Timing: Pottery, Parties, Life

I do not wear a watch. I used to. In grade school I found myself glancing at my wrist all too often and getting antsy. What is this time thing? How come what can feel like ‘forever’ is only a few minutes sometimes and then what may take ‘forever’ only seems like minutes? I dropped the watch to keep from looking at my wrist so often. Now I look up and around for a clock on the wall or am forced to ask a stranger or worse, take my cell phone out of hiding to check the digital time (I must confess I love traveling to a different time zone and seeing my cell phone reflect the new time).

What does this gibber jammer have to do with pottery? Well, I said in my last post that I would talk about what went into the making of Pincu Pottery’s birthday party and what I can do to make it better next year. All I can say is that timing has a lot to do with whether your clay pot/sculpture is successful and whether your pottery party (or life, for that matter) is successful! Readers, you know how to prepare for a party – and a pottery birthday party is no different.

Not to bore you with details about last week’s birthday party plans and implements, I want to suggest:
IT IS TIME to register for my Southwestern Community College summer clay classes!
(How is that for making the connection between time, parties and pottery?)
I will be teaching a ‘Kids in Clay’ class beginning June 20 for 8 year olds and up. This class may already be full. Also, ‘Beginner/Intermediate Wheel’ begins May 17 and ‘Handbuilding with Clay’ begins May 16. These two are for adults only. They will be really fun!

By the end of a Beginner/Intermediate Wheel class, every student will make a teapot. Take a look at some pictures from my last wheel class:

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It certainly took time and timing to make those pots! And now it is time for you to take a pottery class and find out how time flies when you are having fun in the studio!!!!

Thanks for reading!!!!

Pottery Shop – One year old and going strong!

Birthday Cake for Pincu Pottery

Pincu Pottery, in its current location, is One Year Old! Yipee! Cake by Home Sweet Home Delights in Bryson City, NC.

Sunday, May 1st, I invited guests to celebrate with me for Pincu Pottery’s 1st birthday. It was an incredible day!

My parents, Dan and Gloria, helped tremendously by purchasing a few much needed items in the big city of Asheville, where they live. Turns out the printer ink I use isn’t sold in Bryson City. Also, they bought food and other supplies. Both my parents and husband, Jeff, were there the entire day, helping to re-fill empty food trays, talk to folks and ring up purchases. They are incredibly supportive and I really appreciate their help and support!!!

More friends and students from Southwestern Community College showed up to celebrate than I expected, which was a sweet surprise. Thank you all! I was honored to have Laurie-Faye Long, accomplished potter, visit. She even bought something!

I posted a slideshow on my Facebook account; but for those of you not on Facebook, here is a small group of photos taken from Sunday’s Pottery Studio Birthday Party:

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Maybe next week I will talk a bit about what it took to put this event together and the things I will try to do better next year. One thing I know I will do better is follow through on the door prizes! This year I just completely forgot! I have been overwhelmed preparing for this event as well as a fund raiser next weekend – and that door prize/raffle idea just got lost. So… if you did attend the party and want your ‘door prize,’ comment on this post!

Clay Guild in Western North Carolina

Tonight is the second meeting of the up-and-coming clay guild for Western North Carolina (WNC) -West of Asheville including Haywood, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Clay and Cherokee counties. We will meet at 6:30 PM at Southwestern Community College in Bryson City. Of course it will be a Pot Luck and full of fabulous food. We will all bring our place settings to show off our pottery and keep the throw-aways to a minimum.

We are hoping to organize enough interested folk and raise some money to help market the area as a place to visit and purchase fabulous clay art and/or a place to learn how to play with clay. Handmade in America calls this a ‘Creative Economy’ and could help boost WNC’s economy! Judi Jetson, Director of Creative Economies for Handmade states, “Current research says the way to win in rural economic development is with a 3-way combination of outdoor amenities, creative professionals and entrepreneurship. This Rural Growth Trifecta is the key to our economic recovery.”

Hank Shuler, one of the organizers of this guild, wrote a wonderful press release for this meeting that points out within the 6 counties West of Asheville there are 5 established schools for learning to make pottery, along with a number of established clay artists and up-and-coming artists that are studying at these 5 institutions: John C. Campbell Folk School, Southwestern Community College’s Heritage Arts Program, Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts, Western Carolina University, and the Bascom.

I would love for this group to market through an annual Drive-About where studios are open to the public for a weekend festival of buying and browsing the wonderful clay art around the area. I imagine it would be similar to the Minnesota Pottery Studio Sale and Tour in the Upper St. Croix River area or the Art of the Pot in Austin, Texas, or any number of similar tours.

Another group of clay folks that I envy and would love for our group to emulate is the NC Clay Club. These folks meet monthly at various members’ studios and talk clay, eat together, host workshops, etc. They even have a blog that keeps all members and the public informed of the wonderful things going on. This club is located in and around the Asheville-Penland area, an incredibly clay-art dense geographic area. I hope our far western NC area can grow to be similar to this clay-collector destination!

Speaking of workshops….. though we haven’t officially established this guild (until tonight!) we have had opportunities to raise money to bring visiting artists to Southwestern Community College. The SCC students have participated in various art sales, including the WNC Pottery Festival and our own Mountain Shapes and Colors show; and while selling their wares, they have donated a percentage of sales to the ‘guild’. We hope to continue this on a larger scale in order to bring clay artists from around the country to offer workshops in our area. This small coffer allowed us to host Rob Withrow and Ted Cooley last week during the Face Jug workshop.

So come out and support this new clay guild! Help spread the word that there is FABULOUS CLAY ART WEST OF ASHEVILLE!!!!

If you have any thoughts on the guild – whether it be ideas for it or people to contact, etc., please leave a comment!