err: Better Late than Never?!

Due to transportation woes beyond our control (see more about that below) Next Weekend Dancing Pig is going to be selling our wares at the SCA's Holiday Market Faire * It's happening on Saturday, November 22 from 10am to 6:30pm at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, VA.
We'll have a veritable plethora of Dancing Pig Pots, including our awesome Dirty pirate mugs!
C'mon, Everyone needs at least ONE dirty pirate in their life! And don't give me that old line about already having a dirty pirate in your life- cause if that's the case, YOUR dirty pirate needs one of these mugs!
This is a great good time, with lots of merchants offering lots of essentials for all the the medievalists in your life! We did this show 3 years ago, had a great time and the only reason we missed it the past two years is cause we've been in Florida for the month of November.
So if you're in the DC area, come make the most of this rare, November opportunity to shop with Dancing Pig and Greenman Leather!
*please note that this is a re-enactment event, there is a charge to attend and most of the folks there will be in medieval clothing.

OK, i could attempt to apologize for or explain away my neglect of this site for the past 4 or so months, but let's just say i was stupidly busy, had major computer issues and a stress aversion/ reaction that resulted in my going weeks without doing ANYTHING online other than occasionally peeking at Twitter. (to the right, a picture of my Tristan doing what i WISH i'd been up to the past few months; i.e. napping!)

But all that is behind us now.

We're moving forward, into the bright, shiny, continually updated future.

To that end, we're not in Florida this November, as we had planned.
Over the past 6 months we've gone through 3 white vans, over $5,000 usd & would still be without anything capable of hauling our pots out of our valley if not for the kind intervention of my in-laws. Thanks so much Nona & Darrell Sr! Love ya!

We now have a shiny, new, 2008 Ford 350 superduty work van. It smells very new. D is besotted. I am more or less numb.
Related: Anyone want to buy a 1998 Dodge Van w/ a brand new transmission & brakes?! It needs engine work, but it's cheap. We also have a 1983 Chevy work van that is surprisingly reliable, needs new spark plugs & a tune up & will soon need a new transmission for sale for very little money. Our yard looks like we're trying to start a breeding farm for white vans! Come take one or more of them away today!(on the right, a pic of 2 out of 3 of our vans. Guess which is which)


OK, you probably didn't come here to hear my tales of transportation woe &/or intrigue.

We're doing some shows, selling some pots.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE come buy some so we can pay some of our rapidly mounting expenses!

First, there's the Holiday Market Faire mentioned above.

And of course, we're also going to be at the Art of Fire's Holiday Open House and Studio Tour the first two weekends of December. I love this show! You will too! Come on out!
As always we've got on offer: Theda's awesome cookies, snuggles with random cats, the warmth of the glass studio, Tuatha's AWESOME Celtic goodies (jewelry, stained glass, Celtic Cards, Amazing Art, etc) and, last but certainly not least, piles of our fantastic pots. And as always, everything offered for sale here is handmade by real artisans who love what they do and add that love and integrity into everything we offer for sale. AND it's all very low stress & low key. The countryside is calm & soothing. The whole experience is as far from the maddening maul at the mall as you can get! Hell, do all your Holiday Shopping with us! (that's basically what i do!)

When is all this happening you ask?!
Well, the first two weekends of December:
Friday, Saturday & Sunday December 5, 6 & 7 and December 12, 13 & 14
We'll be there from 10 till 5 each day.
Here's where we'll be courtesy of Mapquest
Please come and say hello, we've missed you & would love to see you then!

Pennsic, arrgh!!!

Hey folks, we're at War. Don't worry though, it's just a medieval reenactment that draws 10,000+ freaks to the hills of Pennsylvania every August.
It's a great good time, far to much work (& hopefully) too much fun. And hopefully i'll sell too many pots, and be frantic to get back home to my studio and my puppies in the middle of August, when i'll begin the whole frantic cycle over again, this time focusing on getting ready for Maryland Renaissance Festival.
Hope to see you at one or both of these awesome events!
Here's a quick picture of one of my dragons, wondering why the mug is empty, something i might be doing soon myself!
I'm off to War!

Dancing Pig Pots now avalible ONLINE!

Yep, we be technocelts! Our shop is up and running at Etsy.
It's awesome. You need to check it out. NOW!
WWW.DANCINGPIGPOTS.ETSY.COM

We just updated! It's very keen.
Fast shipping. Reasonable Price.
GREAT POTS!

Pennsic Panic has begun!

Yep, it's officially only a month to Pennsic, and while i'm pleased to report that i'm further ahead than i've been at this time in other years, i'm still a bit paralyzed by panic. In a stupid moment of i don't even have words to describe how overly optimistic i was feeling, i agreed to send Jill away to Canada to complete her yurt for the three weeks before War! Yeah, that was smart. Send the glaze monkey away for the three busiest weeks in the year. Brilliant! (above, a picture of one of our extra bonus dogs, my niece's puppy Luna, who's visiting for a few weeks. Cute, isn't she?! She's slacking off like i wish i could!)

