Welcome Autumn

Leave a Comment / 2023, Festive fair /

Brrrrrr it’s getting a bit chilly in the evenings now. We’ve also noticed the nights drawing in. We’ve had a lovely couple of weeks in the shop with lots of visitors. Which has cheered us up no end. August wasn’t as good as previous years, we had half expected it, but its still a bit worrying so it’s lovely to see lots of visitors in the shop again.
We’ve got to a good stage with our preparations for the NEC. I have in my mind what it’s going to look like now. I just need to put that into action. I’m a bit disappointed we can’t get away from the traditional table at the front and us behind, but the small size of our stall means that it’s the most efficient way to display as much as possible, and keep ourselves out of the way and not into the aisles. We haven’t got the budget to be spectacular, but I have some ideas that hopefully will make us look better than just a table with white cloth on. Anyway I’m not going to give to much away, so we will see later if I pull it off.

My large Father Christmas picture has sold . I was hoping to take it to Birmingham as a eye catching piece. I will hopefully get time to make another, well at least a similar one. But I did make a smaller snowman which hopefully I will be able to take. I’m quite chuffed with my happy smiling chap.


We are hoping to have some tickets soon to do a giveaway soon, so watch this space.

We are stocking up on Christmas goodies nicely, but with how good it’s been in the shop the last couple of weeks, it means that some of that has disappeared. I’m not worried as I still have 7 weeks of making to get in and I know the shop will drop right off very soon. The plan is to get all of the work, that needs to be drilled made asap, so Mr WD has time to drill it all and then all the coasters, gin stirers and slumped work will wait to the end as once it’s out of the kiln it doesn’t t need anything doing to it.

My pottery has been coming on. I LOVE LOVE LOVE throwing. My wheel comes out as often as time allows. I’m still struggling with glazing so quite a bit is still going in the wonky pot box, for sale. It’s doesn’t seem to last long, which is fabulous, people seem to love the idea of a wonky pot.

I’ve also just been exploring how to add or reshape pots once they are thrown, these need to be fired and then I can see properly if they are working. I can then try some more glazing techniques. I’m hoping soon I will find a style I like, that I can concentrate more on, but I’m still in the experimental phase at the moment.

It’s also weird when we visited our local museum in liskeard recently, to discover we are actually living very close to where a local well know pottery used to be. Tremor Pottery was quite famous and I must have visited as a child, as I have some of their pieces that I bought on holiday years ago. I need to get them out of my loft and check what I have. Strange how life seems to have come full circle .

Stay warm and keep safe, especially as we are expecting storm Agnes to hit at anytime. See you maybe in the shop or at the NEC, soon

Janice x

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I think we’ve gone completely mad !

Leave a Comment / 2023, Festive fair /

I know you won’t want to think about it yet, but unfortunately we need to be organised. We are thinking about the ‘C’ word…yes Christmas, is very much on our mind.
Last year when looking for fairs I asked to be put on a few different mailing lists , obviously I was feeling ambitious as I put us on the mailing list for the festive gift fair at the NEC, and as I had asked, they contacted me. We really didn’t think we could afford to do a show that size, but it appears we can. Don’t get me wrong it is a lot of money, but we decided it was within our means and well frankly why not! So with our usually, ‘we will find a way’ attitude, we signed up. We are now the proud owners of the tiniest little stall, in the huge NEC arena, for 4 days in November! OMG!!

The next thing that came to my mind was OH EKK!
So I’m trying to calm myself down and be rational! Let’s start with the positives. 1. We love Christmas! 2. We have some lovely products. 3. We are excited. 4. There is a possibility if we do it right, it will be a nice little earner. 4. The stall is very small, so it won’t take much to fill it. 5. Oh, did I say I am excited? Squeeeee!!!!!!

So on to the challenges…….I’m not going to say onto the negatives, because we will get something out of this adventure even if it’s just sore feet, backs and a lot of lessons learnt.
Although the old adage is, ‘you’ve got to speculate to accumulate’, we’ve probably just about at the top end of our speculating budget. We know we have to spend some more. We need to buy lots of materials, so we have enough things to sell. We also will need accommodation in Birmingham, as I don’t think a daily commute from Cornwall is very practical 🥴 Add to that the realisation that our car probably won’t hold enough stock and fixtures and fittings , so we may have to hire a van. There is also the possibility that we may have to sleep in said van ! ……….only joking. I’m to old for that!

Talking of enough things to sell! How do we calculate how much to take? Really! how on earth do you work that one out? 🫤

Then we have to work out what will be the biggest sellers. Do we just take a limited selection of what we know is popular? or do we go all out and take everything?
We then have to be very inventive, we know there will be a plethora of mass produced gifts and decorations on other stalls, so we have to think how can we stand out. We need to make our tiny little space the place people want to be. We don’t understand how fixtures and furniture get secured in this sort of venue. So my first instinct of going high , may not be that practical. It’s something we will have to research and find out what’s possible. We will be looking at what we already have that we can utilise, or bought cheaply or maybe even borrowed.

We have decided our current priority is to just make stock. I am cutting my hours in the shop, so I am able to up my production. Steve will be doing 4 days in the shop and I will do 2. At the moment we think we will stick at being closed on a Monday. That way we can at least have some time together and it will be a completely work free day ( like that’s really going to happen, 😂) but we can try.

I’m also going to ask if any of you, who have an experience of a show on this scale, if you have a tips or insights that may be useful. Or for anyone with any ideas please to share them, as at this moment, panic has set in, and I might need some help.

Janice x


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