WORKSHOPS

Saturday, June 8 through Saturday, June 14
Cost: $550 + $50 lab fee + $50 non-refundable registration fee
(Lab fee includes 25# of clay and all firing)

During this action-packed, hands-on workshop, we will explore new ways to express our individuality through the pottery process.  This week long experience is designed for potters who are interested in having a creative adventure with clay.

We will work "on and off" the wheel.  One wheel method I like to demonstrate is "throwing off the hump".  Using this technique, students will experiment with making small, intimate pots such as espresso cup and saucer sets, sake cups, noodle bowls, lids, spouts, and M&M bowls.  The participants will also explore new form ideas using some of the innovation production methods I use in my studio such as how light-weight styrofoam and wood-press molds can make a variety of intriguing platter and tray shapes.

Participants should bring 5 to 6 bisqued pots (cone 10 porcelain or a light colored clay body) for glaze experimentations using a cone 10 reduction firing and a soda kiln firing.  I will take you step-by-step through the process of using layered glazes, resist methods and oxide brushwork to energize the surface.  We will discuss how images and ideas are caputred and translated to the surface of a pot.

Lynn-Smiser Bowers has been exploring the world of art and craft as a studio potter for the last twenty years.  Combining traditional and contemporary methods of making, her work begins on the wheel and is then altered as it is pulled, pushed, carved, and poked to enhance and provide vitality to the form.  Her work has been exhibited widely across the country; her fine porcelain works are held in many collections and can be found in many publications.

An Evening Lecture with Michelle Fricke
Thursday, June 12, 7 pm
$5 at the door, no reservation required
(included for workshop participants)

In conjunction with Lynn Smiser Bowers' "Surface Design Workshop", the public is invited to attend a slide lecture presented by, Michelle Fricke, art history professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.
"Throughout the history of pots, artists have considered surfaces and their relation to form in many different ways.  In this lecture I'll discuss historical as well as contemporary approaches to surface design on pots.  I'll also consider the ways in which the term surface design is understood in other media which relate to ceramics, most particiularly fiber."

Saturday, August 2: 9 am - 5 pm
Sunday, August 3: 10 am - 4 pm
Cost: $150

Beginning with round pots coming from the wheel, we'll push, cut, coax, and stretch those forms.  Why alter pots?  Tom Spleth nicely observed, "As work departs from thrown forms that typically refers to pots and pottery, it gains the ability to describe forms in nature, suggest the vulnerability of the figure, and express the asymmetry found in human experience."  Our focus with be on utilitarian pots but we'll take some liberties with that notion too.  Various ways of making handles, lides, and spouts will be explored.  Slides and demonstrations will form the backdrop for lively conversation about everything from making a living to making pots personal.  Process is paramount, humor emphasized, taking chances encouraged.  Some throwing experience is recommended.

Nick Joerling is a full-time studio potter who has maintained a studio in Penland, North Carolina since the mid 1980's.  He received a BA in History from the University of Dayton, Ohio, and an MFA in Ceramics from Louisiana State University in 1986.  He has taught in craft programs in the United States and abroad, been widely reviewed and exhibited, and is represented in public and private collections.

Bob Briscoe, February 1999
Pete Pinnell, October 1999
Sylvie Granatelli, January 2000
Malcolm Davis, April 2000
Nick Joerling, April 2000
Jeff Oestreich, November 2000
Ellen Shankin, February 2001
Matt Long, November 2001
Suze Lindsay / Geoffrey Wheeler, March 2002
Jane Shallenburger, November 2002
Maren Kloppman, February 2003
Ken Ferguson, March 2003
Bob Briscoe, November 2003
Randy Johnston and Jan Makeachie Johnston, February 2004
Mark Chatterley, April 2004
Walter Ostrom, November 2004
Bede Clark, February 2005
Liz Quackenbush, October 2005
Matt Long, June 2006
Sam Chung, November 2006
Ron Meyers, February 2007
Tom Coleman, June 2007
Sequoia Miller, July 2007
Linda Christianson, November 2007
Charity Davis-Woodard, April 2008
Christa Assad, May 2008
Lynn Smiser Bowers, June 2008

Steven Hill's week long Single Firing Workshops, June & September 1999, June 2000, June & July 2001, June and August 2002, June and August 2003, June and August 2004, June and September 2005, July/August 2006.