2015 Texas Miniature Showcase - A Retrospective (2 months later)

The Miniature Showcase is held each year here in Dallas, usually the first weekend of May. I had Such. Great. Hopes. for this year's miniature event. Alas, they were not to be realized (in totality, anyway).

I should've known/expected something to be up once Rik's class was cancelled--especially since I was able to sweet-talk my hubster into letting me spend that kind of cheddah on the enrollment fee. (BTW, Rik has gone through surgery just fine and is well on the way to recovery... hooray!)

But no. Silly me, I had to continue thinking everything would turn out just peachy with a side of keen.
The weekend started off great! I got to the hotel Wednesday night, just in time to hang out with my mini BFF Amy, who came up from Houston. We settled into the hotel room, had dinner, wine, and generally caught up.

The next day, we went to the first day of the three-day (Thursday, Sunday & Monday) mini pottery class that we'd signed up for after learning Rik wouldn't be teaching Duddingwell's Tea Room. It went okay... pottery on a wheel is HARD. Like, I had no idea how hard this would be! But, I stumbled along.

I managed to make a few pieces--until my wheel quit working. The instructor tried everything he could to get it to work again, and he didn't have any other working wheels that I could use instead. I spent the rest of the day helping him mix glazes and stains, and learning about the kiln.

So, Amy and I decided Friday morning/afternoon would be spent trolling gardening centers until it was time for the preview show. We took the evening and planned where we'd go, had dinner, more wine, giggle, etc. Great evening!

Errr... until I woke up in the middle of the night, with my very first case of food poisoning. Not. Great. Oh no.

In short (and to spare you the gory details), I felt horrible. Even worse, I felt so bad that Amy was basically on her own in a new town. Trooper that she is, though, she made friends with a lot of the vendors and seemed to have an okay time.

I was able to make it to the preview show. I was still pretty queasy, got a lot of concern from friends that I ran into, but made my rounds. I got some great stuff, too.

Amy even got me a few things I need for electrifying a doll house as a late birthday present, and showed me how to do it! Thank you!!!

I was hoping to be able to go back on Saturday... I still had money to burn and wanted to meet a friend from the Greenleaf forum, but it just wasn't happening. I was too weak and shaky, so Amy and I decided to leave that morning. She went on back to Houston after giving me the lighting tutorial, and was able to spend the rest of the weekend with her hubby (it was his birthday, after all).

I debated skipping the two remaining days of the pottery class, until Larry said I could just go, see if I could use Amy's wheel instead, and just practice. What could the harm in that be, right?

And you know what? It turned out to be the best thing I could've done. I stuck to crackers and resolved to have a good time, and actually kind of got the hang of the pottery thing!

Here are a few pictures of the pre-made pottery that I glazed:

I'm especially fond of this piece.

These were also included in the glazing class. They've already been fired, but since I don't have access to a kiln, I'm thinking about just painting them and hanging them in a garden somewhere.

And these are the pieces I made! All by myself!

A majority of them still need to be cleaned up (edges filed) and glazed/fired, but I'm pretty proud of them considering everything the weekend threw at me. Now I've just got to get my own wheel and kiln, and I'll be good to go! :)