I made a promise to myself many years ago that I would make a commitment to continually further my ceramic education. This is done in a couple of ways: attending workshops, reading all clay focused books, magazine (& blogs!) I can get my hands on, and go to NCECA every year. I do pretty well with this commitment and have managed to get to all but one conference in recent memory.

NCECA is usually held in a smaller city: Pittsburgh, Louisville, Portland, Baltimore, Indianapolis, etc… I often wonder what the host cities think about “us.” I don’t know how many people attended this year, but I know that in the past attendance has hit about 6000. In the immediate area of the conference it can feel like every square foot of space is filled with potters and sculptors (and knick-knack makers!). I wanted to share a couple more images from my trip (again, this is just a tiny snippet of the week!).

This is the exhibition hall where vendors, schools, publishers, etc… have booths set up. It felt a little smaller this year than in the past (the whole conference felt that way). But that in no way means that there wasn’t enough to see, hear & buy! I got some fun new tools that I’ll share with you in the near future. 

Most of the images that I am sharing with you were from the La Mesa tableware show from Santa Fe Clay. It’s always one of my favorite shows, and one that I usually go to see 3 or 4 times. There were 150 place settings from different ceramic artists this year. Amazing!
This group of images is more black and white (the last NCECA post was more colorful). It was a different day and I was drawn to different pieces.

Julie Johnson. The gestures of the lines are irresistible.

Molly Hatch I’ve been eying Molly’s work for a while. I love how she outline the shapes with a sketchy line.

Michael Kline I’m a big fan: I eat my steel cut oats out of one of Michael’s bowls every morning and I’m a faithful reader of his blog. I love these pieces with the white slip and wax resist lines.

I wanted to share a handful of images of pieces that I’ve seen at shows this week. This is just a little itty bitty taste of what I’ve seen. Enjoy! (click on the images to see a bigger image.)

Beth Lo. I find this piece incredibly endearing.

Justin Rothshank. This has a dinosaur on it! Fossil fuel… get it?

Naomi Cleary. I just love how the drawings are on the inside of this cup.

Diana Fayt. I love Diana’s work and this is the first time I have gotten to see her work in person. It’s even more impressive in person.

Ursula Hargens. Her works makes me crave spring even more than I already am! 

Simon Levin. I am such a fan of Simon’s work. I don’t know anyone else that gets surfaces like his out of a wood kiln (or any other kiln for that matter!).