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Anyone Have Some Interesting Stories From This Holiday Sales Season?


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I have this regular customer, whom I have grown very fond of. Some friends of hers came to one of my fall shows, and bought her a christmas gift. "We are friends of [.....]. We know she wants this, so if you see her this fall, please don't let her buy one."

 

Of course, this person came to my open studio, and picked up the same item. She got in line to pay for it. I had to say "um ... um ... I can't let you buy that, and I can't tell you why." The room is very crowded and everyone is like "what on earth?" The customer looked a little confused but took it in stride. A few minutes later, she shouts from across the room "What about this one, am I allowed to buy this?" Everyone laughs. So hopefully in a matter of days, the confusion will be cleared up.

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I have one from a few weeks ago show out of state-my fellow artist nieghbors mother bought her some of my bowls for a surprize. She then later that day tried to buy some more unknown to her that her mother bought some already-I stalled and spoke to Mom in private and she said just let her buy more and then she will have plenty-so thats what I did later in the day. She will be surprized on the 25th.

Another story was a customer today saw my booth and while buying pots said her son had given her my pots a few years ago without a card and she had been looking since then to add to them and she stumbled onto my x-mas booth today and put it all togther-she was very happy to make the connection.

Its a great feeling to know that on the 25th many many hundreds of my pots will make people happy and continue daily as they use them. Its one of my joys with funtional work.

Mark

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Mark, I imagine that is a great feeling.  I get a bit of that, when I give my work as gifts, Christmas, Graduation, etc.

 

Yesterday, I gave the Industrial Tech. teacher, at my school, a mug.  He helped me quite a bit, with a project I was working on, taking time out of his schedule to do so.  So I threw a mug, did an inlay design, depicting some imagery from Industrial Tech (Oxy Acetylene Torch, Radial Saw Blade, etc).  He was really thrilled.

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I had one customer come to my booth and admire a stacking set of bowls, and tell me how perfect it would be for her mother. The catch was they'd already bought her a gift that they would have to return first. Naturally, I'm thinking, "okay, the admiration is nice, and this is a smoke bomb response." 20 minutes later, she came back for it and said her Dad was on his way to the store to return the first gift!

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  • 2 weeks later...

At my recent gallery show, I had a client buy the first sale at the opening and invited me to visit it as she was hugging the piece walking out the door.It was a large orb. This was my first solo show in a town use to cheap talavera imports.

So I was very happy and surprised by the sales.

 

Marcia

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I made a technical jump with my work. I realized that with this turquoise glaze I was testing, that if I left a bare spot, it would flash orange in the glaze kiln. i made some random polka dot resists and then glazed about 20 mugs. also, some teapots, jugs and bowls.

at my open studio sale in Nov., the turquoise mugs just walked off the shelves.

I had a turquoise teapot that a woman liked. The lid was a tiny bit tight. It opened one way, but if you turned the lid 90 degrees, you couldn't get it out. I tried grinding it with my dremel, but it was crowded and crazy. As I was fighting with the tight lid. a man came in and took the last turquoise mug off the shelf. The woman who wanted the teapot also had picked up the last mug. I gave her a matching teapot that I had kept back for a show. I knew she wouldn't be happy with the tight lid.I sold her a second mug for half price.

I gave my wife the nicest turquoise mug because she liked it. Her friend came by and asked if there were any turquoise mugs left. She sold hers to her.

I have one that is quite chipped around the bottom. I drink coffee out of it every morning. I guess I'll be making more of those mugs.

TJR.

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Awesome Tom, thanks for posting.

 

One of the first mugs I made in college, had a very similar color scheme.  The blue had speckling, similar to yours, and the inside is glazed with an orange, rust-like color, like the flashing you have on the outside.  The difference is that my one mug, probably weight as much as two, or even three of yours.  It's the one, that my instructor, referred to as "Insulated".

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Awesome Tom, thanks for posting.

 

One of the first mugs I made in college, had a very similar color scheme.  The blue had speckling, similar to yours, and the inside is glazed with an orange, rust-like color, like the flashing you have on the outside.  The difference is that my one mug, probably weight as much as two, or even three of yours.  It's the one, that my instructor, referred to as "Insulated".

Nice! My instructor used to call those boat anchors.

TJR.

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  • 9 months later...

I was reading Guinea's thread about cleaning pots and remembered a story Kurt Weiser told me about the Mother's Day sale at Archie Bray back in the 80s. There were many potters and pots all over the place and someone purchased a pot. Took it home and washed it in the dishwasher. It  disappeared. Evidently, they had picked up and unfired piece. 

 

Marcia

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I was reading Guinea's thread about cleaning pots and remembered a story Kurt Weiser told me about the Mother's Day sale at Archie Bray back in the 80s. There were many potters and pots all over the place and someone purchased a pot. Took it home and washed it in the dishwasher. It  disappeared. Evidently, they had picked up and unfired piece. 

 

Marcia

The funny part of that story is that somebody actually sold this person a green,unfired pot and got away with it.

It wasn't me! :unsure:

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