continuing education

Podcast for Clay Peeps

Posted on by pincupottery

Being a studio artist can be pretty lonely.  I teach, so I am not lonely (lacking interaction with people), but my creative/critical side is lonely. That is why I seek out other potters/artists online and in books and museums.  I read blogs, search Google images, check in with online galleries, buy books, subscribe to magazines.  Now, I can even listen to a podcast!

Brian R. Jones is a ceramic artist from Portland, Oregon.  He makes functional and sculptural clay work.  Last year he began recording conversations with other artists and posting them online via an iTunes podcast.  The conversations are not interviews but a discussion about art.  Listening to it, complete with airplanes flying overhead and interrupting children, makes me feel as though I am a fly on the wall listening to fellow potter/artists chit chat about what makes them tick.  Lucky for me, Mr. Jones was able to attend the American Pottery Festival in Minneapolis last year and got to interview two of my favorite potters: Linda Arbuckle and Simon Levin.  Recently he has posted a two-part discussion with Lisa Naples, another of my faves.

Visual influences abound in our current online culture to help me see the unlimited possibilities in pottery, but this can be overwhelming.  Sitting in on a conversation, however, seems to pull me in from gawker to participant.  It unleashes a more critical thought process to help focus my attention on what I need to consider when taking that next step to better pots.

I encourage all clay peeps, potters or sculptors, novices to professionals, to listen in on the Jonescast to be part of the conversation.

Timing: Pottery, Parties, Life

Posted on by pincupottery

I do not wear a watch. I used to. In grade school I found myself glancing at my wrist all too often and getting antsy. What is this time thing? How come what can feel like ‘forever’ is only a few minutes sometimes and then what may take ‘forever’ only seems like minutes? I dropped the watch to keep from looking at my wrist so often. Now I look up and around for a clock on the wall or am forced to ask a stranger or worse, take my cell phone out of hiding to check the digital time (I must confess I love traveling to a different time zone and seeing my cell phone reflect the new time).

What does this gibber jammer have to do with pottery? Well, I said in my last post that I would talk about what went into the making of Pincu Pottery’s birthday party and what I can do to make it better next year. All I can say is that timing has a lot to do with whether your clay pot/sculpture is successful and whether your pottery party (or life, for that matter) is successful! Readers, you know how to prepare for a party – and a pottery birthday party is no different.

Not to bore you with details about last week’s birthday party plans and implements, I want to suggest:
IT IS TIME to register for my Southwestern Community College summer clay classes!
(How is that for making the connection between time, parties and pottery?)
I will be teaching a ‘Kids in Clay’ class beginning June 20 for 8 year olds and up. This class may already be full. Also, ‘Beginner/Intermediate Wheel’ begins May 17 and ‘Handbuilding with Clay’ begins May 16. These two are for adults only. They will be really fun!

By the end of a Beginner/Intermediate Wheel class, every student will make a teapot. Take a look at some pictures from my last wheel class:

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It certainly took time and timing to make those pots! And now it is time for you to take a pottery class and find out how time flies when you are having fun in the studio!!!!

Thanks for reading!!!!

SCC vs WCU

Posted on by pincupottery

I don’t want to get down and dirty, but I cannot help myself…..

In a few weeks (Nov. 6) the WNC Pottery Festival in Dillsboro will take place; and amongst the fabulous potters proudly presenting their wares on this beautiful fall day will be two booths – one filled with Southwestern Community College’s Heritage Arts ceramics students’ works and the other filled with Western Carolina University students’ works.

There is no official ‘competition’ between these two schools’ ceramics programs, though I must admit that we at the community college like to look at our university neighbors and think quietly to ourselves, “WOW!  Our students are just as good as our university neighbors and receiving just as good, and much less expensive, education in the ways of wheel-thrown clay!”

Uh-oh!  I may be getting myself in hot doo doo for saying that, but it’s true!  We pride ourselves on the fabulous facilities here at Southwestern Community College: 3 computerized electric kilns, 1 small sitter kiln, about 30 electric wheels of different manufacturers, a Thomas Stuart kick wheel, one updraft gas kiln, 1 Manabigama fast-fire wood kiln – for soda firing as well as wood, one Olympic Raku kiln and other kiln parts ready for use in experimental capacities.  We also have 2 North Star slab rollers and 2 mounted extruders.   Add one de-airing Peter Pugger to that list…..  Hmmmm… a fully stocked glaze lab with both digital and weighted scales, air compressor for glaze spraying…. I’m out of breath!  I probably forgot something, too!

And did I mention the fine instructors?  OK, I admit I am a bit biased being one of them, but seriously…. JoeFrank McKee and I are both members of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild and have had good training at the University of North Texas and the University of Florida respectively.  Classes include wheel-throwing, handbuilding, craft fair creation and operation, glaze chemistry, history of ceramics, production pottery techniques and more!

Lastly, we are all so proud because the students ROCK!  These are mostly older students eager to learn a new skill, whether for hobby or next career.  We have even had several WCU students brave the 1/2 hour drive to take classes at SCC!  Several students have completed or are completing their Master Potter Certificate and truly it shows in their wares.  A number have begun selling their pottery in galleries around the area.  YEA!

So… come out and visit the WNC Pottery Festival and take a look at the Southwestern Community College booth.  Then mosey on down to the Western Carolina University booth.  You tell me…. who should be so proud?!