This has been a productive year in terms of exploring some new ideas. If you are coming to the Open Studio this weekend, you'll be the first to see them.
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I recently blogged about these new glazes, Snow and Cloud, with hakeme background textures. I plan to use this combination on minimalist, down-to-earth, functional forms. The cups are part of the Whiskey Sipper line (introduced last year) and are $35 each. The medium sized serving bowls range from $65 to $75. The larger bowl is 9 1/4" across. 
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These rectangular trays are also part of the new Snow/Cloud line, with the addition of fine-line illustrations carved into the hakeme. 4 3/8" x 10 1/4". For serving sushi or snacks, or for displaying treasured items. I'm still figuring out how best to glaze them, so for now they will be sold at the "prototype" price of $22 each.
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UPDATE: The rectangular trays are now ​sold out. I will be making more in 2019.

 

I've always been fascinated by clock face designs. I made clocks many years ago when I was a beginner potter. (they were pretty cheesy.) I am coming back to the idea now, with much better craftsmanship and design, and with silent continuous-sweep clock movements. Some are meant for wall hanging, and some are meant to sit on a desk or shelf. The white one in the middle is 6 1/2" across. Introductory priced this weekend at $65 each. My plan for these going forward is to make these occasionally in low volumes, with a wide variation of designs. 
 
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The Boat and the Mini Boat. The Boat is 15" long, and can serve bread or salads. Or it can be used in your entry way to hold your mail, wallet, and keys. Introductory priced at $55. The Mini Boat is 10 1/4" long. Perfect for olives or other finger snacks, or filled with pencils on your desk. Introductory priced at $20. 
 
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I'm now offering a second version of the Maryland Platter. I'm still making the one with the silhouette of the state of Maryland, but now there is a second one featuring a blue crab. 8 1/4" x 11 1/2", $75 each. Can I take a moment to rant about people who try to sell crab-themed artwork to Marylanders that features a dungeness crab instead of a blue crab? Those people should be deported to a different state. 

​UPDATE: The Maryland Platters (both versions) are now sold out. I will be making more in 2019.
 
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Here is this year's lineup of School Pots. These are the pots made during the filming of my Online School videos. Prices range from $24 to $75. 
  
 
Of course I will be fully stocked with all of my usual line of work. There will also be a "scratch and dent" table full of steep bargains, and a table full of snacks. Hope to see you this weekend! 

Good Elephant Pottery's 12th Annual Holiday Open Studio
December 8-9, 2018
10am to 5pm both days

When applying for art festivals, many shows ask for a photograph of your booth. It's not that hard to photograph an indoor booth, with controlled lighting and no weather. But shooting an outdoor booth is kind of like nature photography! It's hard to get the conditions just right, and it takes a lot of patience. You really can't use an indoor photo to apply for an outdoor show. Some shows state specifically "white canopies only" and some shows will even get picky about which brands of canopies are acceptable or not. Therefore, your booth photo must show that you can handle outdoor logistics, and that you have a decent canopy. 

I hadn't taken an outdoor booth shot in at least five years. I changed my display a lot since then, so it was time. Earlier this year, I realized there was only one show this entire year where I would have a chance to take photos during daylight hours, without any customers around. This was at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, where setup takes place starting at 6pm on the day before the show. It's the middle of summer, so the sun stays out past 8pm. All of my other outdoor shows this year had setup hours in the early morning or after dark. 

I once paid a professional to photograph my booth, but I wasn't happy with the result (he might want to ease up on the sharpening filter). However, I did learn a neat trick from him while he was shooting. He took a bracketed range of photos, from underexposed to overexposed. The final photograph was a composite of different exposures, choosing areas of each shot where the lighting was ideal. 
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I had to shoot these photos around 8pm, with the sun starting to sink. I took a bracketed range of photos. Here is a darker one. Everything here is too dark, but I like that the canopy is not glaring white, and the bright ray of sunlight on the right wall is not too glaring either. 
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Here is the lightest photo that I took. The pots along the back wall of the display are now correctly exposed. But everything else looks obviously blown out. The canopy is still brighter than the display, and it is closer to your eye than the display, which means it draws more attention that it should. 
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Here are the two photos combined. In Photoshop, I layered the darker photo on top of the lighter photo. I added a Layer Mask to the darker layer. Then I selectively erased areas of the darker layer, using a soft-edged brush on the Layer Mask, to reveal areas of the lighter photo. This is mostly the dark photo. The light photo is only used for the pots and the logo curtain.
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I also straightened and cropped the photo, leaving just enough details of my canopy for a knowledgeable juror to recognize it as a Light Dome, which is a well-known brand. And I applied the right amount of sharpening. 
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You might be wondering why I didn't just take a medium exposed photo, and lighten and darken areas using Photoshop tools. That's because making those types of edits results in data being thrown away from your original file. In some publishing situations, that loss of data can come back to bite you. In terms of good Photoshop habits, you should avoid throwing away data whenever possible. Also, if you don't have a good touch, inventing your own shadows and highlights can look very fake. Your camera does a much better job of calculating these things than Photoshop ever can. It's not a fair fight, your camera has the actual subject to work with. By combining two original photographs, you are not throwing away any data. And it's almost impossible to make it look fake. 

