|
|
|
Jeanne Brooks The first vehicle pulls up at 6:15 a.m. Michel Bayne's kiln sale won't start for another four hours, at 10 a.m. this Saturday morning. But ticket numbers will be handed out on a first come, first served basis. Each ticket entitles its possessor to purchase one piece of pottery. Collectors Garnella Tinker and Sonney Howell left Rock Hill for Greenville around 3:45 a.m. This assured them tickets 1 and 2. They get the first and second selections of the day. They are happy. Tickets 3, 4 and 5 have already been handed out by the time Janice and Joseph Vickers arrive Forest City, N.C. at not yet 7 a.m. They too collect pottery. They already own five pieces by Bayne. From his studio off Layton Drive, which is off Keeler Mill Road, Bayne sells to collectors as far away as California and Connecticut. A doctor in Alaska is a good customer. The potter also goes to quality shows and sells through his Web site. Today is special. The 70 pieces ticket holders will select from are the first products of the potter's new wood-fired kiln. Bayne built it himself. It took him two years. These pottery pieces were in the kiln for about 16 hours, during which the temperature reached about 2,400 degrees. The hour advances. Anticipation rises. One more time, ticket holders study possible purchases on display. Terri Johnson of Mount Holly, N.C., explains, "You go through and say, 'If this isn't here (when your turn comes), get this (other one).' " It's time. Bayne calls for tickey No. 1. Howell steps forward lively. Everyone watches. Will he pick the one they were eyeing? Noted collectors Sam Phillips, of Simpsonville, and Jimmy Yates, of Laurens, have traded numbers. Phillips is now No. 8. When Phillips, at his turn, emerges holding a large pot, Jill Koverman, curator of collections at the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum, says, "That was the piece I wanted (for the museum). The ash glaze on it is phenomenal." Now she hopes her second choice doesn't go before No. 32, her ticket, is called. Koverman says Bayne's work is prized for how he reinterprets the historic Endgefield pottery tradition and also because "the portraits he paints on his jugs are beautiful beyond compare." Donnie Garrett, a collector from Lexington, gets his first choice, a rooster. He has "an excellent eye," Koverman murmurs. Garrett says Bayne "is going to be regarded as one of the top turners in the South." When all the numbers have been called, the remaining items are open for sale to everyone. People spread among the tables with alacrity. Tinker and Howell end the morning jubilant. They'd held tickets 1 and 2. Also, they'd commissioned a piece from Bayne to mark their marriage in two weeks. Today, the potter handed it to them as his wedding present. They won another large pot in the day's drawing. If everyone leaves happy, they leave particularly happy. |
|
