Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Love you honey!

Go figure that we do two shows in Memphis in the same month and we do well at both of them. What's not to like about being in Memphis and getting to eat at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken?
Every year that we do The River Arts Fest, Michael has an opportunity to teach in a public school before the show. The folks of the festival set it up and Michael loves to do it. This year he got to teach for three days in an AP Art Class and I got to go as well and film. He and the kids made a sculpture. Here's the film that I made:
It was soooo much fun. I had a blast!
This year we were offered a home-stay while Michael taught and through out the show. We were so lucky to stay with terrific folks, the Moneypenny's. One night we brought home Gus's Fried Chicken for everyone. Hey any chance we can get. We stayed in their guest house and here's a picture I took of their dogs. Aren't they adorable?
This is a guy that was walking around the show. He made this himself. Cool, huh?
And Michael won an Award of Merit. Here he is with his award and his certificate that say's he was teaching in the school. Hard to tell which one he's more proud of...
I'm just proud of him. Love you honey!

Monday, November 21, 2011

...in Audubon Park every year.

Most shows that we do are fun. We enjoy what we do for a living and we like to travel.
The Pink Palace Crafts Fair is a very fun show for us because a lot of our 'clay' friends are also at this show. It's a good show to sell ceramics at. The fair is in Audubon Park in Memphis. It's a long show, 4 days. It's dusty, we've got to wipe everything off before packing up. But we really like it. Fun factor for this one is high!
This year we had brought some bottles of wine with us and every day around 5 our buddies would come over to our booth with their ceramic goblets (they are potters you know) and we'd crack open a bottle and have a glass of wine together. It's a very social show for us.
In our studio I'm starting a project called "The Wall Of Flame". It's a collage of all of our 'clay' friends that I'm creating on one of the walls of Michael's studio.
Here are some of our 'clay' friends from The Pink Palace show:
This is Peter of Mudpuppy Pottery.
His studio potter, Adam:

John Sellberg; who won a Merit Award, by the way. Go John!
And Jeff of Daaman Porcelain Jewelry.
Thanks for all the great laughs and photos guys! We'll see you again next year.
Did you know that Memphis is a major distribution center. Every day we would pass this on our way to and from the show...
Miles of these containers and these big contraptions that move them around. It reminded me of the port of Seattle and all of the shipping containers just like the ones above that were getting moved around to put on freighters. I called this "the land port".  It truly was an awesome sight right in the middle of nowhere.
We really like Memphis and it's like old home week in Audubon Park every year.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

...included in such an exceptional catalog

Maybe some of you have already seen it.
Maybe you already know.
Michael's work is in the holiday catalog for Uncommon Goods.
It was a HUGE deal for us and it rocked our studio for months. Michael worked hard sculpting, sculpting, and doing some more sculpting. Not to mention all the oxiding and glazing that happened around here. And then there was wrapping, wrapping, wrapping!
Here's Michael with the order before the truck arrived:
This is our studio assistant, Zack:
This video really tickles my funny bone.

Click here to go to the Uncommon Goods website and see Michael's work.
Michael is very excited to be included in such an exceptional catalog.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

...another summer with EM Events.

Well here it is. Here is my first 'socking' of the season. It happened at the 'West End Art Festival' in September. That one was up near Chicago.
Of course, like so many other shows that we did this summer it rained.
And it rained some more. I sent Michael back to the hotel for Sunday afternoon so that he could do some sculpting. Yeah he always brings his tools and clay with him to every show.  So I got to stay at the show in my socks and watch the rain.
What was really sweet about that Sunday is our good friend, Martha Enzler, won an award. Here are some pictures of her and her work.
Yay martha!!!


If you follow this blog you will have seen her picture here before. We loves Martha and her tiles.
This summer we tried a bunch of new shows with a new (to us) promoter, Erin Melloy. We were genuinely impressed and really look forward to another summer with EM Events.