offcntr | Home for the Holidays (Reply)

Holiday Market is always a challenge. To begin with, we're coming off of Clayfolk, our biggest show of the year. The wise thing to do would be to catch up on sleep, get rested for the next big thing. What I wind up doing is going into the studio to make pots. Going down to Club Mud to sort and price and box pots. Dodging rain squalls out in the garage sorting and inventorying pots, and loading up the van. Pulling out the display hardware from Clayfolk and putting in the stuff we use for Market.

Set up is also difficult. It's the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, so there's that additional level of stress. Our last two shows, Clayfolk and Clay Fest have had 10x10 foot booths; Market is 8x8. In addition, we need to leave room for ourselves, which we don't in the other shows--centralized checkout means we don't need to staff the booth continuously. Add in the new drape and button lights I just bought, and the fact that we haven't done this setup since, oh, last November, and you can see why we stumble home, exhausted and only about half-ready, Wednesday evening.

Thanksgiving day I spend in equal parts in the kitchen cooking and in the studio finishing the colanders, teapots and stick butter dishes I threw on Tuesday. Thankfully (see what I did there?), the pottery was finished about the same time supper was ready, so I was able to take the rest of the evening off.

We come in an hour early Friday to hang plate stands on the grids and put up shelf signs, and by 10 am we're ready for the season. First day is a little slow, so around 2 pm, Denise gives me a bus coupon and sends me home, where I throw 125 lbs. of clay into pie plates, dessert plates, platters and pasta bowls by the time she gets back, a little after six.

The booth will stay up until Christmas Eve, though pots will have to be packed out at the end of each weekend. Right now, though, that's in the future.

We're home.