Customer Work to Finish

(((a photo of my spring primulas)))

Back to work and I threw a set of plates and a large casserole to get a little closer to the end of the orders that I have had sitting on the weekly organizer hanging over my wedging table. I loaded the kiln last night after glazing 65 pots yesterday and going to another meeting for the Farmers' Market hiring committee. I was the questioner of the 6 people that we interviewed and I was amazed by the quality of the people that applied, such wealth of experience and great personal strength, it made the decision to pick someone much harder.

The Market Manager that we decide on will interact with me at each market throughout the 35 weeks that they work for us and they really set the tone of the market for both vendors and customers. I had the privilege of calling the person that we did choose and couldn't bear the thought of calling each person that we interviewed and did not hire to let them know! (another board volounteer offered to call them and i was grateful to her).

This load in the kiln contained a lot of the work that I had been finishing from all the pottery people requested during the christmas season and from my Solo Show in November. I made a 8 mugs that are straight sided for someone who wanted 2 to fit under the spigots under her espresso machine, they were an experiment and they turned out really well but I have not had them in my hand yet so I don't know if they will contain the exact amount of coffee that this customer was looking for. I will take a photo of each of the pots that I made from orders and email them to each person to view before making an appointment to pick them up.

I am planning to attend a workshop about Taxe$ in relation to the Artist, it's in Victoria next sunday and I would be happy to take anyone along that would benefit from the course. The cost is $25 per person and I plan on driving the car down there so my offering a ride doesn't mean that you could ride on my bike trailer or sit on the handlebars!!

I was ranting on a recent blog about my blue that I was struggling with and now I have a few loads through the kiln with work dipped in this glaze and I am REALLY happy about it. The glaze was very nice last time and then yesterday it was a bit too thick so I added around a litre of water to the glaze and it went on a bit better. When you dip a pot at a normal speed and it comes out and dries into tiny cracks right away, it is too thick but a little water goes a long way and the one litre was plenty to correct a 20 kilogram batch!

I need another ball of wool for my latest knitting project, it is in a green blend and a blue blend but both of the other colours have a little purple splashes of colour and I am going to put a purple stripe down from under the arm that widens out as it gets further down. Maybe I'll put a photo of some of my knitting projects once they are done, usually I am wearing them though so we'll see if I really want a picture of my face on the blog. (hahaha)

We are having a lot of meetings about the Market in these first few months of the year and I am happy to say that a lot of the major projects I had wanted to get done first have been worked very hard on and were done well in time to be helpful to the Vendors. We have another Board meeting and then the General Meeting which I will chair and then I have to train the new Manager and meet with her several times and we will spend a sunny afternoon measuring and marking all the stalls for the season.

I am back at the Duncan Farmers' Market on March 19th as that is the first day we are back outside. I will have a lot of new work and have finally got the bike working well, I will take it out for a few long rides in the next weeks to make sure it is shifting perfectly as there is really no nice way to get home up the HILLS with a 225 pound trailer full of pots and tents etc on foot!!! Don't even go there, the bike will be shifting well on that day. When I took it to my bike mechanic today with support crew dave, Dale was just saying that he was waiting for me to come back in as the cables and housing he had put on was very new and will seat over the first few rides and start acting up....then there I was, back there with the bike in his repair stand. I took the old girl out for a spin and rally worked her hard to see if the shifting was jumping around like before and it seemed to work well on the flats there.

I also found a new blog for anyone who likes to peruse them, there is a woman in the Victoria area who makes lovely pots with very clean and simple elegant stencils and coloured slips. She operates as Dirty Girl Pottery and if you google "blogs" and then her pottery name she will turn up. That's all for now, back to work, as every good potter knows,,,,, after a long friday night of wiping the bottoms of the pots and loading the kiln with a thick sweater on, nothing goes as well with that as a saturday night of trimming!!

Thanks for reading, talk soon. hh