Herbfest

Well, like all events do, it's come and it's gone. I had a pleasant day sitting in my tent on a fairly cool sunny day, but I can't say it was a great success as far as selling my pots goes. I did make some sales, but wouldn't you know it, really only mugs and flat dishes. All my cute 'herbish' things got ignored.

A couple of things I learned (or re-learned).

First, my booth layout stinks. A 10' x 10' tent is not the same thing as a 10' x 10' space inside a building. By the time you subtract the edges which suffer from passers-by bumping into them and adjust for the big low spot in that corner.... hard to fit in two tables, a chair, a small wrapping table, an easel with tiles and make it look good. Next year I plan to have narrow tables that can act a bit as walls and block off clumsy pedestrians, small children and yappy dogs. I also intend to be firm with my booth neighbours - this time one of them insisted there had to be a walkway between us and I didn't realize until too late that he wanted this so he could set his booth up so people could look at his stuff from the side as well as the front, and I had his customers in my booth most of the day.

Second, the idea of hanging the herb tiles on a cloth-covered styrofoam board on an easel was a failure. Turns out people don't lift tiles down, they just yank. Several times the whole board came down. Broke three tiles. Got tired of saying 'Oh, don't worry, not your fault' with slightly gritted teeth and finally just stood the board on the ground. Didn't sell many tiles anyway, but I don't think it was because of the display. On the whole, people didn't look inside the booth at all, they just looked at the one table at the front. They glanced at the other stuff but didn't check it out. With the sun so bright outside, the interior of the tent was far too dark. Not sure what I can do about that but I'm day-dreaming about battery-powered lights, solar panel-powered lights, huge silver reflectors, maybe even transparent (translucent?) canopy material.

And, third, BIG third, next time I'm bringing a picnic cooler with lunch, snacks and cold drinks. I don't like greasy sausages or b-b-q'ed exotic meats. And they ran out of drinks other than pink lemonade with no sugar in it around one o'clock. I had a turnover which was supposed to have chicken inside, turned out to be tofu curry. Hmmm. Edible, but not lunch. I was starving again about 10 minutes later. And being alone, I couldn't go roaming around foraging so just toughed it out. The guy next to me, the one whose customers kept stepping back into my wrapping table, kept eating ice cream. He must have spent a fortune on it! His little grandson spent the whole day, as near as I can figure, alternating playing some game on his computer thingie and fetching gelato.

Never mind. Lots of good stock left for the Market booth and Crabapple Gallery. And like I said, it was a pleasant day. Lots of people I know came and stopped to chat, I did make some money, and I learned how to be better prepared next year.

Ready for Herbfest

Yes, the truck is loaded, the last tablecloth is in the dryer, the biz cards (bookmarks, really) are printed.... I think I'm ready for Herbfest.

I do have some actual pottery, too:

Lots of fun stuff, all with a 'herb' theme. I'm looking forward to a fun day tomorrow - even if the crowds don't snap up all my nifty herb-y stuff, I'll still enjoy being outside, eating some interesting food (very creative chefs at Herbfest!), visiting with friends, taking a short stroll through the gardens, and just generally joining in the celebration of all things herbal!

Another Fun Thing for Herbfest

A few of the picture tiles I've made with herb themes have come out of the kiln. There are more in the kiln now, which is 'on', even though the temperature today is over 32C. Oy. And tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter and the whole weekend is going to be over 30C. So Herbfest will be a hot one, not to mention that my booth at the Market will be stifling on Saturday. Good thing potters are tough!

These tiles are very simple. I roll a thin (1/4" or less) slab, then basically rip them into the sizes and shapes I want. I run a rounded point (like a pencil or a thick needle tool) along the line, then gently lift the clay and rip along the line. Sounds odd, but it works easily. Then I just let them dry, bisque them, dip them in my glaze and paint the designs on top. Then fire them to cone6, just like my tableware.

This one is only about 3 inches 'square'. I like them weird sizes as it makes every one of them a composition challenge! Tile adhesive sticks them to pre-stretched canvas panels (available at my friendly local art supply store). There are a few different kinds of tile adhesive. I use the one for walls and it works great. In a pinch, the tile can be soaked off, although it ruins the canvas panel. The only one I have ever had back because the tile came off was from a store owner who hung one right in the drip from his roof. Here are a few of them:

These panels are painted black, but of course you can paint them any colour. One of these days, somebody is going to ask for one in, say, fire-engine red.... let's hope I'm in a good calm mood that day.

