Trax Ceramics Gallery

I first have to say that I have only dealt with TRAX as a customer purchasing pottery from TRAX on-​line. I have however purchased thousands of dollars in pottery from TRAX, and talked to the gallery personnel regularly. I really like their selection of potters and pottery, and I think the prices are reasonable. Because most potters represented by TRAX are well known, their pottery tends to be rather expensive, but priced fairly. In my on-​line dealings I’ve always dealt with Sandy Simon who I believe is the owner or co-​owner, and an accomplished potter herself. For quite a while TRAX was selling great pottery to me, mostly the works of the renowned Warren MacKenzie. Along the way I returned a few pots, and paid return postage. During a special exhibition, I liked quite a bit of the work by Mark Pharis, along with MacKenzie. I was equivocating about which and how many pieces of Pharis pottery to purchase, and Sandy encouraged me to order more as opposed to less, saying that «you can always return it.» So that’s what i did. I also bought a couple larger expensive MacKenzie items. I ended up returning quite a bit of the Pharis pottery, and one MacKenzie piece that had what I considered a flaw. The other MacKenzie piece was a resale item and not stamped with his potters mark which affects resale value. Sandy had not informed me that the pot was a resale or that it was not stamped. I decided to keep anyway since I liked it and price was right. The other MacKenzie piece I returned, however what I considered a flaw in this piece Sandy considered just a natural imperfection. Because I was also returning much of the Pharis work, I offered to pay a restocking fee on the one MacKenzie piece I felt was flawed. Sandy was very irritated over the returns, even though she encouraged me to order the Pharis pottery and return if I didn’t want to keep it all. She ended up applying the restocking fee (10 to 20% of cost) not only to the one disputed MacKenzie piece, but also to the several Pharis pieces I returned. When I complained about the restocking fee, since she had told me to «just return it…» when she was trying to sell the Pharis pots, and also told her I was upset that the MacKenzie piece was unmarked and she did not disclose this, Sandy became very angry with me. In fact she was so mad she banned me from ever buying anything else from TRAX. I found that she is very thin-​skinned when you voice a complaint, and gets genuinely angry and vindictive. The lifetime ban was a huge over-​reaction in my opinion. So just be warned that while Sandy can be very pleasant when in the sales mode, she easily angers and is apt to be punitive over returns or when conflict arises over quality of merchandise, or certain money matters.

An excellent gallery with beautiful ceramics by well known artists. The owner, Sandy, is very knowledgeable and will help you as much as you want. A real asset in the local art world.

Sandy owns & runs this wonderful gallery. You can always find a gem. I have been a customer for years and encourage you to check it out.

This ceramics gallery profiles the nicest ceramic work I’ve seen. Matt Metz’s work was on display when I was in and it was beautiful.
Bob was working and we a great chat about a broad array of art sculpture and woodworking. He has been in the sculpture and craft world and knows his stuff!
I look forward to stopping in regularly to see what beautiful work he has on display.