My Mess.

Sarah came down this morning and circled both her hands over this table (our kitchen table) and said, " will you please work on cleaning up this Ron explosion before I get home from work?".  Ha. She's so sweet, and tactful.

Online Sale is still happening HERE.

Holiday Sale at the Pottery continues this weekend. Sat. 10 till 5, Sun. Noon till 4.

Online Sale Starts a 1pm EST

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This is a sampling of some of the pots that will be in the online sale.  Sale goes live at 1pm.  I hope this will give some folks who live farther away a chance to get some pots.  Thanks for checking in and for all your continued support.

Click HERE to go to my online Shop

Online Sale

My Online Sale starts tomorrow, Dec. 3rd, at 1pm EST.

Click HERE to get to the shop.

I'm going to wait on starting that whole discussion about selling pots until next week.  Too much other stuff going on between now and this weekend. So stay tuned for that topic.

In Need

I threw out all my studio towels recently.  They were all done in.  Today the only clean towel in the studio was this rag of a dish towel.  I threw just over 75 pots today and it's pretty much had it.  Guess I'll hose it out tomorrow and dry it in the sun.  I'll have to scrounge up some used towels for the studio soon.

Back to Work. And Upcoming Topic for Discussion

I just got an order for 60 little dishes.  Looks like it's back to the wheel today.  I'm thankful for the work.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm selling and marketing my pots.  Things have changed quite a bit for me over the last two years (since the switch to earthenware and more decorating).  I will be posting soon about this change and how I feel about selling from my shop, working with galleries (wholesale and consignment), and doing retail craft shows.  It may take a few installments.  I hope this topic will prompt some discussion here in the comments.  So be thinking about it and we'll see what happens.

Online Sale starts Thursday.

Hi Folks,
It's a nice, slow Monday here for a change.  We had a great 3 day weekend sale here at the pottery.  Thanks everyone who came out and supported us.

I will be posting pots in my Etsy shop on Thursday.  If you live far away then this is a chance to get some pots.  I'll have a good variety, mugs, small and medium bowls, plates, bakers, just to name a few.  I've got a full day ahead of me to get it all photographed and listed.

Online Sale this Week.

This is a shot from the showroom on Friday evening.  I've had a good weekend, but still have pots for next weekend too.  Hope you'll make it out if you are in the area.

For those of you farther away, I will posting pots on my Etsy site towards the end of this week.  I'll announce the day and time tomrrow.  I have some nice pots to post there so stay tuned.

Thanks for checking in.

Holiday Sale

My Holiday Sale begins TODAY.
Friday, Nov. 27th and Saturday Nov. 28th, 10 am till 5 pm
Sunday Nov. 29th  Noon till 4pm

and continues the next weekend

Saturday, Dec. 5th 10 am till 5pm
Sunday, Dec. 6th Noon till 4 pm

757 Wallace Grove Road Shelby NC 28150

Hot pots just out of the kiln this morning.

Pots on Thanksgiving Eve

Just unloaded a kiln of great pots!!! Yey!  Very exciting.  I'll put up a few pics now and maybe more in the morning (although I'm sure most everyone here in the States will be busy,busy tomorrow with Thanksgiving).

I had two of these double dishes (below). I'll be making more of them in the future.

I think this is the best mouse I've drawn lately.

Here's a small cup with a pistol grip handle.  Some folks just like the one finger handle you know.  Pretty good bird too.

Popped in a load of plates, bakers and the one jar I made after I shot these pics.  Should have hot pots for the Opening on Friday.

Time for bed, gotta get up and put that turkey in the oven first thing in the morning.

No Pots Yet

I should have some new pots out tomorrow by this time.  Nothing pottery related to share at the moment so here's a pic of Karma relaxing on the couch.  What a life.

Holiday Sale

My Holiday Sale begins this week.
Friday, Nov. 27th and Saturday Nov. 28th, 10 am till 5 pm
Sunday Nov. 29th  Noon till 4pm

and continues the next weekend

Saturday, Dec. 5th 10 am till 5pm
Sunday, Dec. 6th Noon till 4 pm

I'm gonna have a showroom full of pots.  I hope you'll come out if you're in the area.

757 Wallace Grove Road
Shelby NC 28150

Outside Studio

It was a beautiful day today.  I moved out on the porch to do my drawing.  Half way finished.  Should finish up tomorrow plus get a bisque loaded.

Aprons

I made 87 pots this week, just over 100 if you count the small spoon rests I whipped out yesterday.  Sure that's no grand number by production potter accounts, but good for me and now I've got to draw on them all.  Oh, my aching shoulder.

A customer recently commented on how much he liked the slipped 'aprons' on my pots.  I hadn't thought of the wavey slip pattern at the bottom of the pots to being like an apron skirt, but yes they are! Cool.

