Connie Christensen on tue 13 dec 05
The server for the e-mail account I use for clayart went down the
first part of November. It took over 4 weeks for them to fix their
problems and by that time, Mel or the computers in control bumped me
off - a month of clayart is a lot of messages. The upside of it being
down is I get about 350 less junk e-mails a day. By the way Mel, the
e-mails I've sent to you all returned undelivered.
I'm not much of a presence on clayart, but I did miss reading the
posts. Going through the archives - Tony and the containers for ashes
- I made containers for my brother's and nephew's ashes for family
members. What made it easier for me is knowing they are no longer in
pain and are in a very good place. Although I still have to make one
for myself for my brother's ashes, it has to be really special.
Guilds. Oh my. In the last 2 years I've learned there are all types
of guilds. I live in Arvada and had a studio in Denver. A daily drive
on 2 interstates and rush hour traffic. A guild was forming in Arvada
and it was a chance to have a studio 5 minutes from where I live. For
good or bad, I moved. I love having my studio close and it's in a
better building than my previous studio - and my kiln is indoors.
It's still a new guild and I think still trying to find its way and
also build membership. I've noticed some of the officers spend more
time on guild "stuff" than making "stuff" Maybe they will have to
start delegating some of their responsibilities . Another thing I
noticed was that people have different reasons for being members and
different levels of wanting to be involved. How do you get people
more involved? When I moved in I thought everyone who worked in clay
had the same passion - I'm learning that I don't really know what's
going on in other people's heads.
The biggest downside of moving to the guild is no longer having the
daily interaction with another clayperson who is a good friend - we
would bounce ideas off each other. I would go down to her studio and
say "what do you think of this" and she would come up to my studio
and say "what do you think of this". For me it was very valuable. I
have to find that again. But after saying all that, I love my studio
and the guild is a good place.
The holiday shows are done, now I just have to get 2 dinnerware sets
glazed and fired and shipped before Christmas - and dang, it won't
all fit in one kiln load. Then I can take a day off.
Connie Christensen
Arvada, CO
www.conniechristensen.com
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