Your favorite Bowls

I introduced these bowls last year and have gotten a great response from customers. Handbuilt and slip decorated with different washes and color accents, each lands up being distinctive and unique. A very similar process goes for my mugs too. On doing shows last year, I noticed that there were some people who liked the intricate patterns, some liked more negative spaces in the pattern, some liked the color accents, some just preferred the wash etc. I just got super curious to get all this data and see what I would find.

That is when I decoded to get this data from my fans on facebook. I posted the following picture and asked everyone to vote for their favorite in each row. So, there were three votes from everyone, a favorite from the honey gold glaze, a favorite from the Soft Green Glaze and a favorite from the Blue glaze.

I had an overwhelming response. Approx 180 votes. It was great to get this input and I thank you all for voting. And here are the results. Pretty much even across the board, except for one of the blue bowls that got significantly low votes. And looking closely you can see that the bowls with the color accents and the wash combination and negative spaces did get more votes in each case. (HG3, S2, B1) Thank you all for your input. This gives me a good idea to what to send to galleries that carry my workas well. Do you agree with the favorites? Do you have your own favorite? Do tell.

     

Buyers Market of American Crafts: Booth Setup

So where have I been? Since my last posting during the holidays I have been super busy. It all started in June 2012 when I decided that I wanted to do the Buyers Market of American Craft Show in Philadelphia. The show was last weekend (Feb 16th-18th) and it has been quite a journey preparing for it. Here is the final picture of my booth at the show,... I truly believe that Rome wasn't built in one day and neither was my booth.

It all started with this basic idea of booth design for a corner booth. Love Sketchup for that. After which came the Chicken and egg problem, along with a long list of questions.

How many pots should I take? What size boxes should I have for the pots? How should I pack the pots? Do I ship boxes separately or in a crate? If I use a crate, what size crate? Should I buy the crate first and plan my booth so it fits in the crate? or should I plan my booth and then buy the crate that would hold everything in it? What should I do for drapes? How should I hang my posters? How do I make pedestals, light weight and collapsible? What do I do about the floor? How many lights should I take? Will black back drop be too dark for my booth? These questions are only 15% of things that were going in my head for the last 8 months. A big thanks goes out to Pam Corwin from Business of Crafts, Mark Rosenbaum from Rosetree Glass and several other professional artists (now friends) I have met online to help me answer all my questions and worries. Below are some things that I did and I hope would help others in my situation as well.

This is the general way I packed my pots in these stackable plastic totes. You can get these totes at plant nurseries that import bulbs. Peanuts would be great protection but are a pain when it comes to unpacking and packing again after the show. Some more cardboard on the sides and sponge was added to these crates to make sure nothing moved.

Then came the challenge of packing all the pots, pedestals, display items, lights, step stool, promotional stuff into a shipping crate. But then what size crate? Thanks to Alison Baker Supple to giving me a great tip on this. Tape a squares on the garage floor to the inside dimensions of available shipping crate boxes. Fill up your imaginary crate which would give a good indication on what size will work. I settled on a 48" x 40" x 40" collapsible shipping crate which not only holds everything but also collapses and becomes a pedestal for my booth. It is under the black fabric in the corner. Below are pictures of the inside contents of my crate and the crate itself. PS: Don't bother with that ridiculous cone on the crate. There were no signs of it when it reached my booth. :)

I am glad after all that stress and planning, it all came together quite well. .Got great feedback from other exhibitors and buyer as well. What are your tips on Booth Setups?

    

Spokane Summer ArtFest

It is the start of the summer shows! First one down is the Artfest in Spokane. Three-day event with over 150 artisan booths, kid's Make-It-Art tent, food, music, fun! June 1 12PM – 8 PM Music & beer garden until 10 June 2 10 AM – 8 PM Music & beer garden until 10 June 3 10 AM - 5 PM This is going to be my second year here and looking forward to meeting the Spokane folks. It is held in beautiful Coeur d'Alene Park in Spokane's Browne's Addition - two blocks from the MAC and approximately 1 mile west of downtown Spokane See you there! For those you who cannot make it, my online shop is always open. And you can see my show schedule here.

Creative Gaga: The Enthusiastic Creative Journal

I am absolutely thrilled to be published in the Creative Gaga Magazine and more importantly making an appreance on the Front Cover! This is a quality magazine circulated mostly in India.

It is very well put together with great images of my work in a four page layout. Here is the writeup.

Handmade Solutions:

There is a love and attachment that passes on from the creator to the consumer when something is handmade. Moreover, when these pieces come as design solutions to everyday affairs, design gets a new meaning. Charan Sachar comes out to be an artist with an endeavour to add this design-dimension to his creations.

Clay transcends the distance between art and design. From all the mediums I have worked with, clay gives me an opportunity to make three dimensional art which can serve the purpose of function as well. The whole transformation going from a lump of soft clay to a form that is created from one's imagination, resulting in a solid piece of solution, is an experience in iteself.

Culture is an accidental mentor. India's amazing treasure of art and culture has been me since childhood. Without a conscious effort, the colors, patterns, motifs etc. seeped in me as I grew up to be a visual artist. It is magical how all the small things that I was exposed to now find a way into everything I create.

Every problem either has a solution or a beautiful solution. At the core, pottery is all about creating functionality. But if you want the user to go beyond usage to experience, aesthetics will have to fit effortlessly into the larger design scheme. The shape of the form or its beautification can, for instance, make a huge difference to the way even a mug can transcend the shelf space to acquire an emotional space. It is the ultimate aim of any creator to create an attachment. Experimentation with ways to solve a problem is the only way out.

New Butter Trays

Many of you have seen and purchased my lidded butter dishes which are still my best sellers. With a suggestion from the Luna Sea Gallery in Pascadero, CA, I am introducing my new butter trays. They are still charming and colorful with a different design and a great price point.

They can also be used as spoon rests or serving.

Check them out in my Etsy shop.