TIME OF YEAR

I just finished packing a commissioned personalized “utensil jar” with the name of the soon to be owner on it. Personalizing, is one of the advantages of the carved slip or black & white slip trailed work. Once this piece is mailed out tomorrow, I am completely caught up with commissions and orders for the holiday season. Last Friday was the trek to CT to deliver work out to Wesleyan Potters (and to Nick’s a cheeseburger/onion rings) and last Saturday to Syracuse to drop off work at Eureka Crafts and to pick up some clay supplies at Clayscapes. Over the past several weeks, with trips to the post office and UPS, I have either hand delivered or shipped out quite a bit of work for holiday shows, gallery orders or individual orders and commissions. There may still be some odds and ends to finish, but from past experience, mostly smaller pieces (in terra cotta) to contend with, though I do remember a year where on Nov. 21st, I received an order for dinnerware, place settings for eight. Dinner plates, luncheon plates, soup bowls and handled mugs, all in painted terra cotta and needed to arrive before Christmas, that was fun.

Though it feels rather good to be all caught up, this is the period that happens every year in Dec. and Jan., the down time. This is not to say I am not making pots, though the first week usually revolves around cleaning the studio and doing a comprehensive inventory of materials and other supplies. As winter closes in on central NY state (we received about 6” of snow today!), it is important to get any materials I may need that can freeze and freezing temperatures are just around the corner hear. The studio management can only last so long and then back to working on tests and throwing, starting slow with teabowls and moving on to covered jars, teapots and plates. I may be finished with my orders and commissions, but based on the volume of sketches and notes, I am hardly done with what I want to make. Maybe in a lifetime of two, I can finish of what I have yet to do. Iguess the down time doesn’t have much “down” in it, after all.

On a side note, now through Dec. 25 I am offering a 20% discount on any pots made by me (mostly in the #4000 series) on my Trocadero marketplace. Please come by and take a look;

http://www.trocadero.com/albedo3studio/catalog.html

Illustrated is a carved black slip porcelain bowl with a modified bloesem design.

“I feel the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.” Jonas Salk (1914-1995)