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nceca photos, nottingham, and mudslingers pottery

updated wed 19 mar 03

 

terry sullivan on tue 18 mar 03


Well, another great NCECA. Old friends met, and new friends made.

Lauren Ballero of Mudslingers pottery posted lots of neat pictures from
the conference and the Nottingham Arts party saturday night. The photos
# 62-75 were taken at Nottingham Arts. We had to cancell the pit fire
part of the party as it was raining cats and dogs by mid afternoon.
Nonetheless; we got the main studio and adjoing covered patios set up
for the bbq and all, and improvised a low fire aluminum foil wrap sagger
firing led by Mark Lancet of Solano College. BBQ Bill, Marries husband,
took over the cooking, Malcolm Davis kept everyone entertained, and we
all had a blast while the storm raged outside.

Next morning the weather had abated and we opened the third firing of
carbon trap shinos from Malcoms workshop folks. Good stuff !! Out back
the newly dug giant pit ( 36 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, and 5 ft. deep) was
completely full of muddy water. Nottingham Pond. Some of the newly
arrived Mallard ducks were circling it as a possible landing site.

I have heard that some who had signed up for the party were told it was
off because of the intence weather and did not attend.
If any of you folks heard that rumor, and did not attend, I am sorry
about that. I truely don't know how that rumor got started as I and my
staff met early saturday morning to decide what to do with the impending
storm. We all left early to get the place ready for a rainy party. By
mid day we had the main studio and adjoing covered patios ready. Plenty
of space heaters, and studio fire place to provide lots of warm comfy
space for all. We did send our rented 15 passenger van to the conference
site to provide transportation to Nottingham and the local hotels and
transported folks form San Marcos to the airport sunday morning.

The conference was fantastic. The problem with the bus tours was not of
Richard Burkett/ NCECA's fault. Most of the drivers were from Los
Angeles area and did not know San Diego. Many of the drivers did not
speak or read english. The bus company had not arranged for appropriate
breaks for the drivers and they took all their accumulated break time at
the end of the day resulting in buses stopping at 3 p.m. instead of 4
pm. leaving tour folks stranded. Richard had one hell of a situation to
handle with that.

Points that stand out for me: the Randall session band which was
fantastic, the architectural influence on ones ceramics seminar with Pat
Crabb, Cara Moczygemba , and others, and the seminar on Surviving in the
Studio where Malcolm Davis recieved a standing ovation. At the end of
it all was my meeting with Steven Mills from Bath England on sunday.
What a wonderful person.

love, terr
Nottingham Arts
San Marcos, CA
www.nottinghamarts.org