Hail & Welcome to Dancing Pig Pottery's blog.
Here's what's happening this week:

Our big, biG, BIG news is that Dancing Pig Pottery finally has an online outlet- that's right, after years of foot dragging & excuse making, we're finally selling our pots online, and so far it's been great. We've got a shop over on Etsy, which is an awesome handmade/crafts marketplace. As a seller, i love how easy everything is for me over there. I should have done this years ago!
Check our our Etsy store & don't forget to bookmark it & share it with all your friends!

and then, there's this: Despite a stunning lack of publicity, we are in fact going to be in Maryland, THIS WEEKEND, selling pots. That's right, it's our semi-annual appearance at

Art of Fire's Open House & Studio Tour

I love this "rite of spring"! It's my first show of the spring season & i get to show off all the cool stuff we've been working on over the winter break. We'll have lots of chocolate pots and there will be lots of Ceilidh pots (the ones that Jill/Bran & i have been collaborating on) as well. Plus, our newest puppy, Ursa Minor, (pictured in this post) will be making her social debut. Even if you don't need pots (and really, doesn't everyone NEED pots?- don't answer that!) you should at least stop by for a chat & a cuppa tea.

That's all happening
THIS WEEKEND Friday, Saturday & Sunday, April 11, 12 & 13
from 10 til 5 each day.

As an added bonus, our neighbor from Maryland Renaissance Festival, Allen the Printmaker, will be at the Art of Fire's Open House also. It'll be like a little mini Renn Fest Spring Preview!

Details about the other studios on the tour can be found here
Details about Art of Fire & a street address for mapquest purposes can be found here
and last but certainly not least, a direct link to our up to date calendar,
with the rest of our spring show schedule in all it's glory can be found here

(above: Ursa, cooling down after playing w/ the big dogs)

y'all know i'm a sucker for dogs, right? well, below, meet Ra, a very wonderful pooch we met & hung out with at the Florida Renaissance Festival last month. Ra worked across the street at the hawk & falcon show. She'd come hide under our tablecloths when she needed a break. But more about that show later...

Spring is Springing! or, as our friends at Art of Fire (the great glass studio & gallery in Maryland) say:

"Spring has sprung.
The grass has rise.
The Art of Fire is where it is."

or, something like that.
Anyway, we're going to be at the Art of Fire for the Countryside Artisans Spring Studio Tour & Open House.
It's happening Friday, Saturday & Sunday, April 11 thru 13 from 10 til 5 each day.

We'll have lots of pots fresh from the kiln! In theory, we've been making pots all winter, so come on by and see what's new! Enjoy a spring drive in the country & get some great pottery and glass.
What more could you ask for?! Well, we've got an extra attraction this year- our neighbor at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, Allen Ye Printmaker will also have his tent set up on the lawn with us! It'll be a mini Renn Fest, a spring preview if you like. So come on out & see what all the cool kids have been up to this winter!

And if you want to know where we'll be the rest of this spring, check out our freshly updated calendar here: Pig Futures, Dancing Pig's Calendar page.

If you check that out, you'll notice that our May & June is a bit light at the moment. Do you know of any great shows in the mid-Atlantic or Ohio or West Virginia that would be better if they had our pottery & leather? Please, drop me an email: pig@dancingpig.com and let me know about it. Cause i still need a new laptop & the price of gas is kicking our arse right now. We need shows that are cheap, close to home & very very lucrative right now. I know they're out there- we just need your help in finding them!

