Wildfire 2008

So Wildfire....that's the CGC (clay guild of the cascades) annual pottery sale here in Bend Oregon. This is the first year I've participated in this event and was unsure of what to do, how they set up here and so on. I decided I would share a booth with a friend of mine and we could both learn the the in and out of Wildfire.

Damn, talk about being intimidated!! The potters at the show are VERY good. Not only are they good but they have their set-up down to a fine art. Get it??? Fine Art. Ha! Really nice set up with shelving, tract lighting and some pedestals. We on the other hand had a.....table, no lights and boring! You can bet this is going to change next year.

From what I understand, the sales this year are not as good as years in the past. Of course that's because the economy sucks. However, I've got to say that sales exceeded what we all expected. So all in all it ended well. I actually sold 43 pieces on the first day of the sale and was very pleased. I don't know yet the number of pieces I sold on the second day but I did see two additional sales of my work in the first 30 minutes of the second day. Yeah, you can say I'm happy. My goal was to sell as much as possible to deplete my inventory so I can start on a whole new "crop" of my work.

So get this.....I also got a custom order for an additional 51 of my handbuilt fish (see picture above) for a local graphic design business. 51!!!! Holy %@!!! The finish date is December 18,2008. Breath in, breath out.

Lesson learned...does there always have to be a lesson learned??? No, not really. What I do know is that when I finally jumped in to do this show/sale for the weekend....it ended up with some fun time, meeting other artist, a custom order and the drive to STEP UP MY GAME!!!