Part 2: A Sale Saga.....
Chapter 1: Scratch an itch?
Your eyes open to find your wish granted! You just got an email from Bracker's about September Specials and Sales! You scratch your head and look around, a bit in disbelief. It's as if someone can hear your thoughts and is writing your life's adventures as you are having them. Nevertheless, you are excited to read that all sgraffito tools are on sale for September.
 Your eyes glaze over as you think of all the options for layering colored slip on your work and then scratching through to reveal the depths of the color....the possibilities seem endless. You click the link in the newsletter to take you to all of the fun scratchy tool options on Bracker's online store and a few clicks later, your order is placed. With excitement, you head to your studio to start making work while you wait for your tools to arrive. In fact, you are so inspired, that you don't even notice how much time has passed until you see light starting to peak through the east window of your studio. Despite having stayed up all night, you feel invigorated as you step out of your studio and greet the glorious morning....
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Chapter 2: A Sweet September Sunrise: The Full Spectrum!
The sky looks like it is on fire, the lingering clouds from last night's storm taking on vibrant hues of orange, red, magenta, fuschia, & violet, in contrast with the vivid blue sky above, the fiery yellow sun peeking out in between the clouds.  The green of the grass and trees appeared incredibly vivid in the early morning light, tiny drops of dew reflecting and refracting that light such that the whole world seemed to be shimmering with excitement and renewal. With all of this dynamic color contrast surrounding you, the inspiration to glaze strikes. With a little extra bounce in your step, you head back into your studio to find a proverbial dark cloud has settled over you and thwarted your plans. OUT OF GLAZE? How did that happen??? It seemed like only last week you had plenty of pints. Oooh, but then you remembered that Girl Scout troop that had come to your studio to earn a badge....They had glazed up a bunch of cups that they planned to give away at an upcoming service project. You were a softie and let them use ALL of your glazes. And of course you JUST placed your order at Bracker's last night. Checking your email again, you see your order confirmation, but also notice something else that you had missed in your haste last night. Spectrum Glazes are on sale too!!! The more you buy the more you save......WOW! 10% off two, 15% off 4, 20% off 6, and 25% off 12! You can't believe your simultaneous luck and misfortune. Why do you always notice these things AFTER submitting an order...? Is that a little known variant of Murphy's Law? You wonder if you might be able to add to your order of sgrafitto tools and click on Bracker's phone number 785-841-4750 to call them. They don't open until 9, so you know you'll probably get the voicemail, but you decide to leave a message asking to add on, along with a list of a dozen pints of glaze you need (at 25% off!! Yippee!!). Also, you ask if you can change your order to in store pickup, because you totally can't wait for UPS.....it's hard enough waiting for 9am to hear back.
 At about 9:05, that dark cloud you felt earlier disappears when you get a call back from Brackers, that sure, you can add those pints, and your whole order will be ready for pickup by 10am. You're practically in your car and driving down the road to Brackers before you've even hung up the phone...
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Chapter 3: Sultry Second Summer: Bring on the heat.
At 10:01, you find yourself standing at the front counter of Bracker's while someone is grabbing your order from the back. Of course you can't help but look around at all the other interesting items. Like many others, you have often thought of this place as a candy store, and you are an 8 year old kid in it.... You spy an assortment of kiln stilts, including that new-ish versa-bar system you remembered seeing who knows where. All the parts are sold individually, so you can design your own system to meet your needs. Ornaments, jewelry, and other assorted small items, which fill in the corners of your kiln and add a little profit to your bottom line, and this is just what you need to efficiently fire those items. You walk over to investigate more closely and realize that your luck just keeps flowing. Firing supplies are on sale too! 25% off stilts, 20% off cones, 15% off kiln furniture (posts, shelves AND full furniture kits!), plus special prices on kiln gloves, safety glasses and more! You load up with goodies and carry them to the counter. You also decide now is a good time to try one of those light-weight hollow core shelves for your kiln, so you pick up one of those too, since they're on sale....At the end of your shopping trip, you find that you saved over $75 on your supplies. WOW!
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25% off stilts, 20% off cones, 15% off posts and shelves, plus special prices on kiln gloves,
safety glasses and more!
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Part 3: Epilogue...
It's a date!
Leaving Brackers, you feel like a teenager looking forward to a friday night football game with that special someone, except it's your friday night studio date with some very special pottery. Before you drive away, you take a moment to put a couple of other dates in your calendar that you were encouraged to avail yourself of:
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2020 Cone Box Show
Entry Deadline October 26, 2019
A juried exhibition of miniature pots, adjudicated from the actual pieces while still keeping shipping and handling costs down for artist entries. The question of size limitation was easily answered given that in the 70s, when the show originated, the Orton Standard Cone Box, a 3″ x 3″ x 6″ box was ubiquitous in every potter’s studio. Three National Cone Box Shows were mounted biennially in the seventies, until the show’s creator took a hiatus. It was revived in 1994 and since then has become the (still biennial) International Cone Box Show.
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Fall for Raku
Coming in October....
Yeah, it's been a while. We've been a bit busy making the clay but now we're ready to be firing the clay....Details will be coming soon. It may not be a completely free event. We are looking into the idea of charging a small fee which will then go to benefit a non-profit arts organization. Keep an eye out on our website and follow us on social media to find out first. We'll also announce the date next month in the October newsletter, but we wanted to provide some advanced notice so you can start making raku pieces!
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National K-12 Clay Competition
Deadline Feb 2020
The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition is an annual juried ceramic competition for Kindergarten through Grade 12 (K-12) students in the United States. Designed to showcase the best K12 ceramic work made in the country, the exhibition takes place in a different city each year in conjunction with the annual conference of The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA)
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