Workshops

March 12, 2022
This hands-on, half-day workshop focused on the art of water etching. This decorative technique, using a variety of resists, allows ceramics artists to achieve relief decoration without carving or adding clay. Lynette Case, Guild member and accomplished potter, guided the group through a demonstration of the technique and supported participants as they immediately applied what they had learned. Participants decorated a tile, a cup, and a translucent candle holder.

This two-day, hands-on workshop focused on building a personal vocabulary of imagery while considering methods of composition of that imagery onto both the wheel-thrown and hand built ceramic form. With humor as a tool to create narratives within her work, King introduced some non-traditional ideas about function and methods of storytelling. Students learned to incorporate their own imagery by carving into slip-covered, leather hard forms (sgraffito), as well as experimenting with transfer techniques such as decals, Photo EZ silk screens and resist printing. In addition, glaze techniques that enhance surface work were demonstrated. We learned how to skillfully adapt this method on endless possible forms in our own studio work- from sculptures to tiles to thrown forms.

June 17-18, 2017

In this two-day workshop Adam Field demonstrated his methods for carving intricate pattern on a variety of wheel-thrown porcelain forms. He also demonstrated traditional Korean Onggi coil and paddle pottery techniques. From ancient Korean techniques, to innovative solutions for timeless problems, participants were taught a new perspective on creating and decorating functional pottery. Participants learned new skills for mapping out and carving geometric patterns in clay. Generous discussions about studio practice, aesthetics, materials, ceramic history, and promotion and marketing strategies for the studio potter encouraged individual discovery, growth, and development of fresh ideas. Participants gained the skills and confidence to create and decorate work in their own voice.

February 18-19, 2017

“This hands-on, two day workshop making ¾ scale, anatomically proportionate heads and applying facial expressions to them was chock full of new techniques to learn. Besides blocking in the features, we talked about what muscles govern various expressions. Sculpting heads allowed students to incorporate all that they learned.

May 14-15, 2016

The pots we choose to make hold more than food and drink; they hold our values and mediate our interactions. This weekend we considered the larger purposes served by our work as makers of objects that respond to physical gestures and fit into the relationships of our lives. Through dialogue, writing, sketching, and 3D excursions,students learned to articulate our intentions, clarify our visions, and refine the meanings conveyed in our work. While exploring forming methods such as pinching, coiling, throwing and altering, solid prototype building, press molding, and erosive shaping, we aligned our conceptual content with the materials, processes, forms, and presentation of our work. At the end of the weekend, we emerged with a new sense of purpose as makers within contemporary culture, building prototypes for a new world.

November 21 and 22
Time: 9AM-4PM with a potluck lunch

Handbuilders, wheelthrowers, newbies and experienced… intrigued by process, form, surface and nontraditional finishes? Observing the real-time progression of Sunshine’s work provided an in-depth understanding of the timing and sequence necessary to build complex forms—whether pinching and coiling on soft and hard slabs or alteration of thrown forms. Integration of tactile surfaces, vibrant glaze and post- fired sandblasting completes Sunshine’s fully realized ceramic objects. At the end of the day, students brought fresh knowledge, technique, inspiration, energy and new levels of achievement to their own work. “I rely on texture and color to create a sense of motion and time in my work. By exploring and creating vessels kept within arms reach, I hope to communicate how an object’s significance can grow and change depending on the path of a person’s life.??? –Sunshine Cobb

Jeanne Quinn, professor at CU
Saturday, June 6th, 9-4 with a potluck lunch.

OVERVIEW:
This was an opportunity to learn from a well respected artist in our own town. We are lucky to have her. She is a wonderful artist, and inspiring teacher.

Drawing provides a way to quickly explore new ideas for ceramic forms. In this workshop, we explored drawing as a means for making patterns – to translate the drawn line into ceramic form. Several possibilities were demonstrated, using coil, slab, and other hand building techniques. The workshop included slide presentations and discussion of historical and contemporary ceramics, demonstrations, and time for participants to experiment with drawing, pattern making, and hand building.

Check out her website…http://www.jeannequinnstudio.com/

Jerry Bennett
Feb 28-March 1, 2015

OVERVIEW:
This workshop focused on the use of this innovative material to make both functional pottery and sculptural forms. We reviewed how to make paper clay, bonding slips, and hand-built ceramic forms. The workshop also explored the use of texture, different construction techniques, and decoration using paper clay.

Topics discussed at the workshop:
How to use cellulose or cotton fibers in clay, other fibers you might want to use, using casting slip as a clay source, and firing techniques. Much practical advice on how to solve problems in your studio, such as: how to fix broken work, reduce shrinkage in clay and how to prevent pots from cracking were also discussed.

Don Cox and Caroline Douglas
Nov. 21-24, 2014

Allow yourself to experience the magic of atmospheric firing!

OVERVIEW:
Don’s recommendations for clay that does well in soda: any cone 10 porcelain or stoneware. Light or white bodies like B mix take flashing slips well; dark bodies remain dark and may resist soda. The number of pieces that get in the kiln depend on their size and how many people we have.

Don and Caroline demonstrated their glazing and slip decoration; and everyone decorated their own pots. Pieces were wadded for the firing. Don shared his soda firing method and taught us how to make the soda cakes for the kiln.
SATURDAY:
While the kiln fired, Don and Caroline will demonstrate clay techniques.

Don demonstrated how he forms his platters, lidded jars, oval vases, and bowls with cut rims. Caroline demonstrated how to create an animal form and how to form larger pieces. During the day we saw how to fire the salt/soda kiln and learn all these techniques.

Dec. 6-7, 2014
9-4 with potlucks each day

Painting on Tiles with Terra Sigillata

OVERVIEW:
Jenny Mendes took us on a two-day trek through the imaginative use of color in ceramic surface decoration.

Participants learned to infuse a texturally rich and emotionally charged surface upon their work.

Jenny guided the discussion of various colorful ways to approach the surface as a painter, by means of a palette of terra sigillatas, glaze, underglazes, washes, and oxides. She presented her “low tech” process of making terra sigillata, with emphasis on helping participants to develop a unique color palette of their own.

Jenny’s website: www.jennymendes.com

May 17-18

Justin Rothshank is a master with decals and image transfers and also does transfers for salt. He has a DVD out with Ceramic Arts Daily.
We learned some new things with your photos, found images or your drawings on clay! Students brought finished pieces with a white or light glaze and we applied decals to them and fired them overnight during the workshop. He shared his secrets and tips for photoshop with students.

Email: workshops@boulderpottersguild.org Please indicate “workshops” in the subject line.

Check out more Rothshank’s work here