Friday 25 August 2017

Art in Clay 2017 Proved to be our best show ever !

 The arrival of a huge van outside our workshop
can only ever mean one thing
We are packing up our showroom to head up to
Art in Clay.
It's the only show where we try and take
the full spirit of Barrington Pottery
and plonk it right down in the middle of Hertfordshire.

We had been allocated our space in the centre of the 
Derek Emms marque.  4mts x 2.5mts
So we had done a full mock up in our showroom
two whole weeks before set off for the show and we were confident
of our plans.
I had the firm Idea that I wanted our main table to be as
minimalist as possible!
Marion wasn't so sure.
When we turned up at the event Paul Young joyfully greeted
us and said Come with me I'll show you your pitch
you've got a great spot!

It was indeed a great spot, But it was open on all four sides
and I had planned for having a stall behind us.
I must admit Marion and I had an uncomfortable 10 minuets
while she told me I was an idiot
and I tried to defend myself that I was sure we were back to back
with another stand as all the others were in other marques.

So we had to think on our feet and totally recreate a new stand from
 whatever we had brought with us!

So the original plan was to have the long table
with the Huge A frame I had found in a skip at the end
with our Banner at the back. 
at the other end we had planned to use apple boxes
to create a table effect to put the wrapping paper on.
I stuck to my guns and kept the main table as 
simple as possible
 Even Svend Bayer said  to me
 " How long will you last with it like that ? "  
  It  worked a treat and I was very proud of  it. 
A Big Thank You to Valentines Clay
for a great event and a really well run show.

  For  a long  time now I have been toying with the idea
of making a range of lighting, I've been playing around with some ideas
this one obviously doesn't work,
But I had at least one good chat with a customer who is interested
in my vision.
and that's what shows are all about, putting ideas out there
and gauging the reaction to see if it's a hit or a miss.

 So the back side of our stall ended up looking something like this
 a bit like it looked at Earth & Fire
and I'm pleased to say sales came from every area of the stall
This new design jug made it's debut at the show
and lots of people fell in love with it
But It has made it's way back to Somerset
with us much to Marion's pleasure. 

 We sold all of our small Harvest Jugs
 and we had some notable visitors to our stall
including Richard from the Pottery Throw down.
we also had a quick chat to his lordship
Keith Brymer Jones but felt it was a bit De rigueur
to ask for a photo!
and Ray Toms finally came to collect the jug he 
won the bid on for the Clay College Auction
back at the start of the Year.

All in all we had a great show, sales were good
we set ourselves some targets and hit every one of them.
We came away a combination of
Exhilarated and Exhausted.
Thank You to everyone who came to say hello
especially the amount of people who said they love my posts on 
Facebook and Instagram. 
 We did have the pleasure of also having Felicity Lloyd -Coombes
on a stand opposite ours with this adorable
8 week old Puppy.
We were back home by 10.30 on the Sunday Night
and we were all set up for Play with clay
on the Monday morning by 9.30.

I got straight back into throwing, 
it's amazing what a good show can do for you.

 and the showroom is back as it should be
ready for a busy Bank Holiday Weekend

Our next road trip is to Derbyshire for 
Pots & Food
9th & 10th September
Come and see us if you can it's a quirky show.

3 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

what a creative pair you are...coming up with a new display as needed. Well, you're potters, what would you expect? It looks good. And you do too! Glad you're sharing your pots and pics here again!

Anonymous said...

Got the refill the shelves quick! Grand that you had a fab show! So happy for you!

Unknown said...

It was great to meet you both, Lindsey and love the jug,it has pride of place next to a Mick Casson jug. Thank you so much for gifting it to the auction. Blessings Ray

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