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.

www.valentineclays.co.uk

  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

www.potsandfood.co.uk

9th & 10th September

Come and see us if you can it's a quirky show.