6. OPEN HOUSE

My pottery studio was officially registered as from 1 January 2002. I had a website running and workmen in the building. With the idea to attract people for the Easter holiday I decided to have an open house day on the last week-end of March.

A few hundred 'invitation' cards came out of the printer. I distributed them with my car and my son's help within a radius of about 20 km, delivering one card in each letter box in remote hamlets and villages. I also put up posters in strategic spots and with local shops and supermarkets. The usual.


The 'mairie' (townhall) of St Civran let me have the community hall for free as well as tables and benches. The plan was to have a grand barbecue outside in front of the pottery studio with a tarpaulin bar stand. It worked alright given the fair weather on that day of early spring 2002. The community hall was used to have an exhibit of pottery and ceramics from various potters.


As a feature I hired a Berry traditional dance group called 'Les Treteaux du Pont Vieux'. See: a similar group. They performed all afternoon in the streets of the village in traditional costume. They invited people to join in their dances and that was quite a success. A disc jockey standing on the village square with a microphone made the whole show sound like it was a major event!


And it actually brought quite a number of people curious to see what this new pottery studio was about. A few of them tried their hands on the borrowed potter's wheel with some dark spare clay. Centering 1Kg of clay is not such an easy game... Here a young guild carpenter is trying his skill in front of other visitors watching on.