Archive for the “Art Festivals” Category

I have felt a bit out of the loop the past week as a crescendo of activity culminated in the Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale opening on Thursday night. Fortunately, the spiked adrenaline that was fueling me the last few days has subsided and I am much more relaxed today. The Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale closes this afternoon at 5:00pm - there’s still time to find some terrific pottery from local Colorado artists. I’ve added a sampling of some of our 48 member’s work below:

Large Bowl by Sarah Christensen, porcelain reduction fired to cone 10

Sarah makes beautiful work and long before I joined the Guild, I purchased one of her mugs.  Unlike many of of the guild’s members who do not have formal educations in ceramics or pottery, Sarah graduated from Alfred.  Her work is very recognizable - she leaves a lot of raw clay exposed on the exterior of her pots, and uses glazes and underglaze pencils to create complex designs.

Large 20 inch low fired earthenware turtle platter by Kathleen Laurie

I have been fortunate to know Kathleen for a couple of years and she was one of the people who encouraged me to apply to become a member of the Guild.  She hand builds in low fire earthenware and also makes more traditional high fired wheel thrown reduction fired porcelain work.  Kathleen has such a spontaneous glazing and decorating style that I envy in both types of her work.  I have already purchased something from this year’s show, but I just might have to purchase one of her turtle inspired pieces today before the show closes.

Sampling of pottery from Guild members

There are definitely more female than male members at the Guild - I’m not sure if that’s true for a lot of clay communities or not?  The large hand built vase on the pedestal is by Walt Hyler, one of our senior members who makes large sculptural functional work.  It’s such a pleasure that there are potters of all ages at the Guild.  The large round 25″+ in diameter soda fired vase on the table below with the dried grass is by Dick Howell who is the Guild’s kiln director.

Shino fired set & more

Having fired in oxidation for so long, I enjoy seeing all the different types of glazes and firing methods that I have available at my disposal now.  I haven’t taken advantage of it much, but plan to do so this winter.  The guild is going to start doing scheduled monthly guild group firings for whoever wants to sign up through the winter which will be a great way for me to experiment without having to make a ton of work that could end up being  real doggies.

Set of reduction fired tumblers and matching tray by Willow Connery, cone 10

Willow makes gorgeous wheel thrown work and I aspire to throw as well as her.  Her craftsmanship is amazing and her work light as a feather.  My very first purchase from a guild member before I even thought of applying was one of her porcelain platters.

Reduction fired platters by Candice Kiesow, cone 10

Candice is my “mentor” at the Guild this year and I just love her!  Every new member is assigned a mentor who helps guide and familiarize newbies to the procedures, equipment, building etc. for the first year.  She has an art background and is multi faceted - working in ceramics, graphic design and jewelry.  Candice just started a blog too, which reminds me that I haven’t linked to her yet….

I was prepared for our sale to be a little slower this year given the current economy, but I was wrong.  We are selling pottery like hot cakes - yesterday we had 3 check out tables and had lines 5 deep at each for hours.  I left at 1pm, so I can only imagine that it remained steady all day long.  I don’t think I’ll have much to take home this evening when we break down.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and said “hi” to me the past couple of days.  I even met someone in person with whom I’ve only emailed back and forth for a couple of months.  It’s weird putting a face to an email address - you just have to love the way blogging, social networking sites and the internet as a whole has a way of connecting people who might never meet otherwise.

Back to regularly scheduled programming on Monday,

~Cynthia

candice kiesow, colorado potters guild fall sale, dick howell, kathleen laurie, sarah christensen, walt hyler, willow connery

Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale Invitation

Reverse

You are cordially invited to the Biannual Fall Sale featuring work by members of the Colorado Potters Guild.

Late last year I applied to become a member of the Colorado Potters Guild located on Old South Pearl Street in Denver, CO and was juried into the Guild as one of its newest members in early 2008.

The guild boasts 38 active and 10 associate members and we host a large pottery sale twice yearly. The Fall Sale opens on Thursday November 6 and closes Saturday, November 8.  It’s a great place to find handmade pottery by local Colorado artists just in time for holiday shopping.  Guild members staff the sale in shifts - I will be working Thursday evening and Friday & Saturday mornings if you want to stop by and say hello - especially if you know me through my blog.  If you have friends who appreciate handmade pottery, please pass this invitation along.

If you are a potter, the membership chair will be available to talk with you about becoming a member of the Colorado Potters Guild.  Openings occur occasionally and Marta Rodeheffer will be glad to provide more information about how to apply to become a new member of the Guild.  The guild’s facilities include 2 30 cubic feet gas kilns, 4 electric kilns, 1 vapor kiln, wheels, glaze mixing area, electric slab roller, extruder and a congenial group of people dedicated to clay.  The Guild also hosts workshops with nationally and locally known potters on occasion.

The show hours are:

• Thursday 6:00 - 9:00pm
• Friday 9:00am - 9:00pm
• Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm

The Guild’s facilities cannot meet our space needs for our sales so we rent space for the weekend at:

First Plymouth Congregational Church
3501 South Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80113
(Huge church at the SW corner of Colorado and Hampden - follow the signs)

In the meantime, as much fun as it is to prepare for shows, I’m looking forward to a more normal slower pace to return and hope to catch up with everyone later this week.

One last thing - thank God the election is over - and GO OBAMA! It was so exciting to see the results start trickling in last night.  I was alternating between glazing (yes I’m pushing it up to the last minute!) and watching the results until about 11pm last night.  Around 9pm, my daughter came bursting into my studio and exclaimed that Obama is the new president - I thought it was premature, but lo and behold, I came inside the house just in time to see McCain concede.  Wow.

Lots of things to do yet for the the sale and I have some exciting news on the horizon!!  Stay tuned….

~Cynthia

Tags: colorado, colorado potters guild fall sale, denver

Moi

What a great weekend for an outdoor art festival! It was a bit hot, but otherwise perfect weather and crowds for the weekend.

I originally wanted to have a solo booth, but realized early in the spring that I wouldn’t have enough work to fill a booth. I was asked to share a booth which turned out to be the perfect option for me. I shared a booth with Joe, Ross and Jane, all members of the Art Student’s League of Denver. Our work is all so different to so I thought we really complimented each other. Joe makes some amazing sculptures from clay, Ross makes these crazy clay masks and Jane makes beautiful sculptural and mostly functional pieces from clay.

Some of my work

Last year, I took an art marketing class online taught by Alyson Stanfield and talked with many other artists virtually, meaning we have never actually met each other in person. Our class formed a Google group after the class was over since we didn’t want to let go of the camaraderie that had developed over the course of the month we spent together. This past weekend, I got to meet one of the members of the group in person! Peggy recently relocated from North Carolina to Colorado and popped into my booth on Sunday afternoon to say “Hi”. It was so fun to meet her! In addition to meeting Peggy, I also met Annie Chrietzberg on Saturday and will be spending the day with her next Saturday taking one of her hand-building workshops. I can hardly wait!

Meanwhile, I’m going to spend this next week making some new lino-cuts to use in my ceramic work. I have a lot of ideas that I’m going to start sketching and will post some photos when I start carving. I like to use golden linoleum for my ceramics. It’s soft enough to cut, yet sturdy and will hold up to under clay and moisture.

Have a good week everyone!

~Cynthia

P.S. The market was a little slower than last year. I credit that to the economy and the fact that Sunday was Father’s Day. I still have some ceramic boxes and other work that I will be photographing and slowly listing in my Etsy Shop over the next week.