Marilyn Barbe on wed 21 mar 07
Finally, I made it to NCECA, now I wish I had gone to more of them!
Five of us drove from Ailsa Craig Ontario to Louisville, not a bad drive - ten
hours. We're all members of the London Potters Guild. We stayed at the
Ramada which wasn't bad plus it was across the street from the old water
works so we were able to enjoy the magnificent table setting show. It was
impossible to chose a favourite.
Being my first NCECA and not able to read all the Clayart postings I did not
realize that the Clayart room was at the Galt, silly me, I thought it would be at
the International Centre. So I missed all the neat clayart happenings. There
is always a next time.
I now have posters and postcards galore to share, a few new tools, some t-
shirts, books and aprons, plus a few pounds to shed! The food was quite
inexpensive, magnificent and plentiful....such huge portions, we're not
accustomed to that. Oh and the beer is very good too, and the bourbon, so
smooooooooooth. Speaking of tools, I bought that homemade facetting tool
from one of the galleries. It is fantastic...highly recommend.
We enjoyed the national show, wowee such awesome work; the show at
glassworks, those toy cars were amazing, the plate show (nice to see some
of Russell Fouts work), the fantastic Chinese pottery at Louisville stoneware.
We were too late to see the bourbon bottles, but the chinese collection was
worth the trip; then there was the two huge displays at the former meat
packing plant (can't remember it's real name, should have taken notes I
know).
We took the trolley rides, had breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe, saw all the
horses, enjoyed the coffee at Java's, saw robins and daffodiles too.
Louisville is a great place for a vacation!
While some of us watched the demos, others went to the seminars. I really
enjoyed all the talks that I went to from Marcia's Morroccan tiles to Clay
Centres, to Walter Ostrom. The sound system was not very good for the first
two days, so I missed about half of what people were saying, that was
unfortunate. I made some cups for the sale. When I threw them I knew they
were for the sale, when I glazed them they were specially glazed for the sale,
when I fired them, they were in the special spot in the kiln. I packed them
carefully, but not carefully enough. When I opened the hatch of the van they
fell out and smashed. So they are now in the garbage in the rest stop in
Ohio if anyone wants to see them. The cups on display were lovely, how sad
that I could not help out. Oh what did I enjoy the most? The K-12 exhibit.
What a treat to see up and coming potters/clayartists/ceramisists whatever
we call ourselves these days. I spent a loooooooong time in that room.
There is a lot more that we did and saw, but I have a kiln that needs loading
and this is long enough!
sorry I missed the Clayart room, I'll try to pay more attention next time,
Marilyn in spring- like Ailsa Craig
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