Bele Chere Success

I think I've recovered from last weekend's Bele Chere Festival. The gallery is reset and most everything else is unpacked. I generally had a good time. I was relieved to have made my booth fees by early afternoon on Friday. So I just sat back and watched the people. Anyone who has been to downtown Asheville knows it's a prime place to people watch.

The booth picture looks a little lame, but it's hard to get a good photo.



My first visitors Friday morning were my neighbors, taking in the festival before too many people got there. Joy Bennett from the Lace Toadstool popped in to say "hi". I had a customer so we didn't get a chance to chat. Jay came down in the afternoon, and I took off to see more of the festival. I stopped at Gabriel Kline' s booth. He teaches at Odyssey and has some nice cone 6 work. Later, when I should have been closing up the booth, I left again to catch some of Cracker and Dar Williams. I even got the chance to embarrass my offspring singing and dancing along to "As Cool As I Am". I thought you'd know this already.


Saturday morning I met one of Shane Mickey's students although he didn't give his name. My friend Brenda drove up and worked the booth with me until we closed. Good thing since the friends we were staying with had a water heater emergency, and Jay couldn't come back down. Towards evening, another studio-mate from Clemson stopped by with her husband. We are facebook friends, but I hadn't seen Marty for several years. It's so good to see old friends. Jay's boss came by and, after tracking down some of his friends, said goodbye by bringing me a Wee-Heavier from the French Broad Brewery. Yum!


The festival changed on Sunday. With no alcohol sales on the street, we saw more families and made more sales. Jay sold my green and white teapot (the one on my homepage) while I was up the street visiting the River District tent talking to Nelle Pingree, and later I sold one of by bigger baskets. Also met a gentleman who lives in Clemson and knows my Ceramics Professor and Mentor Mike Vatalaro. Small world.


All in all the festival was a success. The weather cooperated, sales were pretty good, and I was located on the shady side of the street. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year. A lot will depend on how well I do at the Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair next weekend.

In the meantime, I fired a bisque overnight and plan on firing a cone 10 this weekend.

Bele Chere is this weekend

Okay, I might be crazy to have let someone talk me into a 3 day show, but Bele Chere is so much fun! My booth is across the street from Barley's Taproom on Biltmore Avenue. Stop by and say hello. I'll post pictures of the booth, etc next week when I get home!

Back in the Saddle

After a successful Studio Tour the kids and I headed off to stay in Nags Head with friends. Awesome weather, food and drink but the fun didn't stop there. Their daughter travelled back to the mountains with us and they joined us mid-week for Independence Day follies. Add another family of four to ours plus the three from Virginia and we had a full house indeed. I'm still buried in laundry.


With all the company gone by Monday morning, I hit the studio hard. I have two arts and crafts shows coming up, and thanks to the TRAC Tour and my almost daily visitors, my stock is dwindling. I have high hopes of firing a cone 10 before Bele Chere in Asheville July 24-26 and a cone 6 before the Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair in Burnsville August 7&8. I just keep thinking positive thoughts. Besides, I've been told that sleep is overrated.



Meanwhile, I became a member of Toe River Crafts in Celo which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. There is a special exhibit of member work and the above basket sold within a few days. I'm so sad to see them go sometimes.



I don't have any shows lined up for the fall but my main goal is to piece together a website. My head is full of ideas, but I really need to keep a slow pace: first make the work, then market it. I already can't keep up with my Etsy site and I feel like a bit of a failure. As for the website, I reserved my domain name 6 months ago and am looking into using some kind of template for the time being. I can always redesign it later, but I just don't have the time nor the inclination to reinvent the wheel.



So it's back to work. With the kids home for summer break, carving out studio time has been a challenge. I've been coaching my kids on how to be self-reliant while I'm working. This means not interrupting to tattle, cleaning up after themselves and making good lunch choices. Yesterday, Allison ate 1/4 of a watermelon and potato chips and onion dip.