I’m getting more work out into the world these days, adding a few new galleries where you can find my work. Haven Gallery in Austin, Texas found me at the Baltimore ACC show. My work is doing well in Austin, as they re-ordered only a month after the first shipment of goods arrived. I am also selling at Atelier 24 Lexington here in Asheville, NC. They have a great location downtown, and as the summer tourist season heats up, so has their business. If you’re planning a trip to Penland this summer, make sure to plan a trip over to Bakersville, NC to visit Crimson Laurel Gallery. Housed in a beautifully restored building, is one of the country’s premier ceramics gallery. They also carry a selection of artisan jewelry, including some of mine. Also, I’m preparing a shipment of work to send to the Bogan Gallery in Galveston, Texas. I’ll post more about that as the show develops. Now I better get back to the studio to make some work!

For over a year now I have been working up the resolve to get a scooter. My best friend Matthew is huge scooter guy and turned me on to them while we were living in Houston. He drives his everywhere, often with his wife in tow. You have to be a special kind of crazy to drive a scooter in Houston traffic. A while back we went to a Houston scooter shop to look at the different models and styles that were available. I had a hard time connecting to most of the scooters for the same reason I can’t connect with most tennis shoes; they look they were designed by a color-blind 5th grader with ADD. Random swoops and swooshes, superfluous graphics, discordant colors, not for me.

Stellas at the scooter shop in Houston

That’s when I found Stella, it was love at first sight. Stella is a scooter model from Genuine Scooter Company. It is essentially a discontinued Vespa model from the 80’s that was bought by Genuine and re-branded as the Stella. It has a few mechanical upgrades from the original 80’s model but not much difference otherwise. It also has a manual transmission like a motorcycle, which makes it a bit more challenging to drive.

The design of the Stella follows all the modernist clichés like “less is more” and “form follows function”.  Her Soviet-era good looks are pure function; big chunky turn signals, stamped metal body, lack of any graphics less her script “Stella” badge.  I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Though the timing wasn’t right at the time, I knew that Stella and I would eventually get together.

My Stella

Skip forward a year, a move to a more scooter-friendly town, a wife that was tired of hearing my frequent scooter musings, and the timing was about as good as it was going to get. I spent a few months scanning the Craigslist listings for my region looking for a used Stella, and finally I found one that met my price/distance requirements. After a nerve racking ride through the mountains with Stella in the back of my pickup, I finally had her home safely. She sat in the garage for a week while I got my helmet, insurance, and motorcycle license squared away. Finally it was time to take her out. I’m pleased to say that other than being a bit moody, she hasn’t tried to kill me yet. As the temperamental spring weather starts to even out, I know Stella and I will be spending a lot of time together.

It’s been exactly a week since I got back from the American Craft Council show in Baltimore. It was my first time exhibiting there, and it was quite an experience. The size of the show can be a bit overwhelming, I don’t think I was able to visit more than half the artists there, which I guess is understandable since I spent most of my time in my booth. My good friend Matthew from Houston came up to help me setup and work the wholesale section. It was good to have the company, and we were able to spend some time walking around Baltimore and seeing the sights. My wife Gwynne came up to help me work the retail section, she is quite an asset since she knows many of the artists and other people who revolve around the craft world.

I was most struck with the generosity of the other artists in offering advice and guidance to a newcomer. Their input, as well as observations made during the show, have helped me tremendously in mapping out the next steps in my career. But for now it’s back to the studio to fill orders taken at the show.

The crates containing my booth await my arrival

Carpet is down and the walls go up

Walls are up, working on lighting

Booth is ready for jewelry

Well…already three weeks into the new year and I’m just getting started on one of my new year’s resolutions; starting (and maintaining) a blog. Not being a naturally verbose person, this will hopefully be a good exercise for me.

First lets do some catching up. My wife and I have recently relocated to Asheville, North Carolina from Houston, Texas where we lived for three years after moving from Columbus, Ohio which we mainly claim as our home city, although we have both lived in other cities through our lives. I am a jewelry maker and my wife works in non-profit arts. We have two dogs and two cats (all of whom will surely make guest appearances in the blog). That’s probably enough catching up, let’s move on.

Currently my life is consumed with preparations for the American Craft Council show in Baltimore this February (more on that to come). That and doing the myriad tasks that one is required to do after moving to a new state.  So far we are finding Asheville to be an agreeable town, quite a change from Houston. Asheville definitely has Houston beat in the hills and nature department, not so much in the winter weather category though. My blood thinned a lot after the Ohio to Texas move, trying to get it thickened back up again. Still, it is nice to be back in an area with seasons. Can’t wait to see the mountains come alive when spring gets here, by then I will have more time to appreciate my new town.