Pincu Blogs Pottery

I just got back from a weekend of intense decoration idea generation – a two-day workshop with Julia Galloway.  The title of the workshop and the description from the Arrowmont webpage is this:

Personalized Pots: Surface, Form & Problem Solving
Through demonstrations, brief slide lectures and discussion, we will explore the development of ideas through the processes and studio practice of making pottery in our own daily lives. We will focus on evaluation of one’s own work and problem solving in the studio. This workshop will encourage lively discussion of creative processes, the challenges of uniting surface decoration and form in pottery, and the role of the hand made object in our lives today.

I was pretty pumped when I saw the brochure – I have followed Julia Galloway’s work since 1994. It took me some time to decide that I would attend – tuition is BIG MONEY for me. I did finally decide to pay up and get as much out of the experience as I could muster.  So, I headed up to Gatlinburg on Friday morning.

First, I want to note that I received the class materials list in the mail – bring 5 cups to decorate bisque.  Hmmm…. At this point I was wondering if this was a decorating class and won’t involve the items in the description I clingged to:

• explore the development of ideas
• evaluation of one’s own work
• problem solving in the studio

This was my goal when I signed up for the class:  To get personal feedback on my current work and help in determining what it is that my work lacks (primarily when it comes to melding form and surface).

Not to be too personal and tell you my woes (my brain is missing some chems that make it work smoothly, I do believe) I must say I drove up with trepidation.  Was I going to the right class?  Will it be worth the money?  Will I be able to use what I learn?  Is this just another decorating class – if so, will I learn more about melding my decoration to the form? I really need a mentor – someone to tell me the nitty gritty about my pots and ease me along.  A pat on the back or a slap on the ass is all I need!

FRIDAY:

Arrived and spent a few hours in the library.  Boy, if you haven’t been to the Arrowmont library, SHAME ON YOU!  What a fabulous resource!    Books on all crafts – old and new.  A wealth of magazines – past and present.

After dinner we were off to the studio.  This is another decorating class.

We learned to brush and trail glazes onto our pots.  The most fascinating part was projecting slides of historical pots onto our work, moving the work closer and farther to enlarge and shrink the image on our pots and using that projected light to trace forms onto the surface of our bisque for decoration ideas.  A great use of an ancient tool!

The result?  Not too hot for my pot:

So you can see, I got a doosy – as expected.  We all had dogs out of the kiln – but we all learned about these mystery glazes and brushed and trailed – some for the first time.

Julia gave a wonderful presentation of slides throughout the weekend.  She is extremely knowledgeable of clay history and design concepts.

The rest of the weekend was devoted to practicing the techniques Julia uses on her work- fine mishima (incising with slips) and using shellac as a resist to get layers of colors and imagery.  We were all given 3 cups and a pitcher, made the day before by Julia and her wonderful assistants.

Julia’s Demo pot:

SATURDAY:

Slides and work.  We each glazed our bisque pots with the knowledge from our dogs that came out of the kiln.  I gave two to some folks in the class.  One I traded with Patti Connor-Greene of Linville River Pottery.  Here are the results:

Yowza!  I think my vessels, having all that form in them, don’t desire too much decoration.  In fact, in this class, I began to see that what bothers me most about my pots is the surface.  I know the forms will grow and get better.  The surface is so far from what I want, that I am FRUSTRATED.  So…. does this class help?

Well, Julia met with me individually but as always, I was so involved with my ‘issues as a potter’ that I didn’t have the right questions or answers for her questions.  But, her talk with me did help.

First, she asked what I want my pots to look like.  Well… I don’t know.

It all began with a concept and I ran with it (form-wise) until I got to this form.  I was happy enough, so I began to develop a palette.  For some reason, I fear using just one glaze.  Is it because I am not totally confident in my forms?  Perhaps.  Is it because I haven’t found the most wonderful glaze, especially for electric firing?  Perhaps.

So – I need to decide what I want my pots to look like.  I always have had a hard time figuring what I want.  I always know what I don’t want.  Ain’t that a universal problem?

Next, Julia asked that I write down words that can help place my pots within a desired ‘look’ I guess. (By the way, I can never remember what people say, just how I remember hearing what they said – I am not quoting Julia!)  Here is a list so far:  sensual, organic, floral, soft, desiring to be touched, makes you want to lick it, feminine, functional, useful, makes food taste better, expanding up and out.  My focus has always been on function.  From there, I have wanted to make work pleasing to the eye and hand.  Perhaps I should think more about how food is displayed on the pots…..

Oh – I have forgotten other parts of the convo we had.  Maybe I will continue that on another post.

I want to get to more pictures.  So…. we glazed and slipped and drew and shellacked, etc.  On Sunday, Julia had time to demo handles and her fabulous pitcher top.  Here are some of those images:

The handles here were pulled, some are two handles put together with pea-sized clay balls or coils, then pulled some more.  Pretty neat!

The pitcher in the background was a demo of the shellack technique.

A slab is made.  Newspaper is used to help compress the edge.  the slab is folded gently into place.  The handle holds air.

These and other demos were great for ideas!  Not that I will use them on my work necessarily, but I can teach them!!

So… at the end of the weekend – did I get what I came for?

Well, I have things to think about as far as how to make my pots better – and I needed that talk with Julia to help focus my attention.  I learned about the importance of mixing stable with runny glazes – this can help me in the future – I can feel it!  So – I did learn.  It was worth it.  I don’t think the workshop description was accurate and overall, my goal was reached, though not in a grounding, concrete way.  This class offered things to apply to my goal for the class, I guess.  I did get some feedback time and I thank Julia Galloway for that!!!!

Lastly, I will post some pictures of the glazed pieces and inlay work I did on my given cups.  I haven’t finished the pitcher.