CERAMIC CLASSES 2008
Note: Tuition includes studio fees and material fees unless otherwise indicated. Some instructors may provide additional materials that you may purchase in class.
March 16 – 18
Wood Fired Pre-NCECA Workshop
Jack Troy and Kevin Crowe
(Class Full - Waiting List Only)
This is truly a special opportunity to come to Touchstone and fire the wood kiln with two masters of woodfiring, Jack Troy and Kevin Crowe. Bring your bisqueware to glaze. The kiln will be loaded and fired before NCECA and unloaded after the conference.
April 25 - 27
Exploring Raku
Joe Sendek
All Levels
$195
Originally taken from the Chinese, Raku is sometimes known as “happy circumstances.” In the West, the happy circumstances of Raku loosely mean the use of the Raku firing method with a wide degree of outcomes. Each piece of pottery may be produced exactly the same way, glazed the same way, and Raku kiln fired the same way, but each piece will yield different results (or happy circumstances!). In this way, Raku has come to be identified with being happy with each moment and happy with the results obtained within each moment. In this two-day intensive workshop, explore happy circumstances by working with various glazes and combustibles. Bring bisque fired pieces with you, if you have them. If not, there will be pieces available for you to experiment with.
Joe Sendek walks the edge where art meets education. Trained in materials engineering at Purdue, he also holds a BA from California State and an MFA from Arizona State. Joe currently works as an artist-educator for kindergarten to senior citizens. He has done artist-in-residency work and has taught at all levels. He is a registered artist with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and his work is exhibited nationally.
May 2 - 4
Graphic Ceramic: All About the Decal
Kyle Houser
All Levels
$195
Whether you’re an image junkie or just somebody looking to create a clean, crisp image on your ceramics, in this workshop you will explore collage methods, overfiring, and multiple firing for a layered effect. Over the course of two days we will learn about decalcomania, its history, and its rebirth in contemporary ceramics. First you will learn to create your very own cone 04 firing decals with a computer and a special water-slide hobbyist paper. Bring linear or high contrast images to turn into decals; an image that has less tonal values and is more line-based is easier to work with and usually makes a better fired/printed image in the long run. We’ll also re-visit and re-purpose those funky, kitschy commercial decals that have inhabited “mom and pop” slip cast pottery stores and your grandmother’s favorite craft shop for years and years (or these decals can be cheaply purchased by the bagful on eBay).
Kyle Houser is a graduate student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who does ceramic works with decals, emphasizing kitsch art. For more info, go to www.khouser.etsy.com or www.myspace.com/homefryceramics.
May 9 - 11
Mothers’ Day Memories: Beads and Buttons in Clay
Tracey Donoughe and Barbara Bailey
All Levels
$195
During a weekend wilderness retreat, Moms make beads, buttons, and memories with your daughters. This day is for you to make the memories of weekend wilderness retreat while getting in touch with your daughter. Make some beads and buttons that will last as long as the memories of this weekend. Tracey Donoughe has tons of positive energy and is a patient ceramic instructor, and Barbara Bailey knows the buttons and is ready to show you.
Tracey Seder Donoughe is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has been a professional ceramic artist for 25 years. She is a member of Penn Avenue Pottery in Pittsburgh’s Strip District where she exhibits and sells her hand carved pots, beads, and sculptures.
Barbara Bailey: Biography not available.
May 16 - 18
Creating Round Forms Without a Wheel
Ron Korczynski
All Levels
$195
Using Styrofoam balls as molds to create round forms will be explored. Be ready to create a teapot and other forms utilizing a sphere as a building block. This workshop will present a technique that will open many possibilities for anyone working in clay.
Ron Korczynski is a former public school art teacher and ceramic artist whose sole focus now is clay. Initially working with stoneware and porcelain, Ron moved to earthenware to explore hand-built forms. His work has been published in many books and magazines, and a major exhibition of earthenware pieces was held at the Amoco Gallery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ron’s work can be seen at www.korczynskiceramics.com.
May 23 - 25
Ancient Ways with Clay: Creating from the Source
Stephanie Flom
All Levels
$195
Explore one of the oldest methods of pottery-making, a coil and pinch technique used to create utilitarian vessels that the instructor has developed into her own style of contemporary ceramics. Inspired by Paulus Behrensohn, Stephanie will guide you in meditative techniques that will help you to work slowly and rhythmically in syncopation with the internal rhythms of your breath and heartbeat. The class includes a field trip to gather Ohio Valley/Appalachian Ridge clay from a nearby riverbank and concludes with an open pit firing of your vessels.
