Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Clay Conference Part IV A Tour

Here are the last of my photos from Arrowmont. This is the main building where the gallery, store, library, offices, and some of the studios are located.I love the Arrowmont campus. It is warm and welcoming, the studios are well equipped and the property is lovely.
I ran into my friend Julie Wiggins first night there. Julie and I taught summer camp together in Charlotte and I still use some of the things I learned from her. Julie is an amazing teacher.We first met at Clayworks studio. I also ran into bloggers Vicki Gill and Jen Mecca while there. It was so nice to put faces with blogger names.
The Charlotte group at Kari Radasch's demo
This is the dining hall. The food at Arrowmont is sooooo good. They have a traditional southern cook and a more holistic organic cook and the combination is magic. It was hard to come home and have to cook for myself after having someone feed me such wonderful meals three times a day for four days. I can still taste the chocolate cake!
One of the dormitories where the students stay
And my favorite of all, the Library. I could just go up to Arrowmont and spend the whole week reading. What a collection they have.
And finally, this is where I slept while there. It was cheaper and I really love my van.
So anyway, I went to the conference hoping to come home energized and full of ideas and I was not disappointed. Yesterday, I threw 25 tea bowls in two hours in the morning and another 25 in the afternoon, a record for me and today I cleaned out my studio of debris, old molds, old pottery and old clay. I am ready for a productive fall! I feel like I cleaned out a lot of baggage in my head while I was there and really figured out where I want to go with my work. Thanks to all of the presenters for being there and inspiring us with your work. It was so amazing to see how much effort everyone put into their demonstrations. I know what it takes to prepare for a class and these guys went over and beyond all expectations. Thanks a bunch for that!

5 comments:

Ron said...

Good images Tracey. Nice to see my Charlotte pals there. Julie took good notes and shared them with me.

brandon phillips said...

sounds like a good time. lets see them teabowls!

Tracey Broome said...

Julie needs to blog those notes!
Brandon, let me get the teabowls trimmed and I'll get a post up. They are VERY loosely thrown, one to two pulls at best and the wheel was barely turning. I want the look of a kick wheel but I have an electric wheel so I'm trying to make it work.
It was mostly an exercise just to get back in some kind of groove, but I like the way it felt to not pay too much attention to perfection and just throw. Some of them will be keepers, some not.

brandon phillips said...

i throw on my electric wheel real slow. i used to have a little piece of wood wedged in the pedal so i wouldn't go so fast. but i've found i prefer the high speed for centering and then i slow it down to a crawl for the throwing and trimming, the lines on my pots are so much better this way.

it took me a long time to not subconsciously go fast, hence the piece of wood. my wheel makes this annoying whine when its going fast(like most wheels) and so i'd have to have my radio louder to hear it. so i turned the radio up just loud enough and then had to throw slow enough to hear the radio, thats how i taught myself to keep it slow.

Tracey Broome said...

I like the wedge of wood idea. My pedal is really stiff so I can keep it slow if I take my foot off. I too center fast then slow down. I would really love a treadle wheel but my rock climbing knees can't take it!