Monthly Update?

    I am just now getting into the groove of this life as a 'retired gentleman'. The second annual Pottery on the Hill Show passed in a blur of great conversation, excellent sales and plenty of plain old labor to put it all together. The scale of the show is by its nature an intimate one and this ends up being one of its delights. Big enough to be of great interest to collectors and pottery lovers, it is also small enough for all the potters to spend time together and even fit into the back room of a restaurant to share a meal. Mark Hewitt joined us this year and he had fantastic sales, including one of his enormous lidded jars which I delivered to a house in horse country outside of D.C. It was great to get to know he and Carol better. In fact, the chance to spend time with these wonderful makers is one of the real pleasures of co-ordinating the show.
    We were also privileged to have Cheyenne Kim join us at Hill Center to arrange beautiful flowers in a wide assortment of our pots as part of 2 sold out workshops. He is a humble and quietly hilarious master.
    On Saturday, former Washington Redskin tight-end and present day potter Chris Cooley gave a couple of entertaining and casual talks about his love of art in general and pottery in particular. He was excited to meet us, a situation that he admitted that it was a role reversal for such a well known and liked celebrity. He has a gallery in Leesburg and is a great advocate for the work that we do.
    Of course, now that it's over we're talking about plans for next year already.
My assistant of many years, Jason, has moved south to the mountains of NC to work with Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish. I'm back to digging my own holes and handling all the odd jobs that make up a pottery life and I'm glad of it.
I have a bunch of greta opportunities next year. I'll write about that next.

My work.

Samantha, Stacy, Bruce and Bob.

Louise Cort with Matthew and Ryan.