So glad it wasn't raining that day! I would have had to wait for another year. ​

​I can't express how grateful I am for all the people who trekked out into the snow to attend my Open Studio this weekend. My pottery business would not exist without people like you <3

The remaining pots are available for sale in my online store, which opens at 10am ET today, December 11, 2017. The store will remain open through December 31 or until the pots are sold out. 

goodelephant.bigcartel.com

Wishing you all a warm and happy holiday season!

That's me, getting up at 4am last weekend to set up my booth for a show. And yes, it was raining. This is part of the bargain when you choose to be a full-time potter. Some shows have no choice but to make you set up at crazy o'clock. And Mother Nature doesn't take requests. Sure there are shows that allow set ups the day before, and shows that are indoors. But not enough to fill out a full-time schedule. Besides, this show delivered on all the factors that are really important, more than making up for its inconvenient set up time. 

From my perspective, there were 130 other artists doing the same thing that morning. This is normal to us.  

Lots of aspiring professionals try art festivals and quickly decide "is there another way to make a living with my pottery?" The answer is "yes" but none that are any easier than this. Every bona fide path requires this amount of energy. 

I have a surprisingly easy life hack for those days when I need to wake up at 4am. I go to bed at 9pm the night before with a dose of an over-the-counter sleep aid. It knocks me right out, and when the alarm starts buzzing I've had a normal amount of sleep. My body clock is still off but I don't feel sleep deprived. 
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As some of you already know, I am learning how to use a video camera and video editing software. I'm working on a big, ambitious project with these. But in the meantime, I am having some fun "playing" with the camera and software. I created a fast-motion rendition of myself setting up my festival booth. I hope those of you who aspire to do shows will find this helpful. This takes me between 1.5 and 3 hours, depending on conditions. I've condensed it down to one minute. I filmed this at the ACC Baltimore show back in February, and have already shared this on Facebook and Instagram. I wanted to get in onto my blog for posterity, but didn't know how. I just now figured it out! 
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I've made a serious upgrade to my pottery booth, which I am a little too excited about. I have a new shelving unit that I was able to design exactly for my needs. These will replace a shelving unit that I've been using for years, which I bought off-the-shelf. The old unit was fine, it was attractive, easy to transport, and sturdy enough. But it had two issues that nagged me for years. First of all, I could choose where to place the shelves to some extent, but they were never at exactly the right height for me. And secondly, they had a straight up-and-down vertical design. Like I said, they were stable enough, but in the back of my mind I always worried that they could tip over. 

The new design is based on plans from fellow potter Mark Cortright of Liscom Hill Pottery in California. He uses custom-built wooden display racks, and he shares these plans with anyone on the Ceramic Arts Daily Forum. The wide footprint design of his display racks inspired me. They look impossible to tip over. I wanted mine to be built of black metal, to match the look of my previous shelving unit. So I drew up my own plans, and found a metal fabricator to build them for me.

The heights of the shelves are exactly where I want them, specifically designed for the pots that will be displayed. And now I have six shelves, compared to the four I had before. The narrow top shelf will be for a single row of mugs and tumblers, and maybe a small flower vase. The wide bottom shelf will have two jobs. 1) It will be for pots that customers have reserved in advance of a show. That bottom shelf is too low for many people to explore, so it's perfect for pots that are already sold. Or, 2) at shows where I don't have many reserved pots, I will make a pretty tabletop-like display down there. I've long wished to have this element in my booth, but I didn't want to give up valuable space for it. With my previous shelving unit with four shelves, I put stacks of dinner plates on the bottom shelf. I sell a lot of plates, but I can also see how hard it is for people to bend down that low. Now, the plates will be on the second shelf. Speaking of plates, I cut down each shelf to be 44 inches wide, which is exactly wide enough for four stacks of plates. There will not be a wasted cubic inch of space! 

​First show of the year is coming up soon! ACC Baltimore, February 24-26. I'm so excited to start using these!

It was a fantastic Open Studio weekend. Thank you to everyone who came to the show! I still have a few nice pots and they are now available in my Online Store. The store opens at 10am ET on December 12. It will be open through December 31, or until the pots run out.

I don't have any more t-shirts ... sorry! I ran out of shirts near the end of the Open Studio.

