~How We Got Together~
It was the Lake Eola Arts & Crafts Festival in Orlando FL in 1990. I had set up my booth with my plaster castings of castle & unicorn mirrors, my pewter castings of wizards & witches and my lamps shaped like fantastic fish & frogs. And, of course, the life sized paper dragon head was ready to lunge out of the top of the booth to frighten & amuse the patrons.
An unusually tall & precocious ten year old red head named Kate appeared & we began talking about the art work, favorite music, world events, relationships & life in general. Her mother's fused glass booth was on the far side of the lake so we did not meet but Kate felt we would "get along ok". Soon, Kate was doing my act & making sales. She was already a veteran craft show kid.
About a month later I rolled into another show in St. Petersburg FL and there was Kate in the back of the Subaru ahead of me. Moments later, I was standing in line waiting to check in & a beautiful tall, blue eyed blonde woman walked right up to ME and said "Hi, I'm Kate's mom!" I shook her hand and answered "Do you want to get married?" & that's how we got together. It's been great!
~From Temple to Puddle~
Claudia moved to Saint Augustine where she married me under the oak tree in the back yard while the Good Times Dixieland Band played "Love is Here to Stay" then we honeymooned in Cozumel, Mexico and hurried back to be in a (what else?) craft show. Claudia returned to being a potter & developed her line of casual & elegant stoneware though she could only fire electrically since we had just a 1/4 acre lot.
In 1991 we bought an old Victorian house & opened "The Temple of Great Art, No Spitting" where we sold only our own work. It was a hit. At last we stopped doing shows. Gallery owners from all over came to buy & by 1998 we were able to sell the building & stay home to make art & ship orders. In 2002 Rob Mitchell invited Claudia to share kiln space in a gas reduction kiln he had built at Sydney McKenna's gallery and studio in St. Augustine. This rekindled her desire to fire in a gas kiln.
In 2002 we traveled to Asheville NC to visit an artist friend & fell in love with western NC. What an amazing collection of galleries, museums, suppliers & artist's studios! Plus it was Claudia's home state & she wanted to come home. We decided to look for a place to live & work. After four trips we found our "spot" in Burnsville: House, Vacation Home, two studios & a beautiful pond. The town is charming & swarming with artists & craftspeople since it is so close to Penland School of Crafts. We sold all our Florida real estate & moved in July 2003. We named it Yummy Mud Puddle like my stores which were in Provincetown MA & Nyack NY.
It's been a whirlwind of activity since then, setting up two studios, getting ready for winter (there's SNOW up here!) & building the gas kiln Claudia's always wanted. Now we're finally ready to make great art & send it to you!!
