From Scratch Market

Snowday Ceramics had a table this past weekend at the From Scratch Market held at the Trexlertown Grange near Allentown. Credit goes to Pam Parker for a nicely organized event. I'd never spent much time in the Lehigh Valley before so I did not know what to expect, but ended up having a lovely day.

My table was located on the main hall of the Grange, with about 30 other artists and vendors of all kinds of handmade goods. I made friends with the other potter in the show, Pia Somerlock, who has her studio in the Poconos and has been doing this for about 10 years. She makes a wide variety of stuff including stoneware pots that are earthy on the outside, and brightly glazed on the inside. She will be at the Reading Public Museum "Art of the Craft" show next weekend.

I also chatted for a while with Melanie Linder, who has banded with a group of women from the Kutztown area to form Z-Town Made, an artist collective. A lot of their work seemed to be influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, but with a design-y freshness that is totally appealing. Maybe they are showing how design-y Pennsylvania Dutch folk art actually is. I ended up buying one of Melanie's prints.

A band called My Cousin The Emperor (I think?) played on the Grange stage, keeping the energy up throughout the day. There was also some very tasty food being sold downstairs, including a delicious butternut squash soup with fresh bread.

Speaking of food, after the show was over and I packed everything up, a source recommended I stop by Yocco's -The Hot Dog King, a local landmark fast food place. So I got pierogies, hotdog, and a birch beer before getting onto the Turnpike. Happy endings.

River City Festival

I found out about, and decided to apply to this kind of last minute, but I am looking forward to having a booth at the River City Festival this coming Saturday, October 3rd from 12 - 5pm. This is a celebration of the waterfront at Penn Treaty Park sponsored by the Fishtown Neighbors Association and will include a 5K run, live bands, community programs, and vendors.

I have been working on lots of new cups and will also have snowkid ornaments for sale (yes, already!).

I have also been applying to some other craft fairs this fall, for the holiday shopping season, and will definitely post about those when they are confirmed!

Hush Cups

The Clay Studio is celebrating its 35th Anniversary on October 10th with a big event throughout the whole building (they are tenting the parking lot too!) that includes live music, BBQ, and silent auction. I have donated a pair of Hush Cups to the silent auction. These are small cups thrown on the wheel, and altered by my thumbs and fingers pushing out or into the cups' sides. I had been meaning to create a kind of puffy, cloudlike vessel, which they sort of are, but even more than that I like how they appear to hold something just below the surface, a suggestion that is not entirely revealed.

The Silent Auction will be on view at The Clay Studio starting October 2nd through the 10th. I think the auction will also be accessible online and will post that information when I have it. Read more about the 35th Birthday Bash here.

**UPDATE**
to view auction items or bid online, go to the 35th Birthday link on The Clay Studio's website and scroll down to the Silent Auction link, or just click here, where you can browse all the artists, search by artist, and register to be able to bid on the auction. Bidding closes at 8:30pm on Saturday, October 10th.

Pulling Triggers: A work in progress

Here is a project I have been working on for the past few months: someone put me in touch with a fellow who needs some cups made for his wife. She has rheumatoid arthritis, so she has a specific mug that is comfortable for her to hold, based on things such as the size, weight, placement and size of the handles. This is a photo of one of her own mugs on the left. I am told that Bennington Potters in Vermont makes this style of mug, and it is often referred to as a Bennington Trigger.

But inevitably, cups break, and her supply of these are running low.


Her husband asked me to make some more for her. "It has to fit her like a glove," he told me. I said I'd give it a shot.



I finished a batch and sent them to her to try out. They returned with her user feedback on little stickies. For example:






So I have made another set, trying to get the size and hole placement right on target, and we shall see how it feels.

It is cool to have a project like this, which not only makes my degree in industrial design seem relevant but also gets me to throw many pots.

I also am learning to appreciate how difficult daily life is--just holding a coffee cup-- for someone with rheumatoid arthritis.

