I was at a craft store not too long ago wondering around in the aisles and stumbled on a metal mermaid tail. I'm fairly certain the intent was that you mount it on your wall as decoration, but what I saw was texture! It fit on this tray perfectly. Now I have to figure out how I want to glaze it. Do I do all one color or try to separate the mermaid tail from the background?

This weekend I was looking at my teapot and decided it needed some tea cups. After I made the tea cups, I decided they needed saucers. I used a smaller template than I usually do for the cups - they're basically just small mugs. The saucers are just press plates with the 5 inc GR Pottery Form.


Now that I had the tea cups, I was missing the creamer and sugar bowl so I just had to make those. I went back to basically mug size, but made them a little wider. I made the sugar bowl lid the same way I did the teapot lid.




Then the sugar bowl needed a spoon so I shaped one. I'm pretty happy with my little tea set. Now I just have to get over wanting to keep it - I do not need a tea set, I do not need another tea set.

I was just invited to the Cloisters Sprint Tea and Bazaar April 29 and 30th. I have long wondered if one of the things that all potters have to do is make a teapot. There is a teapot in at least every 1 out of 2 issues of Pottery Making Illustrated. I decided that having been accepted into an event at a tea meant it was my time to make a teapot (or two).


For this one I used my new MKM roller of trees. I made the feet and the top with a leaf sprig I made a while ago. I'm really pleased with how it came out and I do think that making a teapot is a right of passage. It involves a lot of skills. Some of the skills are the same as making a large bowl, but then making the lid requires some new skills.




The second teapot is also made with a new MKM roller. The spout of a teapot is also a new skill. You have to make the tip high enough so that the water doesn't spill out when you don't want it to. Both of these have a rather simple spout that I could definitely refine over time, but they work!




The handle on a teapot is slightly different than a mug or a pitcher. First the body is shorter and wider, but then also I think the handle has to balance out the spout. I'm really happy with my first two tries, but I can only get better.




I had another slab of clay and I've been meaning to make a pitcher for a while so instead of a third teapot I made a large pitcher. On this I used my new stamps from DeLa Designs.




Flowers, dragonflies, and flowers for spring.

I didn't really know what to expect from NCECA having never been there before. It was an amazing experience and I'm glad I went, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I would go back.

The swag from the resource hall was awesome. I have a whole lot of glazes and clays to try. I actually really hope I don't fall in love with some of the clay becase it would be very expensive to ship.

As someone who has a professional life outside of clay it was interesting walking around the resource hall with all the schools offering masters programs and residencies. I may have some fantasies about working in clay full time, but I don't see it in my near term future. This I think is actually why I'm on the fence on whether I would go again - the conference is definitely geared towards students and educators. It shouldn't be surprising - it's literally in the name. National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

This particular conference definitely had stuff for the hobby potter, but it wasn't geared towards the hobby potter. There were a lot of sessions about how to better be inclusive in the classroom - things which just don't apply to me. I was specifically interested in sessions about making. I wanted to learn a lot of new techniques and see how to apply them. There were a few sessions catering to that, but not nearly as many as I would like.

Shayla Marsh gave an excellent presentation on Digital Tools and the Ceramic Surface: Craft Cutters in the studio. I didn't learn a whole lot in this one, but hearing it gave me the confidence that I do actually know what I'm doing with my Cricut and just need to keep exploring more.

YoonJee Kwak demonstrated a hand built perforated vessel that gave me a ton of ideas.

Naomi Clement did an excellent handle pulling demo. I'm definitely going to be looking into her work more.

Sam Chumley did a cool demo on Underglaze Prints and Variations. There was also an excellent awkward moment with half a hot dog print that I will never forget. This actually reminds me of my one big beef with the conference. The people who were in charge of the cameras were not pottery people. They kept trying to focus on the speakers face when all we ever wanted to see was what they were doing with their hands. If I could provide one piece of advice it would be to have someone who actually understands what people want to see in charge of the cameras.

The last session we saw was with Christina Orthwein who demonstrated her Carved Slab Vessels. They were absolutely gorgeous and one of the few sessions I actually took a picture in.

One of my favorite parts of NCECA was all the little galleries that they had. This was the most impressive of the galleries because it was all work by kids up through 12th grade. I didn't do the best job of getting the tags with their names in all the pictures, but the work was just so impressive.

I had the best of intentions last week that I was going to blog while I was at NCECA, but it was such a whirlwind that I barely managed to take enough pictures. We did have a Clayshare dinner and took a group picture. It was a lot of fun getting to meet everyone.




The resource hall was overwhelming on the first day. The crowd was insane because there weren't any workshops going on yet. We wondered on the second floor and managed to capture this birdseye view. This doesn't even capture it all, there was a whole section of universities and other schools off to the left that you couldn't see from above.




Amaco has 6 new fluxes coming out that are all similar to Honey Flux, but are different colors.




Mayco has a dozen new glazes that are about to come out. I was able to get the sample pack from the Dick Blick booth in addition to the sample of Nimbus that Mayco was giving away.




Mayco also has a few new underglazes coming out.




And also a few new Stroke and Coats.