Valerie Johnson on wed 31 jul 02
I second Hank's suggestion of Nepenthe in Big Sur--cool stuff, and an unbelievable view!
Valerie Johnson
Eads, Tennessee
Hank Murrow on wed 31 jul 02
>I second Hank's suggestion of Nepenthe in Big Sur--cool stuff, and
>an unbelievable view!
>Valerie Johnson
>Eads, Tennessee
>
Dear Valerie;
Thanks for your second! So here's a story about the OLD DAYS
of pottery marketing........
"I was fresh out of a six-month stint in the Army Artillery
Reserves, and opened the PotShop in Venice, CA with Jane Heald. We
had sixty members there who got a door key for $12.50/month. Clay and
firing were extra, and the place was open 24 hours a day.......a
would-be potter's dream. I fired everything in two 20 cuft Alpines
and the rent was $300/month for 5000 square feet of industrial space
that had used the kilns to make kewpie dolls for the POP amusement
park.
"Often during the spring and fall I would take a wheel in a
trailer with lots of pots and fresh clay up to Big Sur and Nepenthe.
At that time, Bill and Lolly Fossett were running the place which
they built with their own hands. Lolly would give me a tiny
cabin/room on the ridge behind Nepenthe (water in a basin and sea
lion accompaniment.....rustic, in a word). I would set up the kick
wheel on the terrace, and pot all day, demoing for visitors and
selling my pots off a wall behind me, with her son Rafe's help making
change, etc. The kitchen would serve me lunch and dinner, and when
the crew got off around 10pm, they would gather on the terrace to
dance Greek folk dances and wind down from the busy day.
"There was a fire pit on the terrace, and I would nurse a C&C
(8 ozs.Chartreuse & Cognac in a tumbler.......killer!) until
midnight, go down the ridge to my cabin, and rest up for the next
day. Whatever pots I had left at the end of the weekend, Lolly would
call around to see if I could consign or sell at other galleries. A
sweet woman and wise. Later on (70s-80s) they built a giftshop I
remember being called the Phoenix? I even shared a hot soak with
Henry Miller one morning in '64 at Slade's Hot Springs (now Esalen).
"Haven't been down the coast road in years....so thanks for
stirring the memory pot!"
Cheers, Hank
Marty Morgan on fri 2 aug 02
Hank, thanks for the great memory post. I lived in Carmel in the late
sixties and have fond memories of visits to Nepenthe. I worked at a coop in
Monterey, called Peninsula Potters, which still exists, although in a
different location ( the original was right near Cannery Row - before it
became a tourist destination). Being in the coop gave me a chance to learn
how to fire gas kilns, to work around the clock for a low monthly
membership fee and to begin to sell my work in the coop gallery. We did
things like sharing a booth at the Monterey Jazz Festival, holding group
shows at someone's home out in Carmel Valley, raku firings on the beach,
and always long wonderful lunches with vino rosso. I haven't lived in CA
since '72, but the friends I made there are still "family".
Funny, going to Tuscany with Marcia Selsor this year and being in that
rolling landscape, enjoying great company and great food and wine brought
all my lust for California back.
So why am I living in strait-laced workaholic New England?
Marty Morgan
Gloucester,MA
Eleanora Eden on sun 10 nov 02
Well I finally got around to this thread......I just leave 'em in my inbox
for a rainy day....and want to mention my favorite spots besides Nepenthe
(I have a wonderful Berkeley friend, Janet Smith, who has a poster on her
wall of Nepenthe when she played there on the program with Joan Baez).
Just across the road and down a wee bit is an amazing gallery I know I've
mentioned it here before, a family operation where one sibling is a potter,
one a sculptor, several jewelers represented, in this redwood and glass
fantasy of a building.......the upstairs loft has a glass floor.......ocean
view.......
Another is I think the Henry Miller memorial bookstore afew miles north or
south of there with a wonderful sculpture garden.
As for long ago chance sitings, when I was a teenager my now husband was a
student at a tiny alternative college in Pacific Grove......anyway I
remember being there one evening and there was a couple who were working on
farm labor organizing and didn't wear clothes at home (certainly that got
my attention) and this old guy just kind of sitting in a stupor under the
stairs and I asked about him and Fred said that was John Steinbeck he came
and sat around alot.
Another memory that comes back is sneaking into the hot springs at Esalen
in the wee morning hours.
Pry myself off memory lane and back to throwing bowls in rainy dark Vermont.
Eleanora
At 03:16 AM 8/2/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Hank, thanks for the great memory post. I lived in Carmel in the late
>sixties and have fond memories of visits to Nepenthe. I worked at a coop in
>Monterey, called Peninsula Potters, which still exists, although in a
>different location ( the original was right near Cannery Row - before it
>became a tourist destination). Being in the coop gave me a chance to learn
>how to fire gas kilns, to work around the clock for a low monthly
>membership fee and to begin to sell my work in the coop gallery. We did
>things like sharing a booth at the Monterey Jazz Festival, holding group
>shows at someone's home out in Carmel Valley, raku firings on the beach,
>and always long wonderful lunches with vino rosso. I haven't lived in CA
>since '72, but the friends I made there are still "family".
>Funny, going to Tuscany with Marcia Selsor this year and being in that
>rolling landscape, enjoying great company and great food and wine brought
>all my lust for California back.
>So why am I living in strait-laced workaholic New England?
>Marty Morgan
>Gloucester,MA
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>melpots@pclink.com.
Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
Paradise Hill Road eeden@vermontel.net
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
| |
|