These pots are all for my Holiday Sale.  I'm pretty much finished making for that event.  I sure would like to make a few more things, but if I'm gonna get this all fired I've got to stop.  I have special orders to fill before Christmas so I'll still get some wet days in next week.

From Wednesday.

Just a few shots from yesterday.  Today more feet to cut and lots of slipping to do. Stay tuned.

Tuesday. Moving Right Along.

This is the list I started with for the week.  I made my way through it yesterday and today.  I made a few adjustments along the way.  I think I only made 18 cups but I added 4 tankards, and I threw 12 plates today instead of 15.  I decided to make 3 medium size mixing bowls too.  I really like a  mixer this size, they are good for scrambling eggs or mixing dressing.

I only made one jar.  I'm sort of in jar limbo right now. Not knowing exactly what shape I want them to be.  I have plenty of jars in the showroom too so I didn't feel bad for skipping out on the last two.

I totally skipped luncheon plates.  I decided to double the number of pasta bowls instead.  It's been awhile since I made any and I was having a good go with them.  Luncheon plates can wait.

Sarah suggested some creamers so I made 4 of those first thing this morning. You can see them below on the left.  They won't get a handle.  I like to put those two little dimples in the sides and that's just fine to pick them up.

I made two of these  double dishes too.  It's been a couple of years since I've made any of these.  They will get a handle (probably) tomorrow).

I didn't make the animals yet.  Probably do that tomorrow if I have time.  There's plenty of trimming to do now and then slipping and drawing.  Also going to see Neko Case tomorrow night!!!!  Fun night out with our friends Jen Mecca and her husband Joey.

Oh and I made some spoon rests today too.  Ha, just a little something of an inexpensive item to have on hand for the Sale.

Pots in Use.

Michael Kline has these pics up on his blog this morning.  Ha. I'm not exactly sure what's going on here but those hamsters guinea pigs look cute on that plate of mine.

If you have some of my pottery I'd love for you to send me an image of it in use.  You can email me at ronpots2 at yahoo dot com

I'll post the images here on the blog.

5 Good Hours

I had 5 hours of wet clay time in the studio today.  Sometimes 5 focused hours can be more productive than 8 hrs of mucking around.  I happy with what I got made.  The plan is to make as much as I can today and tomorrow and then play catch up (chasing plastic).

Getting the clay prepped takes up a good amount of time. In the old days a 'ball boy' would have balled the clay and brought it to the wheel for the thrower.  Of course I'm a one man operation so I don't have that luxury.  Below is clay prepped for plates and mugs that I'll make in the morning.

All this is in preparation for my Holiday Sale which is the weekend after Thanksgiving and the first weekend in December.  I also want to keep some pots back to put up on Etsy.

Squirrels

I had a good laugh with a couple who came in the booth on Saturday.  The wife noticed how some of my squirrels reminded her of an Eddie Izzard skit.  They asked if I knew who Eddie Izzard was and I said yes that Sarah and I love his comedy.  Here's a bit of Eddie's squirrel act. (rated R for language).

So funny.

Folks like to tell me how much they either love or hate certain animals. Squirrels especially.  I like squirrels myself.  I think they are pretty amazing acrobats and survivalists.  Sure they may raid your bird feeder, but if you put a big pile of cheeseburgers out in your yard everyday I'd sure be over there!  And I know they destroy wiring and insulation and such too, but come on man, you're a human, surely you can figure out a way to keep them out of your attic. (Maybe not, squirrels, or their ancestors, have been around longer than us)

Anyhow, it's cool to be making things that people are drawn to and that they relate to in some way.  I even had a lady tell me, I'm gonna buy my husband a squirrel mug just to torture him.  True love.

The CPF

Here's a not so great shot of my booth from yesterday.  I had one more table display set up to the left but didn't get it in the shot.  The spaces in this part of the show are long and narrow.  I kind of like it because it gives folks plenty of room to come in and look around with out getting in each others way.

Anyhow, I had a really great show.  Thanks so much to everyone who came out and bought pots and to the organizers of the event.  Thanks also to the volunteers from the Arts Council.

I sold mostly plates, bowls, and mugs.  The plate stand was a nice addition to my display and I think it brought folks in from the aisle.  My understanding was that attendence was up this year to around 2100 people.

Today I have to unpack the truck and take inventory.  I'll be back to making tomorrow in preparation for my Holiday Sale which is the Friday, Sat, and Sun after Thanksgiving as well as the first weekend in December.  If you'd like to be notified please sign up in the right side bar.  More details later.  Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Glazing.

Sarah came in and snapped a couple photos of me last night while I was glazing.  Then she went to bed.  I had too much tea and was up till 2 am.  I got some good reading in though.

I'm off to set up at the CPF today.  Show is tomorrow.  If you are in the area it's well worth coming out to the show.  Click Here for info.