These workshops will highlight the Master artists instructing digitally and interactively from their own studio in real time while participants sit side by side learning and creating together in our Clayworx classroom.
This workshop is designed to help participants strengthen their creative voice in a supportive and collaborative environment by sharing the ideas and inspiration behind their work. Participants will have the opportunity to sharpen their observation skills and fine tune their ability to discuss work in a meaningful way. Stubborn technique and material issues will be addressed through a combination of creative flow exercises and technical demonstrations aimed to launch folks back into their studios ready to grow.
Artist Bio: Natalie Waddell is a Canadian ceramic artist and educator based in Toronto. Her practice is driven by the love of process and the exploration of heritage and memory through clay.A student of the Sheridan College Ceramic Craft and Design program (2003), she is known for her functional and sculptural work, as well as her active participation in local ceramic and arts communities and associations. Natalie was selected to be one of two expert artist judges on the 2024 CBC television show The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down.
Decorated Surfaces- Underglazes, Glazes, and Terra Sigilatta
In this workshop, students will have the opportunity to explore sgraffito-based decorating techniques utilizing underglazes, glazes, and terra sigillata. Zoe will bring the class through creating imagery for your leatherhard pots with custom stenciled drawings and found textures, as well as building upon the imagery free-handedly to create inviting surfaces. Students will learn to experiment with uncommon techniques such as utilizing glaze on leather hard clay, as well as learn about finishing surfaces with earthenware terra sigillata on bone dry clay. In this workshop, Zoe will also briefly touch base on the hand building techniques she utilizes in her practice.
Artist Bio: Zoë Pinnell is a ceramicist working out of her communal studio in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a recent graduate of Sheridan College where she received a Bachelors of Craft and Design. Zoës work consists of illustrated sculptural and functional handbuilt objects that are decorated with colourful glazes, underglaze, and terra sigillata. Her work is handbuilt by pinching, coiling, and slab building using earthenware. She fires her work in an electric kiln to a hot Cone 03, creating more of a toastiness in the red clay. Earthenware is an honour to the earth that we walk on and grow our gardens with, using the deep terracotta to create warmth and depth in her surfaces, luring you into her narratives. Zoë is heavily influenced by historical patterns, tchotchke objects, and floral motifs, creating her patterns and illustrations from memories of what something may look like, but not entirely be. Her highly decorative work will bring you on a journey through the growth and interaction of gardens we grow while meeting the creatures, from bugs to beasts, that reside in them.
Secrets of Terra Sigilatta and Saggar Firing in an Electric Kiln
An interactive hands-on workshop for intermediate level students. Through demonstration, lecture and discussion students will produce 3 finished saggar fired pieces. Here is what participants can expect to learn: how to prepare white and coloured terra sigillata; various methods of applying terra sigilatta to bone dry pots; how to create a depth of coloured surfaces with slips and combustibles on their pots; and, how to stack the saggar chamber for safe and successful practices in an electric kiln. Note: some pre-workshop preparation is required.
Artist Bio: Alison Brannen is a Toronto artist, educator and sailor. She is the vice president of Fusion: The Ontario Clay and Glass Association. Alison has exhibited her ceramics in Canada and the USA and was the featured artist at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in September 2020. Recent exhibitions include Art Gallery of Burlington, Clay and Glass Gallery Waterloo and 4 exhibitions with Gagne Contemporary Toronto/New York. She has served on awards juries and presented workshops to local guilds. Her teaching includes Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, University of Waterloo, and St Lawrence College Brockville. She holds a MFA University of New Mexico Albuquerque, BFA York University and B Ed University of Toronto.