NCECA success!

The NCECA crew: Samson (production manager), Mark (owner), 

Vicki (school accounts and store manager) and Gina (web content)

Wow, we had a great time at NCECA - and we'd like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our both in the exhibitor hall.  It was awesome seeing a lot of familiar faces from the Philadelphia area, and it was really cool to meet a lot of our web customers face-to-face for the first time.  Not to mention all of the new people we got a chance to chat with!  At any rate, we're so glad that you're our customers -- we had a lot of interesting chats, learned a lot of cool new things ourselves (we looooove feedback!) and had a lot of laughs, so thanks for being awesome. 

For those who didn't make it out to Wisconsin, though, I figured I'd post some highlights of our trip today. So, spoiler -- Milwaukee is an AWESOME city.  Considering all of the amazing artists scattered around the state, it really was a great location for this year's conference.  

Vicki and Samson are totally cheesy.

There were a ton of amazing installations, but the one I've posted below was probably my favorite -- Nichole Howard set up an amazing Kickstarter project that consisted of water, coffee, a bunch of little tiny terra cotta mugs, and a box in which to smash them upon finishing your beverage.  Cathartic, destructive, and just generally rad.  Don't worry, Nichole's plans include recycling all of the unfired pottery. 

Also, Samson and I agreed that 

this coffee was just really gooooood.  

Samson relieves some rage.

The funny thing about NCECA is how we traveled halfway across the country and wound up spending a lot of time with other Philly folks. Our friends from The Clay Studio put on an amazing exhibition in honor of their 40th anniversary, featuring some breathtaking work by a wide variety of artists, including Ceramic Shop favorite Peter Morgan.  Hey, Peter, if you're reading this -- great duck!  So many pieces in that show were amazing, but I'll leave you with just one image, a detail of Linda Cordell's Lincoln Vignette (2013): 

Vicki and I stood and stared at this porcelain rat for a looonnnngggg time.

Another fairly mind-blowing exhibition was the Archie Bray Foundation's showcase.  Unsurprising that this ceramics mecca put forth an incredible show, but still deserves a mention. The Foundation's Resident Artist Director, Steven Young Lee, is a resident artist there himself, and his current work results in forms that have been intentionally deformed or 'damaged' by the firing process.  How many times have you taken a waster out of a kiln and thought, 'Wow, that unexpected result is actually really cool'?  If you're like me, that happens roughly once a week, which either speaks to my eternal optimism or my terrible technical skills. At any rate, here's his contribution to the Bray show:

Steven Young Lee

So, lots of cool stuff to see -- but we hardly stayed inside of the convention center the whole time.  Milwaukee is an awesome and a big part of NCECA is catching up with far-flung potter friends, sometimes over an adult beverage.  Luckily, Brew City had a ton of amazing options for doing just that.  Microbrews everywhere! The food was really good, too.  We had an awesome dinner at the gastropub Hinterland with our friends from Spectrum Glazes and had a pretty amazing and wild night at the Safe House, which was a great bar and definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in Milwaukee, particularly if you want to check out Mr. Blackjack -- a dead ringer for Christopher Walken.  

$5 buy-in for spoof black jack -- SO fun.  

Here Samson goes ALL IN. He, uh, lost.  

We also made it out to the Milwaukee Art Museum because we wanted to check out the NCECA invitational, Flow. Oh. My. Word.  Not only was this museum one of the coolest spaces I have ever entered, the collection was pretty insane too.  Great spacious galleries perfect for large-scale minimalist works.  Here's the breathtaking entry hall:

As far as the work for NCECA's Flow goes, the always-amazing work of  Beth Cavener Stichter seemed to have been THE most-photographed image of the entire conference.  Every time I see new work of hers, she tops herself all over again. Here's her jaw-dropping work in the museum:

No words.

So that's about all until 2015, when NCECA hits Rhode Island.  We're all pretty much recovered from the whirlwind week, but once again, to all of our customers and everyone who stopped by our booth to check out our products and chat, THANKS! You make this fun stuff even more fun.  'Til next year!

Catalyst Tools come to NCECA!

Wow, the past few weeks have been a blur as we've been preparing for NCECA.  I'm very excited to go to the conference, where I'll be demo-ing Catalyst tools by Princeton Artist Brush Co.. The Ceramic Shop has been carrying their various silicone blades and wedges and plastic contour ribs for about a year now, and our customers have been very happy with the unique patterns and high quality of these products. I'm a convert too, using them for my own work very frequently now. I've done a few posts about NCECA demos I've made using various Catalyst tools, so I figured today I would highlight some specific items that I happen to like, a LOT, and use for a few different things.

So Catalyst tools are made by a company that specializes in artist brushes -- this is why the silicone blades have such nice, ergonomic wooden handles.  I have found they just feel really good to use, and that makes a big difference when you're in the studio and go to reach for a favorite tool. Likewise, the wide variety of blades that Catalyst offers can perform a wide range of tasks.  These two factors -- ergonomics and function -- really come together in the mini-blades, which have become our all-around studio staple here.  

One blade to rule them all.

The awesome blade pictured above is a WORK HORSE.  For anyone who does extensive small-batch glaze testing, this tool just might be your next indispensable item.  Our tech, Rachel, uses this on a daily basis for mixing up 100- and 200-gram test batches.  The small size and angular shape of this particular blade makes the most of your materials, pulling every last bit of glaze out of the corners of your tiny test sieve.  The blade also holds up in the long term; forcing glaze tests through a screen can be rough on soft tools, but these high-grade blades really hold up over time.  There are several different versions of this blade, too, with shapes that can carry out many different tasks.

Another thing that this blade is awesome for is compressing the bottom of smaller, closed-neck forms.  I make a lot of tiny cups, for example; because I have giant hands and can pretty much palm a basketball, my anatomy can, uh, get in the way a bit when throwing.  This blade has solved my problems on this front and you would never know the resulting work was made by someone with digits the size of ballpark franks. 

Next up! The Catalyst wedge.  Like the catalyst blades, these hearty wedges are made from soft, yet tough, silicone.  While the patterned edge of each wedge is tapered, the 'grippy' end of the wedge is really thick -- about 3/4" -- so you can really get a good grip on it when you're throwing on the wheel and your hands are covered in water and slippery clay.  I just really like the pattern on the wedge pictures above, which is the Catalyst Silicone Wedge Rib 2 -- love those sharp angles! Here's a detail shot of the profile the wedge creates:

Standard 259, bisqued to ^06. 

As highlighted in a previous post, these textured wedges, along with the stiffer contour ribs shown below, can also create great patterns in handbuilt slab work -- they're great for making handles, say, that compliment your wheelthrown forms.  If anyone has used these tools and gotten a unique/awesome/fun result, we would love to hear from you! In the meantime, I'll be packing up our tools for the conference, just a short six days away!...

We have Contour Ribs for your every need!