An Associate Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in Pittsburgh, PA, Stephanie Flom strives to connect community to creativity and to the natural environment through her work. She founded the Persephone Project in 2000 to promote gardening as a contemporary art practice (persephoneprojects.org). She has exhibited widely and participated in community residencies at Dream Community, Shijr City, Taipei County, Taiwan; Chester Springs Studio, Chester Springs, PA (through a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Award); and in McKeesport, PA (through Groundworks Monongahela Conference funded by the Warhol Foundation).
June 1 - 7
Finding Your Voice: Developing Your Own Style with Clay
Yoko Sekino-Bové
Intermediate
$495
You have finally reached the stage where you have control of the clay object you make and can create what you want – now how do you express yourself and create your own style? This workshop is designed to help you to start the search. Through creative exercises, reviewing various ceramic styles, discussing what you really desire and studying techniques with other people, you to find your true voice. This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to find what he or she can do with clay but doesn’t know where (and how) to start. Both functional potters and clay sculptors are welcomed.
Yoko Sekino-Bové recently moved to the Pittsburgh area after completing her artist-in-residence at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, FL. She has taught ceramic classes in Florida and at the University of Oklahoma. Yoko earned her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Oklahoma as well as a BFA in Graphic Design from the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan. She recently joined the Craftsmen’s Guild of Pittsburgh. Her work has been widely exhibited and awarded across the US including La Petite XI, Feats of Clay CVII, and 500 Cups from Lark Books.
June 8 - 14
Beginning to Intermediate Wheel Thrown Pottery
Joe Sendek
Beginner to Intermediate
$495 (WCCC credit available*)
Immerse your mind, heart, and spirit into the ancient and expressive world of clay. This week will be dedicated to allow each person a chance to focus, explore, and expand his or her artistic and creative self. Especially helpful to those with basic throwing skills, this class is designed to encourage the development of new skills and techniques. Topics to be discussed include centering, trimming, sets, lids, spouts, handles, and altered forms, as well as working larger and combined vessels. We will cover various firing techniques with the goal of the student being able to fire work in electric, gas, and Raku kilns. Bring your tools, ideas, and creative energies for a week that will lift you to the next level of working with clay.
See Joe Sendek’s biography under Exploring Raku (April 25).
June 15 - 21
Small Scale Sculpture and Hand Building
Laura Jean McLaughlin
All Levels
$495 (WCCC credit available*)
We will create small-scale figurative sculptures using a variety of different hand building techniques. Surrealist games will be played to unleash the creative sprit we all possess. Small standing figures, as well as bust earthenware forms will be embellished with brightly colored underglazes and glazes.
Laura Jean McLaughlin is a full-time ceramic artist who sells her work to more than 80 galleries, collectors, and designers throughout the US and abroad. She studies at the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Penland School of Crafts, West Virginia University College of Creative Arts, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and workshop experiences include: Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh, Clarion University, Beloit University, Southern Illinois University, as well as Western Kentucky University. She is a recipient of the Maggie Milano Memorial Award from the Carnegie Museum and three prestigious residencies from the Kohler Co. in Wisconsin. Laura Jean’s ceramic work has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, American Style, American Craft magazines and two books: 500 Teapots and 500 Bowls. Her work is in the collection of PNC Park, Kohler Art Center, Kohler Co. and HBO in New York.
June 22 - 28
Pots That Pour & More
Jason Bohnert
Intermediate to Advanced
$495
Materials Fee Payable to Instructor: optional $20 - $50 for specialty traditional Chinese tools: miniature fettling knives, bamboo paddles, brushes, etc.
This class will focus on developing a strong sense of form and design for pouring vessels and other pots for service, such as pitchers, oil bottles, and particularly teapots. Form and function will be stressed as well as various throwing, altering, and assembling techniques to make sophisticated and well built pots for use. Some traditional Yixing forming techniques will be demonstrated, and a visual tour of Chinese potteries, museums, and the traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony will be given.
A native of Louisville, KY, Jason Bohnert came to West Virginia University to earn his MFA, and studied intensively in Jingdezhen and Yixing, China. Asian folk blue and white painting and Yixing teapot tradition, as well as contemporary American ceramics and architecture directly influence his work. After completing his degree, Jason took a residency at the Energy Xchange near Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, where he made sustainable pottery firing a gas kiln fueled by landfill methane gas. In 2004, Jason led the first full semester ceramics exchange in Jingdezhen, China. Jason now resides in Morgantown, WV, where he is a full-time studio potter at his Snake Hill Pottery.
