Monday, June 11, 2012

Speaking of wood-fire...

It's been far too long since I've posted on my blog. I think about it all the time, but always come up with something else to do...aaahhh gardening. I'm finally getting around to writing down what I learned this year at Ceramic Showcase. I had a great show and to be honest I'm already looking forward to next years show. It's always so great to see all these amazing talented artists come together and work, laugh, and catch up. This year since I was not in charge of the show I thought I would give a concerted effort to spend more time in my booth and talk to potential customers. This is very difficult for me. I could probably sell something of yours far better then selling my own work, which essentially is selling myself. People who know me think it odd that I have such a hard time with this, but I really lean far on the Introvert side of the Myers-Briggs personality test.

As to what I learned. It's not as hard to spend time in my booth and talk with a few people as I thought. I would try to gauge the person's interest and ask if they had any questions or complement them personally. That usually broke the ice. On one particular occasion my world was changed. A lady and her daughter stepped into my booth and picked up one of my more expensive mugs. She looked at it a bit and set it down. I pointed out that I had some more reasonably priced mugs on another shelf if she was interested. She looked at me and asked "why is that one so much more?" This was my chance to speak about the wood-fire process that I am so excited about, but I didn't want to bore the pants off of her, it's all about balance. I wanted her to see that although the others were very nice, this one was special. It had all the features of wood-fire I love. So I gave a run down of the basics...I don't really use or rely on glazes to finish my work, the ash from the fire flies through the kiln, lands on the red hot pots, melts, drips, creates crystals...sometimes, flashing, wadding, grinding...etc. She soaked it in and grabbed the mug, "I'll take it, but I don't know if I'll remember all of that". Her daughter looked and smiled "I got it mom".

I was on cloud nine. I loved that mug and was so pleased with how it came out and it found a home that will look a little deeper and closer at it then the average mug. That is why I do wood-fire and pottery. I want to make functional art that adds to peoples lives and makes them look at the small things. Now maybe I'm just babbling, but I can hardly express the joy I felt the moment she took that mug and understood that it was one of a kind, unique, maybe like her daughter...special out of all the others.