Art in Clay 2021

Happy New Year! I’ve finally sat down to write up my second blog post all about my Art in Clay experience. As mentioned in my last post, I was lucky enough to win The Valentine Clays - Award for Excellence 2021, with the prize being a sponsored stand at Art in Clay in Windsor in August 2021.

After the initial excitement of winning the award I did start to get nervous, I’d only ever exhibited my work at uni for my degree show, and this time I was over 100 miles away from home, selling my work for the first time alongside lots of other very talented people. I was so thankful when I was put into contact with a group of MA students from my uni who’d graduated the previous year that were also taking part in Art in Clay. They were all so helpful from the planning the layout of our stand to just being lovely, supportive people.

As much as making the ceramics should have been my favourite part of getting ready for Art in Clay, I loved designing the packaging for my work for the first time and deciding on the colours and layout of my stand. This was even more rewarding when positioned with the MA students stands to see how each of us had used the spaces differently.

We arrived to set up on Thursday which gave me chance to meet up with the MA students, Karen, Emma and Serena and the people setting up their stands around us! We were lucky enough to be positioned right next to Peter White and George Ormerod, both of whom I chatted to each day about ceramics and sales. As expected I ended up buying 2 black and white stripe pots form George that I now use everyday! The weather was sunny all weekend which meant that for the Saturday night awards, all of the exhibitors could sit outside in the sun for food and drinks, this was one of my favourite memories of the weekend. By Sunday as much as I was tired from such a busy weekend I was so sad to leave behind all of the people I’d met and been so close to for the last four days. I still keep on contact with them and find it so inspiring to follow their journeys.

I hope to visit Art in Clay again this summer, hopefully as an exhibitor but if not just to view this years selected ceramic artists.

Over my next few blog posts I’m going to write about each fair I attended in 2021, next up will be The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester.

Thank you for reading!

Meg x