...be in shape for the games next year.

This past weekend was the Cambridge Pottery Festival and US Pottery Games. What is not to love about being at a show with a bunch of clay people? And even better to be at a show with only clay people! In the twelve years that we have been doing art shows for living there are a few truths that I have come to know.
One of them is this:
Clay people are most often really fun people to be with. You want to hang with clay people.
This past weekend turned out to be a really joyous time. Honestly we didn't make much money but the 'fun' factor made up for it. On Saturday morning as I was setting up our cash box a potter walked by with a pie. She stopped and said to me, "Oh you're new. You don't know about this." She told me all about the church ladies who make pies and sell them at the show. She told me I had better hurry and get down there before all the pies were gone because they go quick. You bet I sorted that change as fast as I could and I hauled it down to the pie booth.
Pies, Pies, Pies. There were so many to choose from:

Apple pies, peach pies, rhubarb pies, oatmeal pies (that was one I had never heard of before), pear & cheddar pies, pecan pies....you name it, they had it! I was gushing. I was so excited. These poor ladies must have thought I was a kook. On Lopez Island where we used to live full time one of my favorite events is 'Bingo For Pies'. What is not to love about pie? I looked, I giggled, I was beside myself with joy. I bought a rhubarb pie because I LOVE RHUBARB. I am nuts about rhubarb. I almost bought the pear & cheddar as well but who needs to be greedy? I bought a beautiful looking rhubarb pie. Like a dope I didn't take a picture of my pie. With the love affair I was having with it all day you'd think that I'd have a photo album of my pie. But alas, all I did was make Michael stop at the Piggly Wiggly on  the way back to the hotel that night so that we could get some ice cream to go with my new love interest. I wonder how it feels to be upstaged by pie? That pie was as tasty as it looked. Michael took a picture of me having a piece. He loves to post embarrassing pictures of me so it must be up on his facebook page by now. Click here to go to his facebook page and see if you can find it.
We had pie for two nights in a row and I even managed to save a piece for Xan. I am amazing! It was a feat of sheer will power.
Okay other than the amazing pie and the pie ladies (Which were all sold out by noon on Saturday. Just like I was told they were going to be.) there was the US Potter Games. What a hoot! A bunch of potters competing in wheel throwing contests.

They even have a competition for high school students.

I'm not going to go into any more detail about the games because when I went over to take pictures for this blog I was struck with (what I think is) a very funny idea. On the spot I decided that I wanted to film the games and make my own narrated mock-umentary ala Christopher Guest-ish. I started filming and they let me go up on the stage and film away. Everyone was so gracious and good natured about the whole thing. Clay people! I tell ya. So in the next couple of weeks I will get my video together and post it up on our youtube channel. Keep an eye out for it.
Saturday night the promoter's hosted a Mexican dinner for all of us complete with lots of local micro-brewed beer. It was great to sit and chat with everyone. Michael got to do his clay related techno-babble with other potters. I think he enjoyed himself immensely.
The show was in a park near a really big lake. It was a beautiful setting and other than all the bugs that showed up on our tent...

we were really happy to be outside. Cleaning off the tent on Sunday night was a bit yucky.
All in all another great weekend to add to our collection of great weekends. Even though we drove home with our pockets not quite as full as we would like, we did come home with lots of great clay items that we bartered for and with our hearts warmed by camaraderie. We look forward to going back. I'm putting Michael on a high carb diet so that he'll be in shape for the games next year.