In My Van I'm Going To Carolina

I just got the news -- and I'm jazzed! (to say the least)....

I'm going to be participating in the Dillsboro, North Carolina "Western North Carolina Pottery Festival".

It all started early last summer when I was at Cincinnati Summerfair. Karen Baum (of Baum Pottery ) said, "John, you would LOVE the WNCPF!", and then proceeded to tell me about this wonderful two-day celebration of pottery.

Karen related that it's a very small show, but that it's a real EVENT. They have a "Pottery Olympics" with events such as tallest-thrown-pot, longest-pulled-handle, widest-thrown-bowl, etc. "Everyone has SO much fun", she continued.

"Sounds like it", I thought.

But when I got home from Cincinnati last year, the event was already closed to new exhibitors. I thought about the show from time to time, but in the busy-ness of the year that followed, I finally forgot about it. I hadn't written a note to remind myself, and the show doesn't send out reminders.

But early this year -- while at the Lafayette, IN "Round the Fountain Art Fair" -- Larry Spears and I got to talking. Larry said, "have you ever heard of the Dillsboro, NC show?" I immediately answered that I hadn't....but the next day I googled up "Dillsboro" and found ...
....oh....
...the "Dillsboro" that Larry was talking about was the very "Western North Carolina Pottery Festival" that Karen had told me about the year before.

This time, when I got home from Lafayette and googled up the show's information site, I was able to get my application and jury images in just under the wire.



I've always been fascinated and a little obsessed with North Carolina. Some reasons are obvious -- the music and the pottery. Other reasons, I can't even begin to describe -- just that I feel a sort of connection with the State.

I haven't done a show in North Carolina since the days -- more than fifteen years ago -- when they used to close down Tryon St in downtown Charlotte and hold "Springfest". It was always a great show. I still happily remember not just the good show, but the camping out at the nearby KOA and listening to Beach Music on a portable radio in the tent.

I've also had a number of friends and acquaintances (Tom Turner, Jim & Shirl Parmentier, to name a few) move to North Carolina in recent years. Each time another friend does so, I get just a tiny bit greener with envy.

Well, I can't wait for November. I'm planning on packing up the pots, the guitar and mando, the dogs, and heading south!

If you are reading this and you live in the area (near Ashville, NC), I'd love to have you come by and meet. If you are reading this and you don't live in the area, take yourself a nice short Autumn vacation and come on down. I can't imagine a more fun way, nor a more beautiful place in which to spend a weekend.