In related news, know anyone who wants to spend a working vacation in West Virginia? Send 'em out, we'll put them to work!

OK, enough kvetching.
How about some bragging?

Here's a sneak preview of this year's Pennsic Mug.

For folks not in the loop, here's how it goes: i've been making these since Pennsic 25. Each year, i make enough mugs to match the year, so this year is Pennsic XXXVII (37) thus, there will be 37 Pennsic mugs, each one numbered on the bottom. I always sell out, usually before Midnight Madness. The last one is spoken for already, #37, but if you'd like a special number set aside for you, drop me an email (pig !at dancingpig dot com) and it will be waiting for you at War!

Other quick updates:
Our truck, the great gray giant, is dead to us. The transmission would have cost $3,000 we didn't have so we turned it in. Now, we're going to shows in a 85 chevy van, that doesn't have A/C or a radio and is very spotty in reverse. The good news is that cost us $800. That's two months of truck payments. We're hoping to get through Pennsic with this beast, and make enough money there to be able to afford a nicer used van. You know, one with reverse. Until then, the white mare is getting us where we need to go. Please send any good used van juju you might have our way! And if you know of any great deals on late 90s work vans, preferably with a heavy duty trannie, a good 8 cylinder engine, working AC and radio and possibly side windows & a body mounted trailer hitch, please let us know. We can't spend more than 4K on this project, but we've got lots of pottery we could barter to sweeten the deal!

The final bit of relevant news is that we've been branching out into the Rendezvous market. Well, i say we, i really mean Darrell. And it's a bit of a homecoming for him, as he used to hang out in that world before he hooked up with me. He's loving it. I really love making the pots for that market, they're very simple and somehow sort of pure. Not to mention very easy to glaze! Always a plus for me. So, if you're into the Rendezvous scene, come check out our trade blanket- right now Darrell's in Ohio at the Old NorthWest Territory Primitive Rendezvous and later in July he's going to be selling at the Feast of the East, just down the road from us in Gandeeville, W.Va.

That's the mid-summer update from DaPig. Hope y'all are less busy and have more money than we have right now, but it's all good. We're still hanging out out here in the hills, slinging mud & swattin' bugs.

See ya at the next show!
Blessings,
Virginia aka Dancing Pig's overworked potter

Mid May Update:

We've actually got a few weeks off! Am i making pots as i desperately need to be doing? Noooo, of course not! I've got a new (to me) computer & i'm whiling away the hours setting the darn thing up & playing w/ twitter, brightkite & now, evernote.
I love social networking, web 2.0, whatever you want to call it, but darn if it isn't a huge ol' time suck, especially for an ADD control freak such as myself.
Anyway, here i am, actually posting on a work related blog. Granted, it's turning into a long post about how i'm not actually, you know, working, but still, it's a step in the right direction.


(left, a picture of me in my fairie finery at Spoutwood Fairie Festival, which was awesome, by the way!)
I do have point to make in here somewhere ::rummages around in very cluttered & disorganized brain:: Oh yeah- we've added a show to our schedule/Calendar for Memorial Day weekend (the Glasgow Highland Games in KY) and IF our truck's transmission problem is fixable, Darrell will also be at Aethelmearc's War Practice at Cooper's Lake (aka the Pennsic site) this coming weekend, May 16-18.

Sadly, that's a big IF, as our trusty steed, Ol' Leroy, died a horrible gear grinding death this past Wednesday, down near Charleston. D was picking up a tribal brother & getting ready to go out to the tribal land in central Ohio- luckily the truck died on it's way to Three Bears' house & D was able to limp to 3Bs before the trannie quit all together. We had it towed to the Dodge dealer in Charleston only to find out that the trannie guy there was in classes all of last week, so we won't know till this Monday how bad the damage is. Cross your fingers for us & please, send all the cheap car repair juju you can spare to us. We really, really need it!



That's the big news in our life at the moment. Other than that we're making pots & leather, watching the occasional Netflix movie & i, at least, am reading of Jill's bliss while she's visiting her new boyfriend James (aka @willia4 on twitter) in Charleston SC with a mixture of envy & trepidation. I'm glad she's having a good time, but am also a bit anxious that she may never return to carve & glaze my pots for me. Not sure what i'll do without her & am hoping i won't have to find out.

I'm off to while away some more time online.
Be well, do good work & be sure to BUY MORE POTS, either in person or via our Etsy store.
Thanks.
~Virginia aka Dancing Pig's distracted potter
(the picture on the right is of our booth at Spoutwood this year- i liked the way the pots & leather look together. Damn but that was a great good time- if you missed it, you NEED to be there next year!)

I leave you now with a picture of my two pups, who are both looking at me with variations of this "come to bed now" stare even as i type. Goodnight all! ::calls out to pups as she wanders away:: "Save some space of the bed for me!"