Another simple thing for my booth at Herbfest is planters suitable for growing a few herbs on a step or balcony. Not a very exciting project, but the glaze is nice. This is a variation on the Variegated Slate Blue in 'Mastering Cone 6 Glazes' by Ron Roy and John Britt.. I love the colour, and would like to make tableware in it, but I'd have to get it tested for food safety. It has copper in it and, being at least satin-matte, is probably not a very hard glaze. But I love the way it sparkles and shows depth where it runs. It was great on my bonsai pots earlier, too.

Not a great picture, sorry. Too hot in there to work at photography!

Back at Midsummer Herbfest

One of the more enjoyable craft sales around is Midsummer Herbfest. This has been held every July for the last 15 years at The Herb Garden in Almonte, Ontario. As far as I know, it has never rained (OK, once there was a sudden thunderstorm towards the end of the day), which must be some kind of record! I didn't do the show for a couple of years because I just had too much going on, but I'm back this year.

So we've been very busy in the Studio making some fun stuff.

I painted a lot of herb tiles. It's sort of paint-by-numbers! I made plaster molds of various herbs years ago - pressed each herb into a soft clay tile, then made a plaster mold of it. Now I can press clay into the molds and make tiles in the winter. I never have time to make them in the summer and there are no fresh herbs growing right outside the Studio door in the winter so this is a pretty cool solution.

Once bisque-fired, it is easy to paint the herbs. All I need to do is fill in the depressions! Like I said, paint by numbers. Then they get a coat or two of low-fire clear glaze, and I fire them to cone 06. The clay is a porcelain, meant for cone 6, so they crackle nicely.  It's kind of fun, actually. No strain on the brain, and they always sell very well.

Super Helper made a (large) stack of hangers: cut the strips of painters' canvas, cut and bent the wires, then glued the wires into the canvas.


We'll glue the hangers to the backs of the tiles next week.


One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to display them at the show. They take a lot of table space if you just lay them out, and they look better hanging up, but what can I arrange to hang them on? I have a 10 x 10 space under a tent..... no walls .... hmmmmm.

We're making some other fun things as well - I'll post more pictures as things get finished.

By the by, if anyone reading this feels like stealing this idea, go right ahead! There are lots of other ways of using the basic idea of pressing plants into clay and plenty of potters doing it, but maybe you can come up with a unique product. If you do, send me some pictures!

Deep Breath.....

The last month has been very busy, totally dominated by a Garden Tour my garden was on. This was a tour they sold tickets for, so I had to take it seriously! Add to that the opening of the Market season and a small local craft sale, and June became something of a blur.

It felt very good to get back into the Studio again this morning. I'd had to take a full two weeks off to get the garden ready, and it was a bit stressful. I start to twitch if I can't pot for more than a day or two.

Now I have to get ready for Herbfest..... fill some orders..... make stock for the Market and Three Yellow Tulips..... Blackbird in Almonte..... looks like July will be kind of blurry too!

Slab Roller Shenanigans

Remember how my kiln failed totally a few weeks ago? Well, this week it was the slab roller's turn. Super Helper noticed that it was making uneven slabs, and we could see that one of the cables underneath was suddenly looser than the other one. We tried to tighten it, and the bolt snapped. I had known the cables were near to having to be replaced and had ordered a new set last year, which was very lucky. These were probably the original cables, and this thing has got to be 40+ years old. I bought it 20 years ago from a 75-year-old potter who was retiring and it wasn't new then. He and my husband and the fellow from across the street lifted it into my then-new pickup truck. They said they used Zen to do it! Then we drove home with it and the jolley/jigger and 200 plaster molds in my half-ton. But that's another story.....

The new cables did come with instructions, but still, replacing the cables looked a daunting task.

Step 2 in the instructions said to drill out and enlarge the holes in the frame that the cable end bolts went through. Yikes. A good 3/16 inch of cold steel..... I was quite worried about that, but went and bought a drill bit for the electric drill. I told Long-suffering Spouse about it at dinner, and to my surprise he said he knew how to do it and would in fact do it for me. So after eating (it's always best to attack challenges on a full tumm), we went to the Studio and he drilled all four holes in no time at all! Many, many Husband Points!

Next day, SH and I removed the old cables and attached the new ones. Except for the fact that we got dreadfully dirty from the old belt dressing on the cables and roller it wasn't really too awful a job. I was a bit freaked by it all, but by carefully reading, re-reading and re-re-reading the instructions, we did it. And the roller works better than ever!

