Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Symposium Trades




I spent the past weekend attending the 4th Annual ECU Metals Symposium Material Topics. I can't believe that this thing has been happening for 4 years already and that I've been a part of each time. Although, I must admit it's much nicer to attend as a regular participant as opposed to being part of the crew that puts the whole thing together. I'm not going to go real in depth with the symposium, but all the lectures and demos were interesting and informative. I don't think I sat through anything I didn't enjoy. But, due to the scope of the event, it's really difficult to design/host a hands on demo for the number of participants the symposium gets, so it was a lot of sitting and listening. It's nice to have a mix of both.

But one thing I noticed happening more at this symposium than in the past was trading. Of course the charm swap happened as it usually does, but it seemed like there was a little more trading between artists this time around. I love it, I think it's great, and I wonder if there's a way to foster more of that in the future. I came out with a couple trades: red lady earrings and blue and red ruler brooch from Marissa Saneholtz, red and green "watermelon" earrings by Marlene True, and my swap charm, a sweet little sea urchin charm by Colby Byrd.

I hope everyone else had a great time at the symposium, and if you haven't been, I hope you get the chance to experience it someday. Thanks for reading.

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