Thanks for any input you might have.
I'm gonna go make dragon mugs!
opps, but first, a few pictures from our recent "drive south" we went to the Florida Renaissance Festival, here's our booth there:
The theme of our recent southern tour seemed to be packing. Or unpacking. Or packing again. Below, our mascot pig, Amanda, determined not to be left behind:



And i'll leave you with a picture of Jill, our wonderful glaze monkey who has a new title, that of packing b!tch. She can get more stuff into less space than anyone i know. All hail the wonderfullness that is Jill. She's all that got Darrell & me & all our stuff home from Mississippi with all of our stuff (& our marriage) intact.
(you might not be able to tell, but the door of our trailer is actually bulging in the picture below)

Arrrgh!
No, this is not the hangover from our moderately successful Florida Pirate Festival, it's my primal scream of frustration over my laptop deciding that since i was on vacation, it was taking one too!
Only, it seems that my motherboard is on a permanent vacation. Which it decided to take just as i was gearing up to do the mailing for our annual Holiday Open House.
So, until Apple mails back my G-4 with its THIRD new motherboard, this is the only place you can find the details about it.

Ahem.
Despite a stunning lack of publicity, we ARE having & inviting you to

our annual Holiday Open House.

We're setting up the Celtic Annex at Art of Fire in Laytonsville, MD on

Friday, Saturday & Sunday from 10 til 5 each day

November 30, December 1 & 2 and doing it all again December 7, 8 & 9

Dancing Pig is debuting our TWO (!) new lines of pottery, our Crows & my newest collaboration (w/ Jillian of Mydwynter Studios) our Ceilidh pots. Yah gotta come by & fondle the new pots with their cool carving & glazes!

GreenMan Leather is going to have new stuff to show off as well. Wooden sided bags perfect for protecting your cameras & laptops, Band Braces, Cigarette Cases, the list goes on.

Tuatha is going to be there as well, with everything else any Celt (or anyone with great taste) desires. There will be Stained Glass, Jewelery & great Holiday Greeting Cards.

And of course, just across the parking lot, there's Art of Fire, with their incredible glass & gift gallery.

If you can't find gifts for everyone on your shopping list, you need better friends!

Plus, there's the added bonus of our beautiful, serene, peaceful setting. All of this is happening far, far away from the craziness of suburban shopping mall hell.

You'll be finding gifts that come with a wonderful by-product: they're all handmade, by human beings, whose passion for their craft shines through in everything they do. It's integrity you just won't find at the mall. Plus, the parking is much, much better!

Come on out to the Open House & do ALL of your holiday shopping with us!
Directions to Art of Fire can be found on their website: http://www.artoffire.com/ or you can be old fashioned & call us for directions, special orders & other details.
You can reach Dancing Pig & GreenMan Leather at 304-377-1952
& Art of Fire at 301-253-6642.
remember, until my laptop comes back-- probably middle of next week, November 27 or 28, i'm without email, so call us if you need to talk!

See you the first two weekends in December!

We're home from our Spring Open House & while we couldn't have asked for better weather, our sales were a bit disappointing. We did get to spend 3 days hanging outside in amazing weather, enjoying the Maryland countryside & visiting with lots of friends & family. That was all good, but sadly, not lucrative. D. claims our sales suffered because the weather was too good!!! can you imagine?! I slapped my hand over his mouth & told him to never utter those words again! Too Good?! Blaspheme! I can (and have) complained about all sorts of things at shows, but never about that the weather was too good! (Don't tell D., but i think he might have had a point-- after several weekends of rotten weather, i think lots of folks opted to stay at home & enjoy the wonderful weather for a change). But what can you do? Well, we just soaked up the sunshine & friendship.
So, we're still broke but we're moving on.
Next up: a double header!
That's right- we're going to be in two places at once!
OK, if you want to get all technical about it, our POTTERY is going to be in two places at once this coming weekend-- at both the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival (a Saturday only wonderful event in southern Maryland- you shouldn't miss it!) and here in West Virginia, basically in our backyard at Blackstone Raids. More details about those events can be found on our calendar page.
Now, i leave you with a few silly pictures from the past weekend:
This is a crow bottle, picked more or less at random, making a tour of the Art of Fire's Studio. It was fun to play about with the camera & all the colors at AoF! I can't imagine working in all that color everyday! (let alone dusting it all!) Still, it is amazingly beautiful!

So, with another thank you to Foster & Theda, our wonderful hosts for the weekend, i'm going to say goodbye for now. I've gotta go make some more pots!