June 29 - July 5
Noborigama Wood-Fire
Trevor Youngberg
Intermediate
$495
Join us for a fantastic week of ceramic activity, consisting of 2 – 2.5 days of throwing, a day of glazing pots then loading the chamber kiln, two days of firing, a day of rest and then unload and clean up. The subtleties and nuances of firing this amazing kiln will be of primary focus. We will also address glazing techniques, kiln-loading methods, and theory of wood-kiln firing. Plan to be intensely productive and extremely satisfied by the end of the week. Students may bring bisqued ^10 stoneware to the workshop and are welcome to arrive Saturday evening for a bit of extra studio time.
First encountering studio pottery as a freshman at Bethel College, St. Paul, MN, Trevor was immediately fascinated by the process of throwing on the potter’s wheel. He earned his BA in Studio Art with an emphasis in ceramics, and then continued to pursue studio potting as his cornerstone of personal artistic expression. After five years working as a full-time studio potter, Trevor became a craft artist/educator. He divides his artistic energies primarily among potting, carpentry design, and teaching high school ceramics. Visit YoungbergPottery.com for more on Trevor and his work.
July 6 - 12
Altered Clay and Mixed Media
Robert “Boomer” Moore
All Levels
$495
Students in this weeklong class will push the
physical properties of clay and explore ceramic and mixed media construction.
The class will cover techniques for altering both wheel thrown and hand-built
forms to create utilitarian to sculptural works. We will cover surface
treatments from traditional glazes to paint and how sandblasting can be used to
create uniquely colored and textured surfaces. We will also explore ideas and
construction methods for combining mixed media and found objects with your
ceramic forms. Students are encouraged to bring a small amount of non-ceramic
parts or objects they would like to incorporate with clay objects to create
sculptural ceramic and mixed media pieces.
Robert “Boomer” Moore is an instructor and
technician at Ohio University in Athens, OH. Boomer received his BA from Montana
State University and his MFA from Utah State University. His whimsical and
playful pieces play on the border between truly utilitarian pieces to sculptural
works of art. Boomer’s work has been shown in numerous national and
international exhibitions, and his work has been featured in Clay Times,
Ceramics Monthly, The Complete Guide to High Fire Glazes: Glazing & Firing at
Cone 10, Wheel-Thrown Ceramics, The Ceramic Glaze Handbook, 500 Teapots, and
many others. Artist residencies include the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena,
MT, and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, ME.
July 13 - 19
Allure of Altered Pots
Susan Beecher
All Levels
$495
This hands-on workshop will focus on altering methods for functional pots that are wheel thrown. Demonstrations will include different techniques for making oval, square, and rectangular forms for vases, plates, boxes, bowls, bakers, and more. Decorative and functional handles and feet will be shown as well as slip decorating. Come and enjoy the relaxed and supportive atmosphere.
Susan Beecher is a nationally recognized ceramic artist and workshop leader whose work is consistently accepted into juried and invitational exhibitions, most recently at the notable Akar Gallery. Beecher is currently the head of ceramics at Sugar Maples Center for the Arts in Windham, NY. She also teaches at Old Church School of Art in Demarest, NJ, and other art centers throughout the Northeast and Florida. She currently maintains a studio in New York City and the Catskill Mountains.
July 20 - 26
Wood Fire: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire
Jim Dugan
Intermediate to Advanced
$495
The focus of this wood-firing workshop will be on tumble stacking the Touchstone noborigama kiln using slips, raw clay and shino glazed surfaces. Students will work together to fire the wood stack and fire the kiln over the course of the class.
Jim Dugan graduated from California University of Pennsylvania in 1999. He has been a full-time artist, teacher and technician, and was studio manager outreach coordinator at Touchstone seven years ago, before becoming the studio manager for the Vermont Clay Studio. In 2005, Jim became wood kiln manager at Baltimore Clayworks, where he currently is also a resident artist and ceramics teacher.