The only thing is, they say bad things come in threes, and now I'm afraid to turn anything else on in the Studio.....

1. Remove chipmunk.......

Top of my to-do list today: get that chipmunk out of the Studio!

It was my own fault, of course.  I had put the extra sunflowers seeds which didn't fit into the metal bird food container in the Studio last week. I did this for two reasons, first because the house just doesn't have room for large bags of seeds and, second because putting a bag of sunflower seeds in the garage would be inviting all the local squirrels, chippies, raccoons, mice and other nightlife in to dine. Then Friday was a nice warm day so I had the Studio door open. Saturday morning I was in there early getting stuff out of the kiln for the Market that day and quickly discovered that there was a chipmunk inside and not a happy one, either.

At that point it was about 7am and I had to go so I decided to deal with Ms. Chippie later. I closed the door because now it was cold out and anyway I didn't want two chippies in the Studio.

Sunday I tried for a while but I couldn't get her to leave. Would you, once you'd found a lifetime supply of food and water, and a warm floor to boot?

So my first task today was, Remove Chipmunk from Studio.

Wasn't hard to find out where she was. There were sunflower seed shells and dug-up plant pots on the windowsill and when I went over there I heard a loud chittering and several pots went skidding across the counter. OK, chipmunk on counter. I pried the screen out of the window and cranked it open.

Loud chittering. Chipmunk on floor behind pails of glaze. Dog attempting to dig chipmunk out. Pails of glaze sloshing as he shoulders them aside.

The screen I took out of the window tips over and bangs me on the head. Aha, chipmunk back on counter. Oh, nope. Chipmunk in fern stand. Bad. Ferns do not like being stepped on by chipmunks or shredded by dogs.

Put dog in house. He sits at the door and barks. Husband lets him back out.

Dog back in house. Husband miffed.

Loud chittering. Chipmunk under bisque-ware shelves. Get broom and try to swish her towards the open door. Sneeze and sneeze because I've stirred up the alumina hydrate which I use on the kiln shelves and which tends to sift under the ware stands. I'm annoyed because two windows and the door are open, it is barely above freezing outside and the electric heater is on to keep the place warm. Turn the heater off. If the Brits can make pottery in studios that are below freezing, surely I can work in one that is above freezing, even if only slightly. No sign of Chipster.

Maybe she'll go out on her own. Start cleaning up some greenware. Peace and quiet prevail.

Back to the Studio after lunch. Loud chittering. Chipmunk on counter. More pots tipped over. Several tiles which have been hanging on the wall for years are on the floor, one of them smashed to bits. Grrrrrr, now I am really getting  annoyed. I shout at her, clap my hands and stomp my feet. Chipmunk freaks out, races around the Studio at head height, dislodging another tile, a poster and several ferns, and dives back under the counter behind the glaze pails.


Husband says, lay a trail of sunflower seeds out the door. Tell him that's a dumb idea. Now he's really miffed.

Back out to the Studio. Open both doors and all three windows. Lay a trail of sunflower seeds out the door.

Throw some mug bodies while shivering in the cold breeze from the door.

Dog wanders in.

Loud chittering. Chipmunk on counter..... she ignores the open window and races back and forth along the counter, scattering seedling tomatoes and jars of paint brushes. Dog races back and forth below, always one step behind Super-Chippie. He'd be barking except then he wouldn't be able to snap his teeth at her.

Yell at dog. Order him out. He gaves me a look that says, 'OK, do it yourself then', but he goes.

I fix the trail of sunflower seeds. This is nuts. No, not nuts, seeds. Hey, maybe peanut butter would work.

Doesn't this chippie have a family? Shouldn't she be home looking after the little chippies, maybe getting the laundry caught up?

Carry Pepper the Cat into the Studio. Heh, heh, heh.

She promptly leaves. She likes rain, the only cat in the Western World who does, and it is raining. She sits on the path and communes with Nature. Grrrr..... Some pets I have. My dog thinks chasing chipmunks is a sport, and my cat prefers sitting in the rain to catching a food species.

I pull all the pails of glaze out from the wall, move the kiln shelves so they are away from the wall, and pull the counter with the water pail and washing bowl out as well. Now there's no place to hide at floor level.

Put Dog in the house and bring Cat back in the Studio.

Point Cat at the corner where Chippie was last seen. She goes down low.... slinks along the ground.... a brownish-yellowish blur streaks for the door.......

Victory, Sweet Victory!

Chippie is out!

Now, what to do with a pile of sunflower seeds covered in peanut butter...........