I'm getting ready for NCECA...are you?

I'm getting ready to head out to Pittsburgh in a week and a half to attend NCECA. One of my favorite parts of it is the cup sale. I love donating as many mugs as I can fit into my carry on (along with cups from friends who aren't attending). I really love spending time pouring over the hundreds of cups that are just sitting, unpretentiously, on long folding tables. Cups of all shapes & sizes from potters of all skill levels and from many corners of the world. The variety of designs and finishing techniques always amazes me. And unlike a normal gallery setting, you get to pick up almost every single piece if you want to and study them.

A little info on the cup sale from the NCECA website:

• At the Louisville 2007 NCECA Conference, 745 cups (of every design and ceramic material imaginable) were donated to the Annual Cup Sale


• An estimated 2000 viewers – many of them returning several times – visited the Cup Sale exhibition


• Hundreds of eager buyers gathered throughout the morning hours on Friday to purchase their favorites


• Within 3 hours of the Sale's opening, a record $20,483 was raised for the NCECA Fund for Artistic Development!

And if you're not able to make it to NCECA this year, it's not to late to mail in a cup or two for the sale. You can ship your pots so they arrive by March 14th to:

Josh Green

(for NCECA Cup Sale)

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

1815 Metropolitan Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15233

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Is anyone else out there spending part of their mid-March in Pittsburgh? Let me know if you'd like to meet up in person. I'd love to get together with other bloggers and blog readers in person(!) Send me an email if you'd like to figure out a time to meet up for lunch, dinner, coffee or a beer ([email protected]).

And if you're not able to go to NCECA this year, I'm hoping to do some somewhat "live" blogging from the conference. I'll have my laptop, camera and an internet connection at my hotel. Check back to see what's happening!