05 December 2011

Selling Pots

Jeremy Gann's "Dali" in the background.
After the hectic pace leading up to a firing, sitting with a good book, cups of tea and orange flavored Kit Kats sounds mighty appealing. But, of course, that's a fairy tale. The truth is that we went straight from firing # 11 to a complete overhaul of the gallery at Libertytown in preparation for our opening on First Friday.

We had a preview on Thursday for our 'Friends' and quite a few new 'birds' flew the coop. All the littlest ones sold in the first half hour and then 'the tree' sold to some local collectors which made for a great start to the season.
Kathleen Walsh, Elizabeth Seaver, Rita Brown
In addition to new work from my latest firing we opened up our first annual "Really Big Show" with great oversized work by 7 LibertyTown Artists. AND we had our 7th (or 8th)  student pottery sale which was a huge hit. Folks line up before we open at 5pm and some take out bags to their car, then return for another armful.
Very early the next morning I hopped in the car and drove to Demarest, New Jersey to visit the '37th Annual Pottery Show and Sale'. This has been a very successful sale for an ever changing group of potters for a long time. It is a fundraiser for the 'Art School at Old Church' organized by Karen Karnes and Mikhail Zakin, 2 of the 'grande dames' of American ceramics. They invite a couple of dozen mostly useful potmakers to set up inside the intimate confines of this quirky building. 

Mark Shapiro
I saw lots of old friends including Mark Shapiro, Matt Kelleher, Michael Hunt, Naomi Dalglish, Jenny Mendes and I met Jack Troy for the first time which was a real honor.

I bought a fabulous teapot from Ryan Greenheck and I know it's a great show when it's difficult to choose which teapot to buy! I almost chose two...there was nary a teapot worth the name when I visited the Philly Museum show last month so I could have justified another.
 I am beginning to plan a show of the same scale and quality in Washington , DC, next fall and I've been checking out shows to learn what I can. I talked to lots of folks who gave me good insight.It's an intimate and amazing show of great pots and people. I'm back home now and theoretically things will slow down a bit. I've got lots of photos of my newest work to show and I should be able to sit still and do a bit more blogging now. I miss you guys!

6 comments:

Tracey Broome said...

Very beautiful, but wait a minute, there are orange flavored kit kats? I have not heard of such a thing, how could this be!?! I love those orange flavored chocolate balls that you whack open at Christmas, but orange kit kats!?!?! oh yeah!

gz said...

Good to have shows and sales like that!

Dennis Allen said...

Glad things are going well for you and your crew at Libertytown.

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

A successful opening for the show! I'm sure ALL your birds will fly the coop in the days ahead.

cookingwithgas said...

you can look at me and know I like to eat and you totally distracted me talking about orange kit kats- see me and TB think a like.
But I did notice that the gallery looks great and I bet all your birds fly.
Happy Holidays! M

Hollis Engley said...

congratulations on the Demarest show, Dan. It's a great honor to be invited. It's good to see they're paying attention.