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Matt Wassenaar | Episode 1115
Matt Wassenaar makes pottery all year long and sells it for 7 weekends at his booth in the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. After meeting Warren MacKenzie decades ago Matt took to heart his philosophy – make pottery for function and affordability. In 2001 Matt and his wife bought a booth at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and started selling their work. Selling at the festival has turned into sales of 2,100 pots in 7 weekends.
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What kind of people are coming to a Renaissance fair? Are they dressing up or is it just regular folk attending?
I think they are people who are looking for magic in their lives. They need magic in their lives. They need something special and we try to be different. We try to be kind and generous and hopefully they find something in our shop that they like.
I know your work is not era specific but is there a bit of mystical type of approach to your work?
That’s a good question. I try to surprise myself. It’s hard to do after forty years of pottery. I succeed occasionally. Then I get really excited.
What is the pace like at the booth? Are there lots of people coming through the fair?
Yes, there are. We are towards the back which means the gate opens and we have a half an hour before we get a really big rush. The five weekends Labor Day and after it’s frantic, I guess is the best way to describe it.
Do you ever do demonstrations? Is there someone sitting at a potter’s wheel making?
Not at our booth. There is elsewhere in the festival. The size of the booth that I got really doesn’t accommodate that. It’s one of those things when I retire from the post office that I would like to dabble in. It would come down to if we could buy a neighboring space.
How many pots do you have to have ready to go on opening weekend?
Well we sell about twenty-one hundred pieces of pottery during the seven weeks. I try to have at least two thirds of that made in advance. So about fourteen to fifteen hundred pieces of pottery of various stripes and various sizes.
Book
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Contact
Instagram: @blackdogpottermn