Just finished the latest firing here on Roan Mountain, but more on that later.

At long last here are a few shots of the new booth, making a valiant effort last week at the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. The display turned out as well as I has hoped, the general plan being to present a simplified booth which left plenty of room for the work to stand out. In this respect I think it worked well.

On the other hand, the new booth was less successful in the “increasing sales” department. To be fair, this one show does not make for a fair jury on the effectiveness of the new booth, and it will have many more chances to be loaded and unloaded in and out of my truck and prove itself worthy.

Over the last few years I have been slowly doing a few more craft fairs each year and it seems there is a general trend developing. It goes something like this…catch wind of a “good” craft fair, attend to find that last year’s show was much better, attendance was high unlike this year. Luckily there is always something to blame it on, sometimes the weather is too hot or too rainy, sometimes it is too nice outside. On one occasion the local state university’s home football game was to blame for keeping the masses away. This time I heard someone saying something about high gas prices and the economy heading in the tank… I’m not sure what they were talking about but I’ll look into it.

Well the new display booth is finally resting for the night, ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow. The woodworking project turned out to be a lot bigger than I had imagined, as many things do. But after almost two weeks the booth is finally built and painted. I found myself pondering questions of craftsmanship, the art vs. craft questions I never studied, and then I remembered I was sometimes using power tools and better to just stay focused on the task at hand.  The view from the “workshop” was distracting enough.

Come on down to the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands this weekend and check it out. If you’ve never been to Asheville in the summertime you’re missing out. Really. What are you waiting for?

If you just can’t make it, stay tuned for a photo of the new booth in action sometime soon.

A few more pots from the last firing, finally photographed. I had a few forms which were new or improved which I left bare, meaning no flashing slip or nothing. Just the raw clay, loaded strategically into certain areas of the kiln. These two square bottles were a small version of a new form which I will definitely be continuing. They may never again measure up to the flashing marks on these two.

The square jar is a larger version of a form I have made for some time now. The little plate is just nice. It has been nice to watch these plates come and go from the last two firings. A lot of them have come out of the kiln with just the kind of marks I am hoping for, and they’ve disappeared quickly too.

Finally got the metal on the chimney at Jane Peiser’s today. “Chet” came to do the welding, we hoisted the angle irons into place, and then he welded a few extra support pieces from the chimney to the metal on the kiln, just for good measure.

I did get some work done in the studio last week, but now I’m getting into the wood project pretty deep. Hopefully I’ll have the display racks and pedestals built by later this week so I can get them painted and get back to the wheel.