Bad news first: My camera gave up the ghost...breathed its last...went to camera heaven...basically it died. It was on the fritz for awhile...I knew it was going to happen. Still, I am very sad about this.
Good news: I'm home for Spring Break! And my brother is going to graciously allow me (I'm 99% sure) to borrow his camera for the rest of the semester. Isn't he the bee's knees? :)
I just got home today. I'm completely exhausted! I stayed at school until today because NCECA is in Philly this year and it starts Tuesday, but I'm not going. Our school held a pre-conference and ceramic artists Sarah Jaeger, Steve Godfrey, Tom Bartel and Von Venhuizen came to do demos and lectures for us before they went to NCECA tomorrow. It was really cool to meet them. One of the fun things about going to events like this is that you meet people who enjoy the same things you do and you can get a lot of information and ideas from these people. Another cool thing is that these guys aren't "hoity-toity" just because they're well-known ceramists. They're really friendly, casual people. A lot of them are professors at universities just like my professors. They're approachable, funny, and happy and willing to answer any questions you may have. They also occasionally mess up their work or encounter problems that they have to solve while working and that is encouraging to see professional potters still have to deal with problems that I deal with. Clay seems to have a mind of its own. It's good to know that the experts still are learning new things about it each time they handle it. In fact, Von and Tom had this conversation while they were working about a talk Von had with a student who was afraid to mess up something they were working on. He told them that you learn best from mistakes. You learn a whole lot more about what you can or cannot do with clay when you mess something up than you do when you get something to work. Sarah Jaeger also said that it's the whole idea that you learn something new about clay every day that keeps her coming back to work with it. She said if she knew everything about it and there was no challenge she would lose interest. Hearing these artists say that was so encouraging because I am such a perfectionist sometimes with my work and even though I'm not afraid to ruin a mug or a bowl while trying something new, I get frustrated when I feel like I'm not catching on fast enough.
So since my camera died I didn't get to take pictures the whole time I was there. My friend came with me this afternoon though and allowed me to use her camera to take pictures so once I get copies of those I'll upload them to this post! For now I have a couple of homework assignments to work on and aside from those I intend to thoroughly enjoy my time off school/work and have fun with my family and friends. A very special person is turning a year old on April Fools Day! That's right! My niece is almost a year old. I just can't believe how quickly this year went by. My baby is growing so fast! I am going to try to make her a little present...not sure what yet though. But that will give me something to work on before Thursday!
I'll try to update some stuff later. For now though I'm going to bed. A tea party with my sisters and friends is on the agenda for tomorrow...it's SO good to be home! :)
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