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Masterclass
Hand building with a difference! This is an incredible opportunity to meet Patricia Shone and to learn some of her highly characteristic hand building techniques. A two day masterclass 10th and 11th October 2020 Price: £225 Join a small group of 10 to meet Patricia, watch and learn her unique hand building techniques and discover her motivations, inspirations and gain an insight into her work. Patricia will share some of the techniques she has developed during her career and you will practise these during the workshop. This will be a hugely insightful workshop, an opportunity to get to know Patricia and her work and to try out some of the techniques under her tutelage. All materials and equipment will be provided. Refreshments will be provided but you should bring your own lunches. |
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About Patricia
I have been living and working on the Isle of Skye for the past 25 years and have felt my work to be informed and inspired by this powerful landscape. I love wilder more challenging land and seascapes. Beneath the thin soils of the Highlands, eroded and carved by time, weather and human activity, lies the constant and immutable presence of rock. The form which lies beneath the changing surface. There is an inherent inspiration in a person's fundamental being. I believe an artist’s work can be a search to find expression for this, consciously or unconsciously. This is the deep essence in a work which connects one human being to another. The form beneath the surface. I think of my work as part of the journey towards understanding my place in life. I can’t separate it from my experience of living in this landscape or from the path that brought me here. Texture has featured in my work since college days. But it was a masterclass with Shozo Michikawa in 2008 which really set me on my current course. A shoulder injury later on forced me to change my practices which ultimately led to the Erosion Collection for which I am known. After many years of developing this work, I feel I understand the techniques well enough to begin to share them. 
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Masterclass
Advanced Throwing Techniques Mark Griffiths Saturday 31st Oct & 1st Nov 2020 Price: £180 (firing charges apply) NEW DATES - These masterclasses have been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Two day intensive throwing masterclass (10am to 4:30pm) Venue: The Clay Loft Mark delivered an outstanding two day throwing masterclass last year and returns again this year by popular demand. There are only ten places available on this course so please do not wait to sign up. Mark is one of the UK most talented and fluent throwers and respected potters. He will deliver a two day intensive throwing course aimed at developing the skills of fluent and developing throwers. Mark lives and works in Ludlow, Shropshire where he pots in a converted school house (The Pottery, Culmington). He makes a range of functional and signature pots in wood fired stoneware. His pots are decorated in subdued natural tonal glazes derived from locally sourced materials and fluent gestural marks in slip and through glaze surfaces. This course is not for beginner throwers. Participants will need to be proficient with clay preparation and centering and ideally looking to challenge themselves with larger lumps of clay (6 to 8lbs/3 to 4kg). |
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Masterclass
Glaze Technology Matthew Blakely Saturday 5th December 2020 Price: £95 NEW DATES - These masterclasses have been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
A masterclass in glaze technology (10am to 4.30pm) Venue: The Clay Loft Description of the course: Matthew will lead a day of instruction through talks and demonstration on glazing. He will cover a wide range of subjects touching on:
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About Matthew
My work explores the links between ceramics and geology and place, making pieces entirely from geological samples that I have collected from specific locations around the country, and that illustrate the ceramic qualities inherent in these materials. There is an extremely varied geology in the UK with a spectacular range of rocks and minerals ranging from recent river deposits to some of the oldest rocks on the planet. Many of these have been quarried at some stage during the human occupation of the country, though mostly for processes other than ceramics, such as building or making roads. The pieces that I make illustrate another way of looking at these materials and the colours and textures that they are capable of producing in the kiln: inspiration coming from the materials themselves, the qualities that they develop in firings and the places that I have collected them from. I am working with a wide range of different rocks and clays, using firing types and temperatures that bring out the best in them. Increasingly my approach becomes simpler and simpler, taking ceramics back to its essence. I use these materials as unrefined as possible: rocks are crushed by hand, milled and blended to create the glazes, clays are often used as dug straight from the ground. This work is fired in my wood kilns using waste wood that has grown where I live in Cambridgeshire. The firing itself transform these glazes producing exceptional qualities that would be impossible to achieve in any other way. That is what makes this work unique. BIO I was born in the UK but emigrated to Australia in 1988 and studied Ceramics at The National Art School Sydney. I have worked as a potter ever since, building workshops and kilns in Australia and the UK, on my return in 2002. Currently I live and work in a small village on the edge of the Fens, near Cambridge. I have a gas kiln and two wood kilns that I use to fire my work. Since 2010 I have been researching the geology of Britain and using found rocks and clays to make my work. |
Masterclass
Japanese Woodblock Printing Laura Boswell Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th Dec 2020 or Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th Dec 2020 Price: £180 NEW DATES - These masterclasses have been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Japanese woodblock classes: 7th-8th & 9th-10th December (10am to 4.30pm) Venue: Gallery 1673 Tools and Materials Everything is provided including books for reference and inspiration, but sketches and/or photos you may like to turn into prints are useful. We will work on your designs in class so no need to plan anything in detail. I supply basic watercolours, but you are welcome to bring your own tubes if you want a wider palette. Expenses Fee There will be a fee of £15 for materials and sundries. This includes one block, more will be available to buy if needed. (cost £3 per block) |
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About Laura
Laura Boswell is a printmaker working exclusively with linocut and traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She has a degree in Art History/Visual Art from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and has been elected to the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. Laura has attended three printmaking residencies in Japan, studying woodblock printmaking with master craftsmen. This spring she spent a month in Tokyo with three fellow artists and collaborated with two exhibition events at 3331 Chiyoda Arts Centre, Tokyo. She was selected as one of five British artists exhibiting at the Ulsan International Print Festival in South Korea this summer. Her book ‘Making Japanese Woodblock Prints’ has just been published by Crowood Press. Laura’s work often references a traditional Japanese aesthetic in its use of white space, her colour choices and minimal approach. She shares the Japanese appreciation of rigorous training; her work often displays impulsive line and brushwork, requiring meticulous cutting and printing to give the impression of fluid spontaneity. In addition to her printmaking, Laura teaches, writes a monthly column for Artists and Illustrators Magazine and works on the occasional public art project. She also co-hosts the weekly podcast ‘Ask an Artist’ with fellow artist Peter Keegan. Laura’s prints feature in national collections including the Buckinghamshire County Museum, The House of Lords and the Library of Wales. She also has prints in the Nagasawa Art Park collection and the MI-Lab Print Collection in Japan. |
Masterclass
Making Glazes with Linda Bloomfield 6th & 7th February 2021 (10am to 4.30pm) Venue: Gallery 1673 @ The Clay Loft Price: £225 Gain and understanding of making and using glazes focusing on how using different fluxes affects colouring oxides in a glaze. All practical aspects of making and firing glazes will be covered.
A rare opportunity to gain an insight into the materials that you may or may not know are in the glazes that you use. You will gain a basic understanding of what these materials are and how they make a difference to your glazes through making glaze tests. You will make basic glaze recipes from scratch and see the results. You will also explore these through colour blending to create further results. Extended knowledge will be gained through sharing your results with each other. · Understand what the individual glaze ingredients do in a glaze · Understand how to put together different ingredients to create a glaze · Weigh different materials and mix glazes tests · Reflect on fired glaze tests and analyse results · Understand a basic awareness of Ceramics glaze materials Health and Safety in a workshop setting with due regard to self and others Class format and activities You will be listening and note taking about the chemistry of materials. You will be creating test tiles and batch glazes and firing these to stoneware temperatures. You will be creating colour blends using two glazes to see the potential of the glaze materials . |
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