The First Annual Open Studio Show and Sale

Sponsored By:  The Arlington Artists Alliance

On Saturday, October 15, 2011, I, along with 15 other Arlington Artists Alliance members www.arlingtonartistsalliance.org  opened our working studios to the general public.  We had 15 different artists and 12 different studios located around Arlington, County Virginia and Falls Church.  The tour included 3 commercial studios and 8 private homes.   Considering that this was the first time we sponsored such an event,  it turned out to be a surprising success! We also worked under a rather compressed time frame.  

Here are a couple of shots of my basement show room all cleaned up and ready for the general public.  

I purchased 6 pedestals in three different heights and two different dimensions.  (12" x 12" and 15" x 15" ) These are fantastic.  Easy to assemble, easy to store, easy to maintain, and easy to transport to other venues.  Very good price too!  

 I managed to locate a previously owned,  beautiful, white leather contemporary sofa on Craigs list. ( a very cool story)   Turned out the previous owner was also a ceramic artist. Very small world.   Finally got rid of the the 30 year old red plaid sofa.  Really did a lot to change the character of the basement from a "Man Cave" (not that there's anything wrong with that) to more of a "Gallery" ambiance. 

Here is the Bonsai Pot collection.  I happened to be one of the Finalists in the First North American Bonsai Pot competition several years ago.  That particular pot is currently in the bonsai pot collection at the National Arboretum in Washington D.C.  But here are several others. 

If I choose to have another Open Studio Tour and it is in the winter, I can still put a nice cozy fire in the fire place and serve some Hot Toddy's.  

         

It took me over a week working almost 8 hours a day to clean up the mess caused by the flooding in the adjacent room and the nearby carpet. Major storms invaded the area  the previous week! 

What a lot of work!  It was especially difficult to get rid of the “musty” smell.  But I persevered, and everything smelled nice.  OK perhaps not nice, but not as bad and obnoxious.  October 15^th was an absolutely beautiful (albeit WINDY) day and I was able to leave the basement door open.   We did loose several of our Orange and Yellow Balloons!  I also set out the mouse traps that night to catch any little visitors who might have found their way inside the house. 

Before the public entered the “show room” area of the basement they had to walk down the exterior basement steps into the actual “working studio” portion of the basement.  I had things labeled and cleaned up.  This worked very well.  I did not want the general public in the private part of my home.  (Security issue) Not that I have anything worth stealing.  We still have analog TV (not that I watch much TV )  and I can't even use my laptop on the internet.  

 

I don’t even want to show photos of my work space.  Looks depressing!  Gosh how can anyone work in there you would exclaim???  Maybe some other time I’ll share some photos. 

It is your typical 1930's basement.  Designed to be a basement not a place to actually use.  ( “Pocked marked” and  cracked cement floors, Exposed pipes in the ceiling, Hanging florescent shop lights, Exposed  floor joists above their heads, Cinder block walls with Peeling paint , Hot water heater, Noisy boiler, Old cement laundry tubs and Husbands work bench-  Your get the picture) Then the public then entered the well lit and clean show room.

Here I am demonstrating my Shimpo extruder.  Other equipment in my studio includes:   24 inch North Star- Slab roller, 5 inch North Star-extruder, a monster 12 inch - Bailey Extruder , Brent Pottery wheel.

   

Here I'm extruding  some "straps" which will eventually be made into a coil pot.   OMG that machine has changed my life!  Great piece of equipment!  I’ll discuss my method of working in later blogs. This has different dies which can easily be changed so that I can also make coils.  The clay comes out like butter. 

 Because I do a lot of extruding my preference for the clay is that it have a higher water content than most manufacture's currently produce.  I  use recycled clay obtained from local studios.  (The clay is free!!! It's actually "clay slop")  If I did not own the pug mill I would not be able to properly process all the clay.

Sorry to get off topic but I'll have more on my working process and studio set up later. 

A week after the Studio tour we had a follow up meeting of lessons learned and discuss what to do next (if anything). 

At the meeting;  it was agreed to begin planning another event for fall 2012.  Probably also in October.  We all agreed that it was a huge success in that if forced us to clean up our spaces and complete all those unfinished art projects piled up in the corners of the house.   One of the most overlooked benefits was that each artist was forced to do some self promotion and be able to talk about the process of making their art. This is one area  that many artists are not comfortable discussing:  Talking with strangers about “how” they actually  make their art and the creative processes which occur.  Most of the time we don’t really understand it ourselves; it just happens.  

We hope to grow the number of participating artists and especially increase the representation from the south part of Arlington County.   We will be forming working groups after the new year.  I guess I’ll be the chair person again??? 

One very special opportunity presented itself when LeAnn Kalita  (long time AAA artist and member) was asked to write an article about planning an event such as this and the problems which occur.  She did a fantastic job and the timing could not have been better.  It came out at the same time as our  event!!!  Take a look at  October 2011 issue of Élan magazine.  I actually had my urn “Under The Ocean” photo published.  I was thrilled.  See:  www.arlingtonartistsalliance.org/Events/studiotour/Elan.pdf.  Our event also appeared in their calendar section. Photos of artwork from participating artists also appeared in print and really helped promote this event and the artists.  We can’t thank LeAnn and Élan Magazine enough for all their support. 

I'll need to take a couple of weeks break from any further postings as I MUST focus on getting ready for xmas sales and shows.  

More later. Thanks for visiting.  Marcia