How to make a wedging table?

As much as I would love to buy this sturdy, simple wedging table from Bailey Ceramic Supply, I don't have $770 to shell out. I don't even have $50, but I would at least be willing to put $50 on my credit card to make something right now. I'm always afraid I'll piss off the neighbors or even my roommates when I'm making a racket slamming clay onto the unsturdy, loud table I have, and the wire wedging process would go so much smoother if I had a wire attached to the table.

I'm thinking of building one from 100% wood, thinking that will be the cheapest and easiest, but honestly I haven't a clue. I would prefer to not have one made with plaster because I would hate to have small bits of plaster come off into the clay over time. Any advice is welcome. What do you use for a wedging table?

Searching for a title

I have an exhibition coming up in August coupled with a documentary photographer. Stephanie Burchett's body of work is titled "Scavengers," and documents Nicaraguan citizens digging through trash dumps to find "valuable" items - recyclables for which they can get money. My work is based around things I want in my life - comfort, stability, beauty, sustenance, and peace. Our work is quite different, but our common link is a grant which we both earned last year. One of the requirements of the grant is a public exhibition, so we decided to exhibit together in one of the few galleries in Greeley. Anyway, we need a title for our show and perhaps one of you could help me. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking "Searching for ..." something. Searching for what though?

NCECA 2009

It's been awhile since I got back from the NCECA conference... about time I blog about it, right? I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer because it's already 2 in the afternoon and I haven't been in the studio yet today. I've been busy uploading photos though, so if you'd like to see what I saw on day 1 in Phoenix, check out my flickr set. Since I was volunteering, I arrived two days before the conference started, and I was able to leisurely wander around the city to check out a few galleries and the Arizona Art Museum while nothing else was happening that Monday.

Leaving on a jet plane

Does anyone else get that song stuck in their head when they're flying somewhere? I always do...

Tomorrow at 5 am I'll be heading to the airport, off to Phoenix for the NCECA conference. I've been looking forward to this all month! Anytime I've been in a low mood I would just think of NCECA and get all giddy. It's been windy, snowing, and cold for the past couple weeks in Colorado, so I'm looking to a "spring break" in warm Arizona. I've never been there. Have you?

Here's my shopping list / things to look into:

1. Shorter wire cut-off tool

2. Throwing stool... thank you Emily for your recommendation!

3. Wedging table... I don't know if this is actually something I would buy, but I'm curious to look into it.

4. Posters to cover the ugly cement walls in my new studio (best part about these is they're free!)

5. A new favorite mug (I hope to find one I like under $30... that could be a stretch)

6. Trimming tools

7. Graduate schools, residencies, opportunites to further my education possibly starting in January...

Are you going to NCECA?