Alberta Pottery Updates on Jason Hall [CU BFA Alum] and Erin Hall [CU MFA Alumna]

From the ALBERTA POTTERY 2016 Newsletter:

Happy Thanksgiving from Alberta Pottery! In our annual newsletter, we'd like to share with you a few highlights from our year and plans for next year.  We have much to be thankful for!

We've had a busy and exciting second year as full-time ceramic artists. As we have endeavored to grow our business, we've participated in 10 national juried festivals, ceramic invitationals, and exhibitions, across 5 states.

Our winter months were spent in the studio making pots and firing kilns. We completed a couple of communion sets for two local churches, including our own, and built our inventory.

 
Last March, we began our season with a Ceramic Invitational at the Averitt Center for the Arts in Statesboro, Georgia.  We received a merit award for our work, which was also featured on the promotional banner, flyers and postcard. We were honored to be included and felt like the stars of the show!

Also in March, we had an exciting and unexpected brush with fame when Frankie Banali of the band Quiet Riot, and his wife Regina Russell Banali, a producer and director, in town from L.A., called us after finding us online.

After purchasing several of our pieces from a local gallery, Laurel Creek, they met us at our pop-up shop and purchased eight additional pieces for their collection, which includes work from world-renowned artists Warren Mackenzie and Guillermo Cuellar.  An incredible honor, to say the least!  Regina returned in the summer and shopped with us again.

In the spring, we traveled to the Dogwood Festival in Atlanta, GA for the second year- an enormous and exciting event with 300 exhibiting artists.  At this show, we had a collector purchase a group of five of our clay paintings for her patio. We also tried a new show for us, Four Bridges, in Tennessee. Both shows were successful, and we gained many new collectors.

During the summer months, we made pots and fired kilns, and replenished our inventory. We attended several more local shows in SC and NC, in addition to our weekly pop-up shop at Garner's Natural Life in Greenville.  Erin updated the website and designed new branding and business cards. If you've not had a chance to check it out lately, please visit at www.albertapottery.com 

Fall brought additional festivals, and we traveled twice to Kentucky for two new shows, Woodlands Art Festival in Lexington and St. James Court Art Show in Louisville.  We enjoyed both events and our work was well-received. 

Also in October, we again participated in the Clemson Center for the Arts 20x20 Ceramic Invitational and the Spirits in the Clay Exhibition.  We loved catching up with many friends and former professors from Clemson University. Additionally, we restocked all of our galleries for the upcoming season. Check us out at Laurel Creek and The Art Cellar in Greenville.

We plan to fire the final kiln of the year in a couple of weeks, and then we will focus on preparing for our Holiday Market with Kent Ambler and Happy Arsenal Jewelry.  In addition, we will hold our pop-up shops at Garner's as much as the weather allows until the holidays.

For next year, we have applied to several festivals, but we are planning to scale back a bit in the spring in order to redo our festival booth to better showcase our work.  We are trying a lot of different things right now as we build our business, and seek the best direction for our work.

Additionally, we are seriously considering setting up a gallery space at our home studio where people can come to shop with us, by appointment. Also, we have seen an increase in online orders from our website and social media, and are thinking of opening an online store at some point. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated!

We are continually amazed and so grateful that we are able to do what we love and feel called to do every day, and make a living from it. Thank you so much for your continued support and friendship!

 Happy Holidays!

Erin and Jason