08.10.12

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair wrapped up yesterday. It was my first year as an exhibitor and I am extremely pleased that I was selected and able to take part. I love doing fairs! I love every aspect of it from the theatre of the venue (the setting up and being surrounded by all the other stands) to the engagement with the visitors (I love to chat, especially about pottery) and the friendships that are made with other makers. There is always a little sadness when a fair is over.

It’s a simple thing but the more I make the more I value the process of making and others who make. I like to be in the company of people who make; people who combine the hand, eye and brain and turn them towards ‘use’. It is a ‘human’ endeavour, related to the body, and I find it to be very powerful.

Through talking to people this weekend and discussing the pots that I make, it became clear that the scale of what I make relates closely to the hand. I don’t make big pots, I make pots that sit neatly in the hand; and I like the intimacy of that. It seems natural and sympathetic, unchallenging; somehow there is a togetherness between the pot and the person who holds it.