It's around 5:30 Friday evening and potters from around the state and even the Southeast should wither be headed to Shelby or be here already. Potters will be setting up tonight for the annual Carolina Pottery Festival, which begins at the fairgrounds at 10 in the morning.
Never been before?
Here's what it'll be like:
People from Cleveland County and beyond will be lining up shortly before the sale starts. They'll go through Dorton and Goforth Halls, looking for the right pottery piece at the right price. One tip for buyers: If you like it, get it before it someone else does. There's nothing worse than reverse buyer's regret (also known as the regret of the person who didn't buy what they wanted). Another tip is to go in with a list of things you want to buy. It'll help you from getting into pottery buyer's overload (that's when you buy so much you can't physically carry it out).
But seriously, there are a lot of things you should check out while you're there.
June Miller's leaf platters are a thing to behold. She takes giant leaves and uses them as her inspiration. They're really cool. Stop by Doby Wright's booth. She's a great conversationalist and I enjoyed meeting her this week. Annie Thompson's work is super-detailed and is certainly worth checking out. Hal Dedmond does traditional Catawba-Valley style pottery and his wife, Corrine Guseman does really cool garden rattles. Other potters to check out include Allen Griffin, Vickie Halloran, Kaye Lowery, Bobbi Black and Vicki Gill. My favorite person is fellow GWU graduate Jenny Cartee. Although I'm not 100 percent sure she'll be there, I'm going to make sure to look for her. I'm also going to look for fellow Isothermal students and teachers. I'm sure there are more that I've left out... I'm getting too psyched up to think...
As for me, I'm looking for a few items: some sort of big bowl or platter for my aunt, a small bowl with a chopstick notch for me and I want to look at anything with fern leaves. I need good art for my small living room.
(The photo is of some of my favorite pieces from June Miller's studio)