All orders will ship for a $10 flat shipping fee. Orders can only be shipped within the USA. 6% sales tax will be added to orders shipped within the state of Maryland. 

goodelephant.bigcartel.com

Happy shopping, and have a happy and warm holiday season!

... and I am in the mood to celebrate! I can't believe I've been doing these events for ten years. Doesn't seem that long. I need to say "thank you" to everyone who has made these events work. My thanks will come in the form of t-shirts!

Free with purchase and while supplies last. I'm pretty sure I have enough shirts for everybody, I'm saying "while supplies last" just in case. I have sizes from SM to XL, and the sizes will be first-come-first-pick.

Don't worry, I haven't only been working on the t-shirts. I've been making lots of pots, including some new designs. I will have a few more of my new teapots with stainless steel handles. Priced from $125 to $140.

I have redesigned my Breakfast Bowl. Very similar to the previous design, but easier to fit in the kiln. The new design includes a subtle pointed spout, so it serves as a pourer too. This will also replace the Small Spouted Bowl going forward, however I still have a few SSBs in stock for this weekend. $24 each.

Introducing an individual sized casserole, where the lid also works as a plate. It is ideal for storage and reheating. It's name is "I'll Cover You" which is the title of a song from the muscial Rent. $65.

And I will be fully stocked on all of my popular items, such has plates, chopstick bowls, serving bowls and platters, mugs, jars, vases, and lots of elephants. If you know you're coming and want a specific item, send me a note through this Contact Form. If the item is available I will gladly reserve it for you. (ONE NOTE: All of the Normal-Sized Mugs (aka Jack Reacher mugs) have already been reserved. Sorry! I promise to make them in production quantities for 2017.)

Here are the logistical details:

Good Elephant Pottery's 10th Annual Holiday Open Studio
Saturday and Sunday, December 10-11
10am to 5pm both days
My house will be wearing a "pottery sale' sign. Park on the street, lots of street parking nearby. The entrance to the studio is behind the house and down a flight of steps. Signs will point you to the right entrance. 

​Hope to see you this weekend!

I just got back from a show weekend in Philadelphia, PA. I had a really good show, despite the persistently rainy weather. This is another testament to the power of a good mailing list. You don’t meet many new customers when it’s raining, but the ones you emailed will still come. 

I have found a solution for a nagging problem I’ve been having with on-the-road shows. I’ve been having trouble eating healthy when I don’t have access to my own kitchen. I was already good at packing breakfasts and coffee for a hotel room. But lunches and dinners were problematic. During show hours, I need more energy than I need on a regular work day at home. At the same time, I don’t want to take a break from selling. I snacked on small wrap sandwiches, KIND bars, and cookies. At the end of the day, I found myself so hungry and tired, my good intentions would fly out the window. I snarfed down too-big dinners filled with carbs and grease. 

The solution is a weird new product called Soylent. It is a complete meal in a bottle. Its makers’ goal is to make eating as efficient as possible. In general, that idea is too futuristic for me. But for this particular situation, it's awesome. I have been using this as “show lunch” for the past two shows. It takes minutes to drink one, and it can be put down anytime if a customer walks in. I never get caught chewing, or with food stuck in my teeth, or greasy fingers. It is shelf stable, so it’s easy to travel with or pack on a hot day, without refrigeration. One bottle makes me comfortably full for about four hours, without any energy spikes or crashes. I have one at noon and one at 4pm. At the end of each show day, I was not starving or tired, and I made dinner choices that were both frugal and reasonably healthy. I gave myself only $60 to buy four dinners. I had $10 left! I admit I was getting tired of the taste of Soylent on Sunday. I have no interest in eating it everyday. But for show days, it’s solves a lot of issues. 

Now for the brain failure. On Thursday night after setting up, I parked my van in a garage. The lower levels were full. I passed some open spots on the upper levels, but wanted to find one closer to the elevator. The spaces near the elevator were marked “compact cars only.” That didn’t stop me from trying, but the van’s rear end was hanging out of the space, so I kept going. I ended up on the top level, where I could fit into the spaces near the elevator. I thought about it and decided I’d rather have the van under a roof than near the elevator. So I drove down one level and parked.

For some reason, my brain registered that I had parked on the third level. I don’t know why. On Sunday morning, I went to put my suitcase into the van before heading for the show. I got off the elevator on the third level, and found myself in a disaster. My van was gone. I stood there for a long time. Words like “police” and “stranded” and “insurance” and “FUCK!!!” were flying around in my head. What should I do first? AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! My unreliable brain did manage to sputter out the phrase one level down from the top amidst my panic. Just go back to the elevator and see how many levels there are, before you call the police. It turned out the garage had five levels, and I found my van on the fourth.

Afterwards, as I got off the elevator at street level, I saw a guard in a windowed office with a bank of security camera moniters. I’m pretty sure she was smiling and avoiding eye contact with me.