En SEE kah? That’s short for the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts . Many of the contributors to our wildly popular 500 ceramics series belong to NCECA and they attend the huge, migrating annual conference. (This year, 4,400 folks flocked to Pittsburgh, PA, to learn, lecture, exhibit, and just plain schmooz.) NCECA’s members come from all walks of the ceramic life, and nearly all are artists and artist-teachers—from college-level to kindergarten, and hundreds of workshop and art-center instructors too.

This year, one of Lark’s amazing art directors, Dana Irwin, created a sailor-style temporary tattoo in honor of the hundreds (or is it thousands by now?) of artists who have contributed images to a 500 ceramics book. Ceramics editor Suzanne Tourtillott snapped photos at the three-day event. Check out these happy faces.