Wellfleet and Durango, and Studio Potter

Who said things shut down on Cape Cod after Labor Day? I've had multiple shows to deal with, prepare for, finish up with ... in just the past couple of weeks.
This weekend it's the Wellfleet OysterFest down at the far end of the Cape Saturday and Sunday, then at the same time the opening of "Three Cups" at the Durango Art Center in Colorado. (And a Saturday annual board of directors meeting of Studio Potter Magazine in Boston ... learning how to be in two places at once.)
"Three Cups" opens Friday night. I won't be there, though my four teabowls will be. And I will be in the company of some people whose work I have admired for years - Warren McKenzie, the late Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Doug Casebeer, Alleghany Meadows, Joe Bennion, Peg Malloy, Sandy Simon - and newly-made friends such as Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew and Ron Philbeck. And many, many more. See the photos attached here; just a few of the pots in the show. Wish I could get there. (Adam Field contributed the show photo below.)
The OysterFest in Wellfleet has become for some of us the event that marks the true end of the summer season. It's the last craft fair before the holiday shows begin in November, and it's more or less the last chance for sunny and unseasonably warm weather. Often, the air is cold and a heavy breeze blows in off the Atlantic on one side or Cape Cod Bay on the other. Tents can fly at this show.
But thousands of people come out to it - for the oysters, fried clams and other seafood, for the beer and wine and the oyster-shucking contests and the rock bands on stage. Oh, and a few come to look at the crafts and the art. It can be a big show or - and this happened two years ago - hurricane force winds can blow in and send everyone packing. You never know.
I've got my first Studio Potter board meeting in Boston Saturday morning, so my friend Dafney Shufelt will fill in for me and we'll see if an attractive young woman sells more pots than a scowling 65-year-old male. I'll drive down well before dawn and get the tent up and the pots arranged, then hand it off to Dafney and head for Boston. I'll be back in the tent Sunday.
Speaking of Studio Potter, the board is debating the future of the magazine - in part trying to figure out if we remain a hard-copy magazine or become in addition/instead some sort of online digital presence. It's a very 2012 kind of situation.
Ideas? I'm happy to contribute anything you say to the conversation.

There will be new pots in Boston Saturday

Just finished loading the glaze kiln with teabowls, vases, many mugs, a few other odds and ends.
Somehow, I always think I need new pots for a show, in this case Art in the Park by the Artists Group of Charlestown, in Boston. Never mind that there are hundreds in the shed gallery and another hundred or more in the upstairs gallery. And I just packed up about seven clay boxes with "seconds" for the Cape Cod Potters' seconds sale next month ... and the shed hardly looks any different.
And I've been excited about big teabowls the past month or so, so there are several in this firing. Faceted and expanded and torqued, then glazed usually in a base Shino glaze with pours of Shino, ash and other glazes over that. You can see some in the photos. I wanted a wider choice in picking out four chawan or yunomi for the Durango show next month. There might be a good one in there somewhere.
There are also a couple of Kim Medeiros pots in there, as well as a few refires by one of her students. Kim's pots like my kiln for some reason.
Oh, and a woman was in the gallery Sunday and asked, "Are your prices fixed?" I paused, then said, "Well, they're glued to the side of each pot, if that's what you mean."
I hate that question. How do you all handle it?

Invited to a teabowl show

I got a call this week from Scott Roberts in the Animas Valley of Colorado, inviting me to be part of the "Three Cups" show in October. It's a show of teabowls (chawan and yunomi) and related Japanese teaware, at the Durango Arts Center in Durango.
The list of contributing potters is impressive, including Doug Casebeer, Alleghany Meadows, Sandy Simon, Robert Brady, Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew, John Neely, Brandon Phillips, Blair Meerfeld and more. Also, work by the late Japanese potter Tatsuzo Shimaoka. There will be close to 200 pots in all. I'm happy and grateful to have four of my pots included among the work of those terrific makers.
The show will be curated by Michael Thunder of the White Dragon Tearoom and Gallery. It runs October 8-28. Sounds like a great event there in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado. Wish we could be there, but it's great that the pots can be.
I'll attach photos of a few recent bowls of the type that will be sent to the show. Haven't made any final decisions yet on what will go to Colorado.