Well I will tell you that I never thought I would be attending ANY conference virtually let alone a ceramics conference!
So, my long term plan is to start with a mobile PYOP studio and eventually have a brick and mortar location at some point. To that end, I have joined a ceramics association to be able to meet and learn about the ceramics/clay business. Most of my interaction so far has been through the chat on Facebook, which I can tell you, is an amazing wealth of knowledge from business owners who have been in this world for a while.
I decided this year I would attend the annual conference, even though I am one person studio from my home. I thought it would be a great way to learn new techniques and interact with others doing what I want to do. Conveniently, this conference was scheduled to be in St. Charles Missouri... 15 minutes from my home.... then Covid... conference was cancelled for St. Charles and planned as a virtual conference... What??
Not knowing what to expect, I went ahead and registered for the conference, hey, I would save travel money right? Well not really since it was so close but oh well.
After 6 months of doing almost everything virtual, it wasn't too hard to figure out the virtual logistics of the program. I was able to participate in a couple of the hands on classes and the rest were recorded so I could access them later. I have since gone back and taken some of the classes and created some really fun pieces while learning some really great skills.
I decided to share this experience and I will be doing a blog post for each of these projects to highlight some of the fun techniques I picked up.
These are fired pieces, my website features only acrylic Take n Make decorative pieces but I am looking to branch out and do some mobile studio stuff or Take n Make fired kits with video instruction.
