Hannah McAndrew at the PMA Craft Show in Philadelphia

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What shows have I done this year? Well there was Earth and Fire in Nottingham, Art in Action in Oxfordshire, Potfest in the Park in Penrith oh and the PMA Craft Show in Philadelphia, USA. Yes I know, it sounds slightly insane. It’s hard enough work doing a show in the UK, selecting and packing pots, travelling, stand display, being on display yourself along with your work for days on end, speaking to lots of people (bearing in mind that I spend most of my days just talking to myself working on my own). So apart from the usual things to worry about, add in pricing in another currency, regional sales taxes, a few thousand miles travel and that’s what I’m just recovering from.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show (PMA) is widely thought of as one of the top three craft events in America. It accepts only American makers but each year has an invited guest country, this year being Scotland. Craft Scotland represents the vast array of craft across Scotland, traditional and innovative, every material, every technique. They put out a call for interest and eventually along with the PMA Committee selected 25 makers to attend this years’ show. Leather workers, potters, glass, textiles, jewellers, and wood workers we were that travelled out together as an unfamiliar group at the beginning of November but who fast became friends and colleagues.

The show is held in a vast conference centre (bigger it felt that the whole of my nearest town), 190 makers from across the US, diverse materials, diverse people, one thing in common; exceptional quality.

Now I am an incredibly lucky girl. I was out in America earlier in the year on an invited tour of demonstrations and I have now a very good friend there, Dan Finnegan who is the founder of Liberty Town Arts Centre in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has been a wonder! He offered to help me with the stand set up side of things and sent his apprentice Jason out to Philadelphia with plinths and hard walls and lighting and a hamper full of treats to keep a Hannah going through a long show. I can’t tell you how much easier that made my life.

The show starts with a private view where people pay anything up to $1000 to attend and it’s complete with bar and wonderful food the whole night through and there were people seriously buying from the very start. This is following by four days of the show being open to the public. I spoke to visitors and makers who had travelled for days, yes literally days to attend the show and there was me thinking Galloway to Bovey Tracey was a long way, puts me to shame!

I had a great show, my work being so particularly British did stand out in many ways alongside the American potters, it was helpful to me that so many of the visitors were already aware of the Pennsylvania-Dutch slipware that was produced in the 18th and 19th C. which was born from the same traditions that I work from but which has evolved slightly differently. I took mainly jugs, plates and my newer tile panels to show, I thought it best to keep it simple and I am very pleased with the response from it. As a group the Craft Scotland team packed quite a punch. We were all together in a block at the centre of the show and with Craft Scotland branding and our male exhibitors in kilts we got a lot of attention. The best thing was that alongside the American makers, some of whose work literally took my breath away, we could hold our own with our work. You can find a list of all the makers involved on the PMA website.

The Craft Scotland exhibitors

I find it incredible that I am suddenly able to travel with my work, at one point I’d never have believed it possible. There are a number of opportunities that I would like to build on that have come up as a result of the show so fingers crossed it might not be too long before I’m heading back out there again. In the mean time thank goodness for the internet so I can keep in touch with my crafting pals across the globe via my blog and Twitter etc, makes the world a very small place indeed.

Congratulations to all the Scottish exhibitors who took part at the PMA and many, many thanks to Hannah for sharing her experiences with us. Hannah has been adding more stunning ceramics to her pages, including tiles, jugs and casserole dishes, and tomorrow she'll be introducing a special Christmas offer on all her work on madebyhandonline.

Grasses Plate image credit: Craft Scotland