Pottery! Spring! Growth!

Catherine and Justin

It was just winter and everything was in a holding pattern. Suddenly everything outside is growing and everything in my life is growing. The last 2 weeks:

Easter with the in-laws, this involved copious amounts of baking which was then followed up with a Baby shower for my stepdaughter! This
was held during the same visit as Easter because heck, we were all together anyway!

We spent some time doing last minute renovations and staging to put our former house back on the market, this including the demolition of our beloved pizza oven.


Then putting our house back on the market!
Seriously, click the link. 5 tons of pottery a year came out of this basement.

The moment that was complete, we jumped right into insulating and putting up drywall in our small seasonal storefront.Last year when we opened we only had 3 days to get ready so we just draped fabric on the walls. Its going to be a lot better this year. The plan is to use a lot of shelving on the walls and minimize tables since it is such a small area to serve a lot of shoppers. It should be a lot better!

Morgan hanging drywall

The shop with naked fabric draped walls

Then of course, finally, the important things, like making stuff! One of my great pleasures is my son returning from special effects school with a drive to sculpt. He's been doing his own wild thing, then also working with us in the studio to add original sculptures to mugs. These are 25-30 oz mugs. All will have some kind of amazing sculpt.

a work in progress

Am I done yet?

This is the kind of week where I have a lot of conflicting feelings about what I do for a living. I feel rushed. Very rushed. Summers are brutal for us. There is something to be said for a 9-5 with a regular paycheck.and paid vacations. That said..I wouldn't give this up, it's not just a job.

This is our current situation, and it makes me sad to know that by the time I can think clearly again summer will be over.

Last week we had The Celtic Fling at The PA Renaissance Fairgrounds..  We were fully stocked, we had the event and left our work there..about 160 pieces or so. Why did we leave the pieces? Because The PA Renaissance Faire starts before we will be able to come back with even more pieces. So we decided this year to leave our stock so we won't have to do a crazy mad dash back from Pennsic in the middle of the night like we did last year. Instead we're doing a crazy mad dash to create even more work for the other events we're selling at, plus enough to keep the Hughes Pottery Etsy shop stocked and fulfill the special orders that have been coming in.

On a related note...Catherine just came back from Ocean City again. She brought back the same boy as she did last year.. As a friend. he's helping her move. She's decided to move to Baltimore. She got hired at a car dealership, has an apartment lined up. She broke up with her current BF, ditched the sublet she had lined up here in State College. She and her moving buddy left yesterday. We wish her well..and she is well warned there can be no rescues if it doesn't work out.

Over the last 2 weeks we've made about 200 pieces. Over the next week while I am firing all those I hope to get another 100 made even though it will be as hot as 7 hells in the studio with all the firing.

In a few days we'll be headed for an event in ME, The Great Northeastern war. From there we'll head to NY for Sirius Rising at The Brushwood Folklore Center, and then we'll be home for about 2 weeks, but our stock will stay at Brushwood with Jessa and Sarasvatis's Call  for Summer Fest.

While Summerfest is happening, we'll be home doing another mad dash to get even more pottery made, then Jessa will bring stock to Pennsic, and we will also bring stock to Pennsic and we'll be there for about 2 weeks.

Then I hope to have a few days vacation. Each year I say this, and each year something has happened to squash my hopes. I had my first vacation as an adult as a newlywed..it was our honeymoon. We went to Ireland. I'm hoping for something a little less extravagant...maybe a cabin in the woods with a lake nearby. Something. peaceful that doesn't involve us working 18 hour days.