Back From Brushwood

Sometimes our pottery sales take us from the unusual venue of Renaissance Faires into the even more unusual venue of what we call "Pagan" events. Gatherings of folks in the earth focused religions usually liberally crossed with old and new hippies, eco-geeks and young party seekers. In either case it translates to a week of fun where a live-and-celebrate-life social order is created and we can all relax and take a deep breath even while selling and working. This particular festival was at The Brushwood Folklore Center and the festival was called Sirius Rising.

The Merchant area looks more like a tent city than a tightly wound fair of any sort, but the people buy and we can relax and enjoy the sunshine..or the rain, or the horrific storms, or whatever comes our way. Sorry for the fuzziness of some of the phone pics, but phone pics are what they are.

As you can see we roughed it...we camped in a 20x10 garage tent, with a queen size bedframe that holds an air mattress. We also brought a nice kitchen and dined well all week. Crepes, Pancakes (chocolate chili-chip with Caramel Sauce and fresh blueberries) , echildadas, Pad Thai, Portobello Gnocchi, Risotto were a few of the fine meals we experienced. Some simply delicious and others a calculated venture into decadence. I am pleased to say we only bought from food vendors once :)


The wildlife theme of the week was snails and slugs..I've never seen so many. When we packed up the garage tent I spend a few minutes finger-flicking them into oblivion..

One of the highlights of this particular festival is the end of the week bonfire.This year they constructed a huge wooden dragon and burned it on top. It was really fun, but the merchants were all busy watching for falling embers onto their tent roofs. We had a few close calls, but between vigilance and a little sprinkling of rain before the fire everyone survived unscathed.

Overall the week was very relaxing, I bartered for a 90 minute massage and the weather for the first two days was lovely if a bit cool. Thursday and Friday and Saturday were overcast most of the time and the temperature was in the 60's during the day and high 40's at night BBRRRRRER. Good thing we had a fair amount of delightful antifreeze, like Magpie Meads. Magpie makes fantastic mead, a honeywine infused with fruit. I highly recommend sampling a bottle if you live within a state he can legally ship to. Rowan and I both love the Black Raspberry with Blueberry as a close second.

A day to remember

I feel very accomplished. Some problems with my supplier put me about 1 month behind of my production schedule and the biggest shows of the summer start within a couple weeks. I got my act together in a big way this week, I produced over 200 pots including about 80 wee bowls and another 20 shot glasses. Bowls, goblets, bottles tankards and mugs. Here's what I faced and finished.

Follow up

What a day and night. We just finished loading two kilns and I threw 40 mugs this evening after spending the day finishing the flasks, assembling the goblets and wedging 100lbs of clay for mugs and mixing a glaze..

I am grateful for Rowan. After putting in a really hard day at the Oasis, she came home and rallied me to finish what I had to do and worked side by side with me until we were done.

We had a canine visitor today..this lovely little lady wandered into the yard, all mellow and good natured. We have NO idea where she came from, so rather than let her wander out onto the streets and get hit, we called the local police and they delivered her to a local vet who will look after her until the owner comes looking. She was very sweet..and I think quite elderly..gray from her head to her feet.

And speaking of animals, this is Tuna Fish the Cat, waiting at the line..the border to the studio. She knows she isn't allowed in, so she waits right at the door when she thinks we are looking and wanders in when she thinks we aren't. Smart Cat.