So my first pottery craft fair is done and dusted. The preparation was intense but the experience made it all worthwhile. Last weekend I participated in Craft in Focus at Waterperry Gardens just outside Oxford. 100 exceptional potters showing their work and inviting visitors from all over the country to take a look. You book a space, lay out your work and wait. People were actually queuing at the gate for a 9.30am start! I spoke to hundreds of people and enjoyed every conversation. People were modest about their own pottery achievements but hearing their stories was a joy.
It never fails to amaze me that give or take we all start with the same lump of clay. Then our skill, experience and creativity kick in. Where we end up couldn’t be more varied. Massive platters decorated with lobsters and crabs just waiting for a festive paella. Elegant Sri Lankan inspired teapots with uncut saphires set into the lid. Tiny mugs, just a few millimetres tall, on silver chains as necklaces that make you smile. The infinite range of textures, shapes and colours blast out and lure you in at the same time.
I learnt a lot. How and where to place things on the stand. How your layout and selection of pots can demonstrate confidence and pride or confusion and insecurity. When to let a visitor just stand and look and when to engage them in conversation.
It is all too easy to judge your success by how much money you made. Of course this is important as handmade pottery takes time. But it is other things that will stay with me. For example a fellow potter buying the biggest and possibly ugliest gnome I had, to put on his balcony to keep his adopted baby seagull company. Or the pink coloured dog bowl that is now gracing the home of a much loved canine companion called Peaches. But most importantly a little 9 year old girl who came back to the stand three times on the Sunday. She had £20 to spend. She looked carefully at three items. A small lidded jar. A mini gnome. And a multi coloured bowl glazed with the colours of a beach in Gower I visited every summer holiday as a child. Eventually she chose the bowl. I couldn’t have been happier. To be honest I’d given her anything she wanted! £20 is a lot of money, especially to an 8 year old and it blew me away that she chose to spend it on a bowl I made. I doubt I will ever meet this little girl again but if she reads this blog, thank you from the bottom of my heart.