Five days of meet and greet and talking about ceramics, inspirations and business. My work will soon be available in some interesting shops all over the country as well as Kuala Lumpur--which is exciting. I was heartened by the fact that folks appreciated the handmade and what goes into producing this kind of work locally as opposed to the ubiquitous imports that flood so many of the shops out there today. Several people commented on how few truly handmade ceramics they are seeing which led to lots of lively discussion and debate as to why younger designers are more often motivated to go into jewelry design, than getting their hands in the clay. "It is hard"-many said. Yes, there are lots of steps and fragile stages on the way to producing a clay piece. "They are hard to transport"-- yes, my hands still ache from packing and shipping and carrying boxes of fragile weight all over the east coast. "There's a lot of 'made in china' work that is soooo cheap"--yep, and I've discussed it here before, lots of lovely mass produced work out there, but does everyone want to have the same, imported thing made for mass consumption untouched by hands??
But overall, people were thrilled to see that there were still studio ceramicists out there--toiling away and coming up with new innovations and designs to capture the imagination and carrying on a long heralded tradition. I am proud to be a part of that group.
Apart from the show-time to catch up with family, take in the familiar urban landscape of NYC that I traded long ago for the expansive west, and banked a few good images to carry around for my return to working in the studio in September....
urban sidewalk fruit/veggie stands everywhere..
all night long..
My son eagle eyed this on the sidewalk during an evening stroll---mini candy chalk body outline--- a gummy crime perhaps?
