Crazy Couple of Weeks

I have been to three ceramic conferences in the last couple of weeks, and the auction house I work for has a HUGE Americana sale this Saturday. It's been a wild ride. Let's just start with the crazy floral arrangement in the above photo. I had the chance to see this at the Wadsworth Atheneum this past weekend during the American Ceramic Circle Symposium. That floral arrangement? IT'S CERAMIC!

All of those petals are CERAMIC!

The basket that it sits in was made in Meissen, Germany in the 1740s, and the basket was then filled with CERAMIC flowers made in Vincennes, France around 1750, and mounted on the gilt base. Isn't that wild?!

The first conference I attended was the Transferware Collectors Club, which was held in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Montpelier and Monticello hosted the group, and it was great to take tours again of the buildings, but then have the chance to see the archaeological collections and watch very knowledgeable individuals help identify the patterns being excavated on the sherds at the two sites. Richard Halliday gave a great presentation on the entire process of copper plate engraving, which was absolutely fascinating.

Then it was off to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts for their southern ceramics symposium and a good lineup of speakers and tours.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend (other than the opportunity to speak) was the chance to do pottery demonstrations with Joseph Sand who talked about alkaline glazing and making large pots and Hal and Eleanor Pugh who talked about lead-glazed red earthenware.

Daniel Ackermann, Curator of Collections at MESDA

Angelika Kuettner, Associate Curator of Ceramics and Glass at Colonial Williamsburg

I had a good time getting two curators at my wheel and going through the throwing basics with them, too!

Salt-glazed stoneware urn made at the Lambeth Pottery in England

 This past weekend at the American Ceramic Circle symposium I enjoyed getting to see colleagues from all over, listen to good lectures, and see the great collections at the Wadsworth. There was also this incredible exchange between two contemporary potters, but I will have to save that for another post.

My little (big) man on the left!

Somewhere along the lines, Halloween happened, and I took my little man out to see other kids' costumes, and he picked up on the idea of ringing the doorbell and taking a piece of candy, and also saying "thank you". Shall I crash next week? No, we have another auction in a few weeks!