Day 2

[Liz Steiner]

The first full day of the conference started out with a plethora of temperature related puns, and an emotional presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Fred Woell. I always love watching this presentation because it gives me a better understanding of our history as a field, and of what a lifetime of making looks like. I love being that close to the giants in our field, and find myself wishing I had been around to know them in their heyday.

Overall the presentations were pretty good; I enjoyed bits of each of them, but there was no real stand out, magic moment for me today. I'm sure each lecture will provide little golden nuggets of usefulness once I sift through my notes, but I don't think I'll be talking about them years down the road as stand out lectures (ie. Kristin Beeler's talk on beauty in Houston). I did enjoy the Spot Light talks and I noticed that the other feature length presenters each had a large variety of work to illustrate their topic. I liked seeing such a broad range of works, even though I started to feel real inadequate during Kim Cridler's talk.

I went to the Education Dialogue for a bit, which I think I'd like to talk more about later, and then just hung out in my room for awhile. The hotel is really nice, and I love this view of the mountains from my balcony.

I also love the view down to the patio below where I can photograph unsuspecting metalsmiths like Andrew Kuebeck and Tom Muir.

Michael Dale Bernard looking dapper in pinstripes on pinstripes.

The big event for the night was the Exhibition In Motion. I thought the overall presentation was fantastic (loved the catwalk, the lights, the music), but I didn't love most of the work. I noticed most were necklaces, (because this show lends itself to that sort of thing), and that there were several pieces in this show that got rejected from the Hot Under the Collar. I'm curious to know what the show would have looked like, had I sent out my rejection letters a few days later. The one thing I hate about the Exhibition in Motion though, is how hard it is to photograph. At least for me and my limited camera skills.

Exhibition in Motion: Pomp and Swagger

Tomorrow is another full day of talks and demos, and ending with the exhibition crawl. I'm hoping to get a chance to see Cu:29 and Heat Exchange for sure and I'd also like to see the Past President's Show. I'm anxious to see the response to Hot Under the Collar. I'm ready for another jam packed day, but I'm also hoping for a little time to relax by the pool.

See you all tomorrow!