Ceramics Class Spring 2013

Here's some pictures of my work in ceramics class this spring.

Early on...

Working on the wheel

Death by trimming

Nancy's pieces are some much to be envied 

Glazing and finishing stages

 My finished pieces

 Favorite piece: Teapot set

 Raku piece

Moving into the Apt

Overdue post I know but better now than never...
On the weekend of June 8th Mom and I drove through the night to arrive by morning to my new humble abode. I must say that people on the road are unkind to people with out of state license plates. I was so beyond pissed off when we had reached the 70mph stretch of road in Virginia seeing drivers doing the stupidest things. Can we agree that its not the safest thing to 'play games' on the road especially going at least 70+mph? Its so pointless especially when we're all going to the same place anyway.

We finally reached our destination around 10am and decided to eat breakfast at Grill Works, a nice family joint down the road from campus. Great way to start the day with North Carolina's own blueberry pancakes and sweet tea YUM :)

Above is a pic of the mini van we used to move my crap. Originally not happy about the minivan since we were supposed to have gotten a truck but whatevs...Later on we had a snack at Hursey's BBQ on Church St in Burlington which was also delicious.

Our snack. PS Did you know that Land-O-Lakes makes honey butter???? its awesome

the truck I dream to own

Ready to get things started we found that the keys to the apartment that were supposed to be in the safety box weren't there. A call to the super and a visit from the inn's employee to tell us that another tenant had taken the universal key was quite a let down. But we continued to stay positive. A visit to the storage place to load the car up gave us enough time to wait for the super to come open the door. Keys in hand we unloaded the rental car and started putting everything in its rightful place. A trip to Walmart and we finished sooner than later. Rest took up a huge chunk of time in the afternoon. It was nice to relax and sleep. Dinner was an experience to be remembered at Buffalo Wild Wings. We were ambitious and ate the hottest wings. OOOOOOOweee it was intense but I loved every bite!


Mom held out her surprise till Sunday when we went to Seagrove, NC to view the country's oldest pottery town. We also met up with one of my good friends Hillary who lives in Charlotte and recently graduated from UNC Charlotte! It was such a pleasant and inspirational experience to see all the potter's work. Not to mention eating at the Jugtown Cafe, yummiest pie I've ever had (peanut butter chocolate pie, coconut creme pie and banana pudding pie).

Busboys&Poets and the Smithsonian Craftshow

I've tried to go to Busboys & Poets (Link: www.busboysandpoets.com) for as long as I've been in DC. My friend Marlena, who now goes to UMD studying to be a journalist (check out her work: umdwritersbloc.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/changing-careers-for-the-love-of-poetry/), suggested Busboys when I visited her at UMD in February. I was surprised to find that there four locations: two in DC, one in Maryland and one in Virginia. Unfortunately our plans fell through on Friday night to visit the Hyattsville Busboys for the Talent show due to the most stupidest and weird bus schedule which ended mid-afternoon. WHAT?!?! That's Maryland for you...

Change of plans we rescheduled to meet at Busboys on 5th & K St Saturday for the Youth Open Mic. It was so great. I loved seeing so many young adults and even younger children expressing themselves and exposing their beautiful talents. Art is important and for most of these kids its an escape from the harsh realities they must live with. Here was a community of all types of people, young, old, black, white, asian, indian, handicapped, healthy, sick, everyone coming out in the mist of a storm to hear and support art.

 Older youth featured artists: rapper and Spanish guitarist (he played Led Zeppelin's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You"!!!) 

The food was as good as they say. Try the chicken salad on challah bread and the pomegranate lemonade :)

I did work a lot during the morning and afternoon on Saturday but it always seems like I'm so distracted these days. Its so hard for me to focus and concentrate on my work when there are so many other things I'd rather be doing that will enhance and enriched my DC experience. Why can't we have the option to have a meeting with our program directors and explain all there is to discuss regarding all the events, activities and work done during our internship? I much rather do that in one fell swoop than worry about a freakin portfolio that...oh btw WE have to pay for the "binding" and paper, etc. BS!

Sunday I gave blood around 1030am and later went to the National Building Museum to visit Tom's (Daddio) sister Carol Snyder. She is an amazing ceramics artist (Link: www.smithsoniancraftshow.org/images5/Ceramics_Snyder.htm) and I'm glad I made an appearance because there was a tons of innovative and such modern designs that I recognized would not be presented in your typically arts & craft show. This was a legit show, apparently one of the harder shows to get into so go Carol! Check out her personal website: carolsnyder.artspan.com

 By Carol Snyder - She told me that for this piece her inspiration came from the corn fields during the winter season and the top serrated perameter represents the tops of trees as you look out into a field or farm in Ohio

 Thought this was cool - glass craved into balls of yarn 

Carol's booth from above :)

I was truly awed and impressed by the magnificent ascetics of the building. The museum exhibits were in rooms along the perimeter of the building on all three floors. It was such a relaxing experience walking around the building. See for yourself

Shadow box with wooden pieces of various American buildings - inspired by the skyscrapers in various cities.