you should come on down and check us out. Sunday is the Grey Cup, so all the non football fans will need an escape, and there is no better way than going to a pottery sale where you can meet the artist that made the work, and hopefully picking something very special up.

Anyway, enough about that…

I have been working, working, working, hence the lack of blogging and will be working even more for the next 4 months. I am picking up a Thursday night class at the studio, as the instructor that does it now is flying south for the winter for 4 months (Phoenix I think).

Funny thing happened to me on the weekend. I was franticly trying to get a bisque fired on Friday. It was Remembrance day here in Canada, so I had the day off from working for the man, and was working for me instead. The kilns at the studio are going full bore right now getting all the student work done for the upcoming sale, so I thought I would take advantage of the kiln at Ceramics Canada. I left home early (9am), went to Tim’s for an extra large double double and got to the studio by about 9:30 or so. I packed up my green work, carefully wrapping it in paper, loaded the car and drove off to Ceramics Canada. At the first intersection I think to myself, hey, where’s my coffee?  As I thought that, I also wondered why there was liquid rolling off my roof onto my windshield (wasn’t raining or snowing out). Ok, so I put my coffee on the roof of the car before I got in, it sprayed all over the rear side windows and all down the sides of my car…needless to say, I lost my coffee to gravity and centripetal forces beyond my control. I did get the bisque loaded and out by Saturday Morning, glazed all day Saturday (10-6), and then went back and loaded up a glaze on Sunday at around noon. The results were pretty nice. I am playing with some high temp wire, using it as accents pushed into the sides of the leather hard ware and loops for lid handles etc and it came out all nice and oxidized, not too shiny, just right. It works really well with the glazes I am using. One fluted jar is a nice sea foamy green (faux ^6 celadon), and another jar has our studios ^6 take on a tea dust glaze, but as it isn’t really a tea dust, we call it coffee dust (ha ha). This really dark brown glossy glaze is on the bottom ¾’s of the jar, and then the top 1/3rd was dipped into 2 commercial glazes, that when overlapped, produce a very nice gun metal metallic, lustrous surface, and then when they run over the “coffee dust”, they produce creams, mauves, blues etc. very interesting.

So, busy me for a bit, but I will try to  blog a bit more as time permits, and if I have anything of interest to share.

Oh Ya, one last note, there was a death in our family. Ginger, our family dog of 13+ years left us just before my Sister’s wedding by a week or so. Very sad, and she will be missed.