I have been holding a Holiday Seconds Sale for as long as I have been a potter, thirty-one years now. The very first one took place in the basement of my parents’ house on the outskirts of Hickory. I set up a few folding tables on the patio, spread out the year’s “almosts” and “not-quites,” and hoped a few people might stop by. They did, and they told their friends. Somewhere in that small and chilly beginning, a tradition began to grow.
The sale has changed a lot since those early days. It is now the gallery’s single busiest day of the year, and it has become a kind of annual reunion for customers, collectors, and friends who have followed my work for decades. The energy in the gallery that day always feels the same: lighthearted, festive, full of laughter and discovery. People come looking for a bargain, but they also come for the stories behind each piece. They want to see the glaze that ran too freely, the form that slumped just a little, or the pot that found its own way in the kiln.
I mark these pieces down between twenty and fifty percent. It is my way of clearing space on the shelves and making room for another year of experiments and mistakes. Every potter I know has them, but I have always believed in sharing them rather than hiding them. They remind me that good work and imperfect work come from the same hands.
This year’s Holiday Seconds Sale will take place on Saturday, December 6, and the gallery will open an hour early at 9 a.m. We will stay open until 5 p.m., and once the sale is over, the remaining pieces will be packed away until next year.
We will have warm drinks and snacks, and several of our guest artists... David Wyke, Courtney Long, and Maria Avila... will join us with their own seconds. It is a full day of good company, honest craft, and plenty of stories shared over cups of coffee.
If you have never been, this is the day to come. It is one of the most enjoyable days of the year for me. It reminds me that even the imperfect pieces have their place and that the spirit of the season is alive and well right here in the studio.