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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Last Thursday, I spent most of the day at the church where the guild holds its sales photographing work to use in future show advertisements and on their website. Our sale runs Thursday – Saturday for obvious reasons and the church apparently gives the guild favorable rental terms. It doesn’t hurt that it’s huge and that there are numerous rooms at our disposal. Some might consider it sacrilege, but we did our photographing in a small intimate annex chapel with the set up above – notice the cross behind the photo tent. It worked so well, I think I’m going to abandon photographing outside with my ghetto setup. The room was completely dark except for the lighting on the tent. We were able to get some great shots this way.

Platter by guild member, Kathleen Laurie, photographed in our set up

Meanwhile, during the marathon photo session, a few swear words escaped our lips – and we all laughed nervously while asking for forgiveness.

I’m feeling the urge to do a little glaze testing. Last night, I dusted off my copies of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Hesselberth & Roy as well as my copy of The Ceramic Spectrum by Robin Hopper. I’m feeling pretty relaxed now that the sale is over and I really do need to expand my glaze palette.

My in-laws are flying up today for a few days. They didn’t want to miss my daughter’s performance at the Shakespeare Festival on Friday and then we’ll spend Mother’s day together as a family.

Tonight, my husband and I are going on a rare date. We”re going to see Justin Currie, former lead singer of Del Amitri at the Toad Tavern. I’m not normally a live music fan, but this will be in an intimite venue – so I won’t feel so claustrophobic since there shouldn’t be any large crowds to speak of.

Happy Wednesday,

~Cynthia

Sarah Christensen Mug, purchased at the Colorado Potter’s Guild Fall Sale
On Thursday evening, I attended the opening of the Colorado Potter’s Guild Fall Sale with the intention of buying a new mug for myself and to meet the membership chair of the Potter’s Guild in person. My friend, Kathleen Laurie, is a member of the guild and mentioned that if I came to opening night she would introduce me to a few people. When I first arrived, I ran into several former classmates and friends of mine from the Art Student’s League – which was a blast. I forget how much I enjoy the camaraderie of like minded people working together in a collective studio environment. At any rate, it was wonderful to catch up with friends.

I met Marta Rodeheffer, the guild’s membership chair woman, who introduced me to many of the guild’s members and we discussed the application procedures for applying to the guild. I need to return my paper application to her, and if the guild members like what they see, I’ll be interviewed and have my work reviewed by the guild at which time the membership will either vote me on or say “no thank-you”. I imagine that this will be a 1-2 month process and with the holidays fast approaching think that January would be a reasonable guess as to when I would find out my fate.

Why would I want to become a member? I’ve already mentioned the collective studio environment aspect, but in addition, they have a mentoring program and I would have access to a gas, wood and vapor kiln. I fire in oxidation which means I use an electric kiln and certain surface treatments just aren’t available to me. They also bring in nationally known ceramic artists for workshops and have a wealth of information to share.

So, I suppose I should ask myself what they would gain from admitting me to their ranks? Something for me to think about when I fill out my application and in preparation for my interview.

Back to the image of the mug at the top of this post and referencing my post last week on ceramic cups and mugs and the experiential aspect of drinking from a handmade cup. I must have fondled every single mug that was on display Thursday night while keeping an eye out for a catching design and how the mug would feel in my hand, weighted with coffee. I like a rather big cup of coffee every morning so this also played into my decision process. Last spring, I remember seeing the work of a certain potter at the Guild’s sale and was instantly attracted to her work. It’s unusual. This year, I found a rather lovely, 16 oz. capacity mug made by Sarah Christensen and promptly purchased it. My only regret is that I didn’t buy one for my husband. She had another, more masculine version, but I left without buying it. Then again, I think my husband should pick out his own mug based on his needs – don’t you think? After all it is a rather personal choice.

You’ll find me in the studio this weekend. I’ll be firing the kid’s snowflake ornaments and throwing quite a bit of work in preparation for the Fancy Tiger Handmade Craft Fair coming up in one month’s time.

Have a good weekend,
~Cynthia

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