Saturday 23 July 2011

MCWC 2011

So I promised to tell you more about the Metal Clay World Conference in Chicago. Here is a little resume of the event :)

I got to the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort Hotel on the Sunday July 10th. The hotel itself is really interesting and the design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. All the rooms are hexagonal and in the centre of the hotel is a lovely atrium with waterfalls and plants and a cave bar!

On Monday 11th July I taught my Enamelled Accents workshop. It was a full class with 15 people. It was a really fun day. Everyone produced great pieces and I am waiting for some photos to come through to show you as we did not have time to photograph pieces at the end of the day.

On the Tuesday and Wednesday I had two free days. Time for a bit of sightseeing! On the Tuesday I headed into Chicago in the company of Lesley and Keith Messam. We had a lovely day. We went up the Sears (now renamed Willis) Tower and the views were wonderful.

Then it was a water taxi to the Navy Pier for a nice lunch and taking in more of the great views.


We had not realised there was a stained glass museum there so we spent some time looking at all the wonderful panels. Here are some of my favourites.





On Wednesday we headed out to the local Mall for a bit of shopping and then Wednesday evening the conference proper started.

There was a mad bustling VIP reception mixed with the clay trade. This was where everyone swapped charms they had made. I took 50 silver and enamel charms with me. I will post all about them another time! Making them ended up being rather a labour of love :)

Thursday kicked off with the keynote speech by Michael David Sturlin. Michael is an inspiring person and everyone thoroughly enjoyed his talk. Then it was presentations, presentations, presentations for the rest of Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning! I did my presentation on Enamelled Accents and Beyond 3 times which allowed me plenty of time to take in others. Each presenation was one hour long. Among my favourite sessions were Lorrene Baum Davis on Keum Boo, Pat Evans - A Tool Diva tells All and Jeannette LeBlanc on How to write a Step by Step article, but I enjoyed all the ones I attended. So much to learn.

Thursday evening started off with Meet the Masters - these are the Art Clay World USA Master instructors. This was in the fireside lounge with a roaring fire (It was about 30c outside!!!!) Mind you the air conditoning in the conference centre did seem to be set to artic mode most of the time :)



After that we had a Meet the Presenters evening so I demonstrated how I make wire shapes for Enamelled Accents. Friday evening was the Art Clay Society social and again I was demonstrating. This time it was my good friend Lynne Glazzard's paper texture technique.

In between all the learning there was of course the shopping!! Loads of vendors with lots of fantastic tools and products. I will be telling you more about some of the things I bought in due time. Saturday finished with some closing speeches after lunch and then we all started heading off back to the various parts of the globe we had come from. Phew! I was exhausted.

It was a wonderful conference, exhausting but tremendous fun and so lovely to meet so many names that I know from here and Facebook. If you are on FB you can see more photos in my albums. If we are not already friends please do send me a request:)


I really hope to be able to go tho the next conference in 2013. Maybe I will see you there ;)

Now I must go back to my workshop and finish the bird I am working on ......



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