28 days later
Oct. 18th, 2015 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrIt's a month since I last did a Saturday Market: Fall Festival, funeral, Clay Fest. For Denise, it's closer to six weeks, maybe seven. One difference is immediately evident.
It's dark out there.
The sun has yet to come up when we leave home at ten of seven. What with overcast skies and shade from the magnolia tree blocking out street lights, it's set-up by Braille for the first half hour or so.
When the sun finally does come up, so does the rain, and we dodge showers and drape our boxes in drop cloths as we unpack.
By 8:30 am, when the bell rings at the Info Booth and they start giving away unclaimed booths, we're more or less organized. I've draped empty boxes with extra booth wall fabric and pushed them out the back, hung the shelf talkers and woken up the tablet that we'll run credit sales on today, since the new chip-card reader and my cell phone don't seem to get along. Just another Saturday at Market.
Except not really. It's our last Saturday at Market, at least for 2015.
Since we have a reserved booth space, Market requires us to be in it at least one Saturday a month (except for an optional "vacation" month). We traditionally take our vacation as November, so need to do a weekend in October, now that Clay Fest is over. Ready or not, this is it.
Because I really need to be in the studio. I've got three galleries and a wholesale account that need stocking for the holidays. Clayfolk--my biggest show of the year--the weekend before Thanksgiving.
And, starting on Black Friday, Holiday Market. The time when all those folks who've been looking and thinking and taking notes all summer, all come home to roost.
So I have to throw pots. Turn the fan on, turn the heat on, hustle them outside on the driveway in the rare moments of sunshine. If I can get the first kiln load dry, residual heat from firing and cooling will handle successive batches. Then glaze, decorate, load and fire.
Rinse, repeat.
Yikes! Christmas is coming!
It's dark out there.
The sun has yet to come up when we leave home at ten of seven. What with overcast skies and shade from the magnolia tree blocking out street lights, it's set-up by Braille for the first half hour or so.
When the sun finally does come up, so does the rain, and we dodge showers and drape our boxes in drop cloths as we unpack.
By 8:30 am, when the bell rings at the Info Booth and they start giving away unclaimed booths, we're more or less organized. I've draped empty boxes with extra booth wall fabric and pushed them out the back, hung the shelf talkers and woken up the tablet that we'll run credit sales on today, since the new chip-card reader and my cell phone don't seem to get along. Just another Saturday at Market.
Except not really. It's our last Saturday at Market, at least for 2015.
Since we have a reserved booth space, Market requires us to be in it at least one Saturday a month (except for an optional "vacation" month). We traditionally take our vacation as November, so need to do a weekend in October, now that Clay Fest is over. Ready or not, this is it.
Because I really need to be in the studio. I've got three galleries and a wholesale account that need stocking for the holidays. Clayfolk--my biggest show of the year--the weekend before Thanksgiving.
And, starting on Black Friday, Holiday Market. The time when all those folks who've been looking and thinking and taking notes all summer, all come home to roost.
So I have to throw pots. Turn the fan on, turn the heat on, hustle them outside on the driveway in the rare moments of sunshine. If I can get the first kiln load dry, residual heat from firing and cooling will handle successive batches. Then glaze, decorate, load and fire.
Rinse, repeat.
Yikes! Christmas is coming!