Cups, Cups, Cups, Antiques and Collectibles

I have been making cups.  These were all "thrown off the hump" from the same large lump of clay.  I made them as individuals, rather than aiming to be a set, but I have kept the handles a similar style, so that they do look like a "family gathering" when on the table together rather than a group of total strangers.

I quite like these handles, it is the first time I have made handles this way.

I finished some teapots.  Probably the most "salable" of them unfortunately has a drying crack that showed up in the bisque firing, and is not really structural, but... so it will end up in our kitchen I guess!

Annoying drying crack at the attachment of the handle.  This fine white clay is very unforgiving when it comes to attaching handles and cannot tolerate much stress as it dries.  It is best if the handle and the pot have a similar moisture content when they are joined so that shrinkage is similar.  And, yes I did dry things slowly under plastic for the first couple of days... 

This one worked OK.

It was a busy and muddled two week period in between the A and P show that I reported about in my last post, and the Waikouaiti Antiques and Collectibles show that we attended last Saturday.  I unloaded a full kiln of new work really early on the morning of the show (sometime between 4 and 5am), and Laura did a wonderful job of setting up a nice display and doing most of the talking to people and selling.  Whilst our actual numbers of sales were almost the same as they had been at the A and P show, the value of them was much more healthy, due to two of the higher priced items selling, so it was worth us taking part.  Laura thought we should have a table, so we did, and she was right!

There was a lot for people to see, old clocks, china, woolen hats, second hand clothing, children's toys, porcelain dolls, paintings, pottery, metal sculpture, pencil drawings, furniture, old books, buttons, and appliances.  The hall was bright and warm inside, whilst outside it was a grey and rainy day, and it was probably nice for people to have something to go out to on a day like that.

I walked around with a camera and intended to take some stills of our table... unfortunately I forgot, and shot a movie only.  I have rescued these from the movie, and apologize for the blurry quality!  Laura did a lovely arrangement of flowers to brighten up the table, and the little selection of "stills" ends with a photo of a painting by Laura that she sold on the day.

To give you some idea of numbers involved in a local event, I can say that by 3 in the afternoon the person selling tickets at the door of the Antiques and Collectibles show told me (with some excitement) that they had given out just over 200.  I have heard other estimates that 400 people attended.  Possibly the higher figure was arrived at from a tally of the number of scones consumed.  The ticket price included "Devonshire tea" (which translates to a cup of tea or coffee and a scone).  In the village hall kitchen the people preparing scones were kept very busy indeed, and had to send volunteers home to do emergency baking to avoid running out of them.