A beautiful day for beautiful pottery

Saturday Oct 13, 2018 dawned bright and sunny, well, after the morning fog rolled away.

And I had a day trip planned to Spruce-Pine to see the Pottery Show. (More on it later, oh yes, much more!)

My friends and I took off from Black Mountain to Marion, over the Old Fort Pass to relatively rolling hills.  But then we followed US 221 up again into Gillespie Pass and to the mining town of Spruce-Pine.  It is the hub (as well as Bakersville and Burnsville) of the Toe River Arts Council, and many western North Carolina potters.

Here are just a few of the beautiful pots we saw!  I'll have a few more postings to share them all. This first post has the potters I liked as we went down one aisle.  (I liked most of them!)

And did I mention the show continues today 10-4?

I kind of wish I'd bought that mug of Kent McLaughlin's

Inspiration by looking at more pottery

Cathy and I spent a while browsing at the Spruce Pine Potter's Market last Sunday.

Enjoying sunshine outside of Spruce Pine Potter's Market

What a change from our wet venue outside at the Tailgate Market.  I love Black Mountain, but we just don't have such a great pottery show!  Spruce Pine is the center of Western North Carolina's potters who live and create out in the mountains and woods. 

We went to get inspired.  And of course there's also the education available from the potters.  We want them to be selling work to real customers.  But in between sales, the potters are a real friendly bunch!

Cynthia Bringle's booth merged with Pam Brewer...and I got lots of ideas!

Ken Sudbury

Joy Tanner's latest

 sculptural wall hangings

My favorite tree mugs

Cathy and Barb have seen absolutely everything - well almost

Tourist trade and a gallery

Before I go into this topic about marketing my wares, I first must thank the people over at potterymakinginfo HERE for all the mentions of this blog (Alchemy of Clay) in their June Review.

They cover all aspects of the craft and are a great resource for most everything you can think of.

Twisted Laurel Gallery has a nice looking gallery storefront

A well designed lobby with a store-like gallery behind it

The next store east seemed inviting...

Cathy and I were almost the only visitors in an area that seemed lost to trade

The gallery in which we had gladly shared our pottery did not seem to be doing all that great, nor is this whole row of shops in Spruce-Pine, NC.  At least by looking at them mid-afternoon in June.  It wasn't even unbearably hot.

But they don't seem to have a tourist trade like our dear Black Mountain does.

I was so sorry that the gallery doesn't even have an on-line presence.  Their web page was last updated a couple of years ago.  They don't do facebook, nor apparently send out emails to a customer list.  I can't imagine my life without the internet these days.

I was happy to get involved in their 1000 Cups Show...which I found out about through another group which posts both on blogs and on facebook, Western North Carolina Clay Club.  The show got a bit less than 500 cups, and I only saw about 100 on display, but communication is my point right now.  The proprietor did say a few mugs had sold.

They didn't advertise a 1000 Cups Show (I specifically asked this both before and after the show.) Perhaps this isn't a gallery thing to do...?

When I got there to pick up my pots, I found the show was still ongoing, and then the proprietor said that many of the potters had told her they couldn't pick up their work until after the 4th of July.  Well, that makes sense, if you want them to be seen and sold, since that is supposedly a peak tourist season.  It just didn't seem that way on the Tuesday we were there.

I haven't shown in many galleries yet, and want to have some of my work seen, and hopefully sold through them.  Any suggestions?  I would like to hear from someone who has approached galleries.  How do you do it?  Bring work or a thumb drive with photos?  Call for an appointment or drop in at a less busy time?