Doin' the Dart

Here's another thing from Shawn Spangler's Throw & Alter class: Darting, which is also a sewing technique in which you cut like a triangle out of your fabric and then sew the fabric back up. With pots, you remove a V-shape or it could also be an oval leaf-shape from the wall of your clay form and then push the walls back to close up the hole.


I tried it with simple, straight-up-and-down cylinders and hated it! These look so stupid.


















But then I tried it with some potbellied cups I made. One V-dart on the side turns the potbelly into a duckbutt. Love it.

Art For The Cash Poor 2008

Art For The Cash Poor is a really cool art fair event that supports InLiquid, an online artists' resource. Having just done the Art Star Craft Bazaar two weeks ago, I can't help but compare and contrast the two. I think from the outside they look like the same thing: artists and crafters set up with booths, live music, & vegan food vendors. But if you look a little closer, there is more of a fine-art representation to Cash Poor, which makes sense seeing that many of InLiquid's members are painters, printmakers, photographers and the like. Meanwhile, the vendors at the Bazaar seem more likely to be makers of really cute/ironic crafts, jewelry and silk-screened T-shirts, although certainly these folks were represented at Cash Poor as well.


It wasn't until I got to the Crane Building that I realized that Art for the Cash Poor is meant to be a benefit for InLiquid, what with the extensive raffle, and food vendors, such as the nice folks from North Port Fishington Cookie Factory over there to the right, informing customers that a portion of their proceeds will be donated. There were also a festive fotobooth, and an artist wellness area featuring massage and reiki on the spot, which I thought was really interesting, although I didn't have any time to experience it.

And not to say that anyone at Cash Poor was unprofessional, but it seemed a greater number of the vendors at Art Star were fully entrepreneurial, marketing-savvy, prominently displaying their logo and signs, business cards at hand. There were artists at AFTCP whose art I noticed, but unfortunately I can't tell you what their names were.

But here are some booths where I picked up a card: Rotorcaps- Jen Roder makes jewelry from bottlecaps, which sounds at first like a tried idea, but hers are extremely well-crafted with sterling silver, and she has a way of isolating the bottlecap imagery from its context, allowing you to appreciate it with a new perspective. Wolf Bait - Kelly Wolf was selling zippered purses made with *unbelievably cute* fabrics from Japan. They were as cute as the 4-month old biscuit-colored French Bulldog puppy named Olive who came to my table on Sunday. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her. Here is an obligatory picture of my dog Jonah instead. (p.s. this photo keeps automatically rotating itself when I upload it, if anyone can tell me how to correct it, please do)

Would I do these fairs again? Absolutely. I learned a lot at each one and saw them as fun networking opportunities; it also makes me feel like the most popular girl in Philadelphia when so many people I know stop and talk to me at my table.

Kiln Time

A sampling of results from the kiln we unloaded today, just in time for Art Star Craft Bazaar!







I used Mason Stains in order to get brighter colors. I love them and will definitely test more.

I've also been making these fun cylinders that you can group into pithy, ironic, or inspiring phrases... kinda like magnetic poetry.

Pitching Tents

I will be selling my pottery at two craft fairs this summer!





Art Star Craft Bazaar
Sat May 31st, 11am - 7pm & Sun June 1st, 11am - 5pm
Rain or shine
at Penn's Landing Great Plaza (Columbus Blvd. between Walnut & Market Sts)
My booth is #78, down around the fountain closest to the river.






Art For The Cash Poor
Sat June 14, 1-6 pm & Sun June 15, 1-6 pm
Rain or shine
at The Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American Street (at Master Street, a little north of Girard Av.)

Both events should be a lot of fun, with live music and over a hundred talented artists and crafters at each show.

Leaving my office job in order to focus on ceramics has been simultaneously energizing and exhausting, but overall I am immensely satisfied with this choice. Many people have the opinion that a career in the arts = penniless, but I disagree, and plan on turning this into my livelihood. Although I have sold my work before, being in these shows is a major step. Thanks for everyone's enthusiasm and encouragement.

I'd love to see you at one or both events!