When it was good, it was very, very good...

Well, shame on me! I've let this blog lapse through summer, fall and winter. Now that we are at the start of a new year, let me try to get things back on track. My live prep group in Virginia didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned. There was a lot of interest in the meetings when I first proposed it, but actually getting bodies in a chair, once a month, for twelve months, became a bit of a challenge. Some folks lived an hour or more away, some had commitments that they couldn't (and frankly didn't want to) switch - which is totally understandable, and other's just plain had other things to do. I really appreciate the people who tried to (and succeeded in) come(ing) to every meeting.

In addition to hosting the meetings, I was looking forward to the support and suggestions from the members, as well as offering whatever mentoring I could. When the meetings ran out of steam, so did I. Drat! Life happens.

So I think I'm going to turn this blog into a journal of my personal experiences and thoughts about the Registry process. This morning I posted a comment on the FaceBook Prep group (do you already belong?) and will just re post it here. I think I've talked a little about this before - but the thoughts bear repeating.

I won't promise how regular this blog will be, but I'll try to post at least a couple of times a month. And when I submit, and get back photos of the successful projects, I'll create a separate page for each level, so there's a record. Julia Rai's posts about her own process has been so helpful to me, and I'd like to 'pay it forward' with my own experiences.

There are 5 levels. The first requires two projects from each category. For the rest of the levels, you must complete only one from each category, and the other projects you choose to complete the 10 submissions are up to you. The impulse might be to do all your favorites first - but if you do that, and are planning on completing all 5 levels, then being forced to work on 10 of your most hated/feared projects at once is going to make completion really difficult. To make the process fun as well as achievable my suggestion is to do one 'candidates choice', one most loved, and one most hated/feared project in each level. As you continue in the process, possibly around Level two or three, start thinking about what you might like to do for the final, 51st, 'significant original work'. Chances are that it will be intricate, may involve multiple pieces, and be difficult and challenging. Can you start working on the parts early in the process so you might complete it by Level 5 without as much angst as you would feel by waiting *until* Level 5 to think about it? Michela Verani has said she's thinking about making a chess set using a variety of clay bodies. So - making a few pieces at a time, as she continues to work on earlier levels would give her time to perfect the design (the different clay bodies shrink at different rates making creating a chess set with similarly sized pieces a real challenge) without being overly stressed.

Make a list of your 5 most hated/feared projects (C3 is high on my list), 5 of the ones you most want to complete or think will be 'easy', and ideas for the 5 candidates choice projects. The seven other projects (in each level) will be more fun to do once you've made decisions about the 'thorny three'.