![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Clayfolk day 3: Walking deadish
Nov. 23rd, 2015 09:05 pmI don't have any sales shifts, today, thankfully, but I am scheduled for a demonstration at 10:30 am. As I think I mentioned, I decided to forego my usual "Making Art With Roadkill," i.e. Brushmaking and Decorating, in favor of a Ceramic Whistles demo.
Big mistake.
Whistles are hard. Getting them to toot at all is tricky, and adjusting for better pitch or volume is worse. Add to the fact that every time you test one, the moisture in your breath wants to dissolve the working parts, and making them as a performance piece starts looking like a bad idea. It didn't help that I'm several years out of practice.
Surprisingly enough, both of the European Ocarinas worked fine first time. I also managed a couple of little tube whistles, even bound two of them together to make a chord. The Andean Ocarinas were a pain in the butt, though; I had to keep tweaking the sound hole, blowing across it, twiddling some more. Fortunately, it was a slow morning, and I never had more than two or three people watching at a time, so was less stressed than if I'd had a houseful. A couple little boys even invited me to join them at kids' clay and help them make whistles after I was done.
I wound up with a clay goatee from testing ocarinas, and grey lips from the tube whistles. Peppi said I looked like a zombie, so I moaned Braaaaiinnnss and made to grab at her.
Sales were still good, though I'm amazed we had anything left to sell. Down to one covered casserole, two batter bowls, three pie plates, only one large pitcher. I've got some stuff in the shed at home to restock for Holiday Market, but I really need to hit glazing hard when I get home.
At the end of the day, it looks like we're down about 10% from last year, but that's still an amazingly successful sale. We're happy, exhausted, and have to leave around 6 am tomorrow to get Denise to work at LCC on time.
Big mistake.
Whistles are hard. Getting them to toot at all is tricky, and adjusting for better pitch or volume is worse. Add to the fact that every time you test one, the moisture in your breath wants to dissolve the working parts, and making them as a performance piece starts looking like a bad idea. It didn't help that I'm several years out of practice.
Surprisingly enough, both of the European Ocarinas worked fine first time. I also managed a couple of little tube whistles, even bound two of them together to make a chord. The Andean Ocarinas were a pain in the butt, though; I had to keep tweaking the sound hole, blowing across it, twiddling some more. Fortunately, it was a slow morning, and I never had more than two or three people watching at a time, so was less stressed than if I'd had a houseful. A couple little boys even invited me to join them at kids' clay and help them make whistles after I was done.
I wound up with a clay goatee from testing ocarinas, and grey lips from the tube whistles. Peppi said I looked like a zombie, so I moaned Braaaaiinnnss and made to grab at her.
Sales were still good, though I'm amazed we had anything left to sell. Down to one covered casserole, two batter bowls, three pie plates, only one large pitcher. I've got some stuff in the shed at home to restock for Holiday Market, but I really need to hit glazing hard when I get home.
At the end of the day, it looks like we're down about 10% from last year, but that's still an amazingly successful sale. We're happy, exhausted, and have to leave around 6 am tomorrow to get Denise to work at LCC on time.