Chic Lotz + keith Montgomery on thu 22 mar 07
Wow, NCECA was quite a ride! It started when I answered a roommate
ad on Clayart. I was lucky enough to room with Marcy and
Linda .....The minute I arrived they wisked me off to the Clayart
show at Janjobe. It was a fantastic display of ClayArt talent! So
fun to match names, faces, and pots. I have to say....this year my
experience of ClayArt was quite different. Last year I went to the
ClayArt room twice and no one talked to me. It seemed that everyone
else knew each other...... But this year it was fabulously
different......so many folks came up and introduced themselves. I do
believe that the table top display of pots contributed to that
experience.......many great discussions about the wonderful pots on
every table. Thanks to whomever came up with that idea! My favorite
was that tiny teapot with the turquoise crawling lizard type glaze
(altho I never found out who made it.) I feel like I've joined an
incredible tribe of fun loving folks who are excited about clay and
willing to lend a helping hand or a trick of the trade. Everyone kept
introducing me to everyone else until I had met most everyone in the
room. Thank you ClayArters!
Although it was hard to get to everything, (and even harder to fit in
time to eat) I managed to see and learn alot. The lectures, the
demos, the shows.......I felt like a kid in a candy store trying to
decide which one to taste. All were fantastic! I managed to get
involved with the Potter's Council and was excited to hear about all
the upcoming workshops and benefits of membership.......began
wondering why I didn't join up sooner! And I was impressed with the
K-12 exhibit. Those kids are doing wonderful work at such a young
age.......I'm jealous! I agree with Mark.....K-12 has a $10,000
matching grant for college scholarships for high school seniors. I
will join your "Outer Circle" of ClayArters who contribute $100 to
the K-12 matching grant.....I found them at www.k12clay.org. Hey
Mark.......should we do it individually or as the "Outer Circle"
group from ClayArt? Let me know! I found out that the 4 main k-12
worker bees (Leah, Bob, Lee, and Kenton) have been doing most of the
work for this exhibit for so many years! And they are wearing down a
bit....... so I offered to form a Volunteer Committee to get them a
support team......This show must go on! So please email me off line
if you can spare an hour or two to volunteer to unpack (on Tuesday)
or repack the show next year in New Orleans. We could have a pizza
and packing party!
I had a wonderful opportunity to present a lecture on "What Makes A
Glaze?" for Beginners in the K-12 Forum.........its easy enough for
High School kids to understand.........I put all of our ingredients
and oxides into a color coded chart so you can see how they all
relate and work together to form a glaze. A small crowd of folks
showed up for it and were excited to FINALLY understand glaze basics
after years of trying! My apologies to the many of you who said they
couldn't find the room where it was happening.........From the
registration table you had to turn around, go out the doors and cross
third street to get to the in the "other half" of the convention
center. It took me a while to find it too!
Location...Location, .....and Signage! I did make a DVD of the
lecture which Alisa, Gregg, Mark, Ken, and Nan got to see on Saturday
night after the hilarious dinner at Saffron with Alisa's twin. I am
grateful for their vote of confidence on this work that I've been
doing for the past 4 years with John Hesselberth as my
mentor.........As a former school teacher, I am bound and determined
to make glaze basics easy enough FOR EVERYONE to understand. I'm
hoping....this is it......Glaze Basics before the math! In fact, I've
been writing glaze chemistry poems that rhyme to make it easier to
for everyone to remember! The first one was on page 52 in the
ClayTimes Jan/Feb 07. More will be coming soon!
A group of us went gallery hopping on Saturday and were disappointed
that many of the exhibits were already coming down by noon.....even
tho they were advertised as being open until 5:00pm. But the NCECA
National was still the hit of the day......enjoyed seeing the ClayArt
group represented by Russel Fouts' two platters and I was also
impressed with the Graduate Students' exhibit over at Mellwood.
ClayArt certainly had a major presence this year at NCECA and will
hopefully continue to do so in the future.
What a great tribe! Thanks for including me.
Chic Lotz chic@PotteryPoet.com
Grass Valley, CA
http://www.PotteryPoet.com
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