Off to North Carolina

It's always hard to sum up a weekend into one word.  People always ask "How was your weekend?" and I always say something that is easy like "good," "okay," or "fine." I'm not implying that my weekend was "bad" or "good," but I may need to think about how this past weekend was for a moment to come up with an accurate term.

Since the "Nellie Allen Smith Juried Pottery Competition" (which will be known from now on as NASC) was in Fayetteville, NC, and I have extended family there, I decided to grab my mom and sister and take a road trip.  Let me interject this here, and I won't really rant or describe why this is, but my family is crazy.  If you combine my immediate family with my extended family, the madness is slightly overwhelming.  With that said, I went to NC to see the show and to see family that I haven't visited in almost 5 years.  For some reason, I also had the anticipation of winning a prize at the NASC.  What really built the excitement was before I left, I checked the Cape Fear website to see if there were any new announcements about the show, and saw that they used the image of my teapot for the NASC.  I interpreted that as someone thinks your teapot is great and you are going to win something!!!  But I didn't.  It was a disappointment, but (here is where the family comes into play) when there is so much craziness around you, it provides enough of distraction for a few days, that you really don't remember the feeling of disappointment after everything settles down.

The show looked really great, and the functional pieces that won awards were truly deserving of them.  There were works from all over the US in the NASC.  I had some qualms about how my dinnerware set was displayed, but I'm sure that happens to everyone.  I was snapping some images of everything when I was instructed that I couldn't, so I only got images of my works to show off.  Another thing, the Cape Fear Gallery is in a really good location in downtown Fayetteville, but there was no one there at 12pm on a Saturday.  I guess it is one of those downtown areas that doesn't see much action.  It was really a foreign concept, considering downtown Savannah is ALWAYS bustling.

So to sum up, I didn't win a prize, but the show looked great.  When you have a crazy family that gets into Facebook photo wars and introduces you to interesting Indian food, there isn't much time for contemplating disappointment.  Also, I was reminded of how good my Aunt's chicken and dumplins are and they pretty much put us all in a sleepy state of comfort.

In essence, I think that this weekend was very "reminding." I was reminded not to count my chickens before they hatch.  I was reminded that not all crazy is bad. I was also reminded that I still have a lot more exploring to do on my body of work. 

It's hard being busy...

Whirlwind of a week!  In order to update everything, I figure breaking this down on a day-to-day basis would be best.

Sunday: I've started doing "Open Studio" on Sundays from 12-4pm at Savannah's Clay Spot for Lisa Bradley.  It was really great meeting new people and I also started working with cone 6 Helios porcelain from Highwater Clay. It was interesting to throw because I only worked with a porcelanious body briefly in undergrad.  Since then it was stoneware or low-fire.  I mixed a batch of cone 6 porcelain casting slip as well to test the durability of the clay in modern appliances.  My goal is to have a casting slip that is highly functional and doesn't crack for any apparent reason.  My only concern with this new body is the shrinkage.  I would like to continue to make mason jars, but I don't know how it would effect the size of the jar.  To be honest having a tiny mason jar might be the bee's knees. :)

Monday-Wednesday afternoon: Monday morning started off at a relaxed pace; however, I quickly remembered that I had two different sets of work due to be submitted at galleries by Friday.  One was going to Minnesota.  Interjection about this piece.  A few weeks ago, I visited my gallery in town only to discover I had sold a few pieces.  One was a yellow teapot.  I came home to find a notification from the "It's Only Clay" juried show in Bemidji, MN, as well.  I fully anticipated none of my pieces being accepted, but, yes, that damn little yellow teapot was the only one accepted.  (Have a learned my lesson about submitting pieces I don't have in stock?  We'll see, we'll see.)  So, in a frenzy, I construct another one and slide it into firings with scheduled student work to be fired.  I couldn't use the test kiln to glaze the little guy cause my boss was doing piggy back firings with it, so I resorted to waiting for the longer firings.  Resume to Monday, my teapot came out looking just like the other.  See here:

There are nuances between the two (the difference in color is only due to the image quality), but I was pretty happy with the result.  I sit down to my fedex.com to calculate shipping time and holy crap, this pot is going to MN!  It's going to take 3 days to get there!  I firmly REFUSE to ship anything that is costlier than ground shipping.  Needless, to say it made it in time, and hopefully all in one piece.

I also had to ship two other sets of work to the "Nellie Allen Smith Juried Pottery Competition" in Fayetteville, NC.  Obviously, I have more time to package these pieces, because it only takes one day to get there.  My only concern here is that I am really nervous about my teapot breaking because it is a tricky construction.

 

(I was sleeping in this morning and got a strange phone call and I was scared it was one of the galleries calling to say that my pieces had broken...it wasn't, but still.)  Since this show is a pottery competition, there are prizes, and I really hope this piece will be a winner of something.  I won't be able to make it to the opening on Friday, October 28, but I will be visiting the gallery that weekend with my family to see the show, so maybe it will be a joyous celebration!

Wednesday afternoon-Thursday night: I have mentioned that Yves is doing a commission for the new SCAD Museum of Art.  Well, this week all of the pieces came out of the bisque and were ready to be glazed.  There were well over a 100 of these varying shapes.  I worked close to 10 hours after work in 2 days.  Have I revealed that I am a gal who needs her 8-10 hrs of sleep?  I had a rough week waking up and getting to work on time.  I thought the project was over Thursday night, but I think that he might need me this weekend for some finishing touches.  I know we are both ready to breathe a sigh of relief with this project.  It has been extremely too stressful. 

Friday morning: Raku time rolls around again and I forgot to refill the propane tanks and scrape/kiln wash the shelves.  I needed to be at work at 7am to get stuff done for the event at 8am.  Hmm, have I revealed that I am a gal who needs her sleep?  Definitely woke up at 7:22am.  Disastrous morning and no details needed, but grounds in the coffee, driving over curbs, and cussing other drivers were involved.  Yesterday, ended up being pretty great, but I really enjoyed the bottle of wine and Fresh Market apple pie/ice cream last night after this week.  I think I might go enjoy another piece now, and of course, go for a run later. ;)