cahn

One of the things Clayfolk offers is use of a LightCube photo system, set up on the balcony above the show. It's a box made of diffusing fabric, with lights and a graduated backdrop, for taking photos. I've never used it before, but I hadn't had any new photos shot for a couple of years, so Friday before we opened, I took some pieces up to shoot. Here's an example, taken on my phone. Pretty good, huh?

Honestly, Clayfolk is always amazing. It's been going on for fifty years, it's hugely supported by the community, and once you're established, you can make bank.

We drove down Wednesday afternoon to be well-rested for Thursday set-up. Denise came with me this year, so I specifically requested an accessible, first-floor room at the motel. I'd stayed there last year, it was spartan, but cheap and just on the other side of the freeway underpass from the show. Also? There are a bunch of cats hanging around, occasionally even in the office.

What it didn't have, was a fridge.

This is not a small issue. We bring food from home--yogurt and fruit for breakfast, salad fixings and cheese and lunch meat for lunch. My small cooler with an ice pack will get us to the door, but for the weekend? Not sufficient. I went back to the front desk to ask if we could be switched to a room with a fridge, but none were available. Nicollette, the clerk, went into housekeeping to see if there was a spare unit, even called their sister motel in north Medford to see if they had a room. As a last choice, she offered to refund our room if we wanted to move to one of the neighboring motels. I called them up--they had rooms with fridges available, at roughly twice the price.

So I drove up to BiMart and bought a bigger cooler, on sale for $29.99. Our cooler is quilted fabric, but with a plastic tub liner, that fit nicely in the new one, with plenty of room for ice.

Long-term weather report predicted rain for set-up day, but the storm blew through overnight, so we had a nice dry day to move in. Finished up by about 3 pm, went back to the room and crashed. Had supper across the road at Black Bear Diner--American diner food in large quantities--and I amused myself with drawing all my bear pottery patterns on the place mat while we waited for our food.

Friday started with a mandatory meeting, followed by cashier training. I'd just run the Square point-of-sale at Clay Fest, so did a quick tutorial for some of the potters after the official meeting. Show was set to open at 11 am, but a couple of the media outlets were reading off last years script, so we had people lined up at 10. Rather than leaving them to freeze in the morning fog, the chair elected to let them in to browse while some folks were still finishing their set-ups, with the warning that sales would be processed before 11.

I had a regular customer coming in to pick out ten plates for her daughter, to drive down to California for Thanksgiving. I was on first shift cashiering, so Denise helped her pick out the set. Unfortunately, after they'd measured and matched them all, she couldn't carry them, neither Denise. I suggested they peel the stickers and take them to checkout, and I'd try to find a volunteer to carry them out, but they'd taken so much time that the checkout line had broken the bounds of the meander and ran all the way to the back of the hall. So the plates went back in the box, prices tags attached. I tried to call her later in the afternoon when the lines had subsided, but her phone didn't pick up. Finally reached her after supper, when she said they were heading out early on Saturday, and I should go ahead and sell the plates. She'd get back to me in January.

Truthfully, I didn't miss the sale; it was all I could do to keep up with restocking what left the booth. Sold a lot of the usual--blew through an entire box of tall mugs, about half of the stew mugs and half of the painted mugs. Dessert plate supply was decimated, though dinner plates sold less frantically. I also sold all of my platters, all of my teapots, all of the $65-70 serving bowls. All but three covered casseroles, and a couple of cookie jars. And I ended the weekend with a mere three pie plates remaining.

I always take a tile-framed mirror with me, because it makes a nice centerpiece for the wall display. I never expect to sell it, but on Friday morning, a man told Denise he wanted to buy my Africa-themed mirror. He asked if we'd prefer to have it to display for the weekend, so Denise put a Sold sticker on it with his name, and he came back Sunday morning to take it away.

Saturday was exhausting. I had second shift cashier again, this time at station 2 (almost as busy as 1), followed by a Brushmaking and Decorating demo at 5:30. At that point, the show was pretty empty, so my audience was all potters, They'd drop in and out, but I've learned to expect that, so I'd decorate a couple of pots, make a few brushed, glaze some more, make another brush. At 6:30, I still had three bowls to glaze, so they made me finish them. Got everything cleaned up about the time the show closed at 7, so we got in the van and drove up Riverside looking for someplace for supper. (We'd eaten our default easy/cheap/nearby Chinese place Friday.) The first Mexican place we tried was closing in 20 minutes, so we didn't even go in. Fortunately, on the way back to the motel we spotted another that was open till 11, so flopped in the booth and ordered; seafood enchiladas for Denise, carnitas for me, with mole sauce. And so to bed.

Sunday I spent the entire in the booth, as I'd no workshifts. Continued to sell, started to run out of things, so moved stuff around to fill the gaps. Back of house, I consolidated restock, emptying six boxes by the time the show closed at 3 pm. The rule at Clayfolk is that nobody's done until everyone's done, so I had some volunteer help dismantling the booth. I wasn't quite the last one done--I think that was Glenn Burris--and they were still loading up the truck to the storage unit, but we finally had the closing meeting and group photo at 5:30. Neither Denise nor I were particularly hungry, after three nights of restaurant meals, so we snacked on fruit in the van driving home, arriving at 9:30 pm.

The treasurer had Square open on her phone while we waited for the meeting to start, and showed me my total: $6678 (less 12% commission), my best year yet.