July 27 - August 2
Plates and Bowls and Cups: A Fresh Look
Richard Hensley
All Levels
$495
Materials Fee Payable to Instructor: $5
We’ll make some groups of plates, bowls, and cups with the wheel and some with hand building and mold techniques. Our goal will be to create images on our pots with stamping tools, slips and glazes, and latex and paper cut-outs. This multi-layered way of thinking will include ideas about plants and animals that can be translated into design motifs suitable for the different forms we have made in the class. We’ll fire our pots in the gas kiln towards the end of the week of our class. This week’s class will also be about ideas – how the needs of humans for simple serving vessels can be the vehicles for an astonishing range of very potent objects far transcending their basic functional origins. Bring your plant, bird, and animal picture books along with two or three plate or bowl pottery forms already bisqued if you have them (high fire clay only!).
Richard Hensley is a studio potter living in Floyd, VA, since 1974. His work is widely collected and involves decorated functional clay pieces made from high fire porcelain clay. In 2003, he was invited to attend and work at an international clay symposium in Istanbul, Turkey. He was an artist in residence at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, China, and has taught ceramics in the art department of Hollins University since 2004. He received a National Endowment For the Arts grant in 1987, and is a founding member of the 16 Hands group of craftsmen located in Floyd, VA. See 16hands.com.
August 3 - 9
August 10 - 16 (Note: This class may be taken as a two-week course)
Wheel Thrown Pottery
Valda Cox
All Levels
$495 per week
Materials Fee Payable to Touchstone: During the first week there will be an optional, extra firing. Students wishing to bring along pieces ready to fire, please pay an additional material fee of $40.00 at time of registration.
Perfect your throwing skills with Valda Cox. Using both porcelain and stoneware clays, you will be encouraged to develop your own personal style. Get involved in glaze mixing and learn the process and ceremony of firing both electric and gas kilns.
Valda Cox has been a professional potter for more than 30 years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University and a founding member of Penn Avenue Pottery in Pittsburgh. She teaches at the Carnegie Museum and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Valda’s distinguished service and dedicated following of students are legendary, and in 2004 she was named Touchstone’s Artist of the Year.
August 17 - 26
Trapping Carbon at Touchstone
Malcolm Davis
Intermediate to Advanced (Students should be able to throw an 8” cylinder with porcelain)
$825
This workshop will focus on the challenging alchemy of mixing, glazing, and firing carbontrap shino-type glazes in Touchstone’s gas kiln. Participants are expected to bring at least 24 bisqued (to cone 010) porcelain pots to fire the kiln twice. We will fire a third time with pots made in class. We will also work in teams to mix a lot of 300 gram test batches of shino-type glazes, so everyone should bring at least 24 self-standing test tiles. There will be demonstrations, assignments, and interactive exercises as we make lots and lots of pots. Shinos are full of magic and mystery, so come prepared for the unexpected! Note: Students will arrive on the afternoon of Sunday, August17th for check-in and leave after lunch on Tuesday, August 26th.
Malcolm Davis has been a full-time studio potter since 1981 when he resigned as campus minister at George Washington University in DC. He maintains a mountaintop studio in north central West Virginia and works exclusively in porcelain. Ever since accidentally firing his first shino pot, he has been a man obsessed, experimenting with and developing shino-type glazes that are prone to carbon trapping. Davis is the recipient of numerous grants, including four from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He has received many awards for his work including a Purchase Award in the Ceramics Monthly International in 1999. His work is included in the collections of several museums, and he has taught and lectured widely throughout the United States and abroad. He curated Endless Variations, a Shino show at the Baltimore NCECA and recently juried the 15th annual Strictly Functional Pottery National.
August 26 - 31
Personal Style for the Wood Kiln
Shane Mickey
All Levels
$395
Come enjoy the camaraderie of wood firing while pursuing your personal style during this wonderful class. Students will focus on expressing their unique voice while making work to fill the wood kiln. Specific detail to proportions, handles, lids, and other additions to your individualized pots plus raw glazing with slips and shino glazes unique to the wood-fire atmosphere will be covered. This will be a fast paced class and students are encouraged to bring some unglazed bisque ware made of cone 10 clay.
Shane Mickey works in the beautiful western North Carolina Mountains. Shane has taught and exhibited his work nationally in such places as Penland, Arrowmont, the Signature Shop, Red Star Studios, and Northern Arizona State University Art Museum. He holds a BFA from Frostburg State University and an MFA from the University of Tennessee. He owns and operates the Spring Creek Anagama community kiln in Bakersville, NC
September 12 - 14
Pinch Pots and Pit Firing: Ancient Methods for Modern Times
Jimmy Clark
All Levels
$195
This course will provide both a technical and philosophical approach to the pinch technique and primitive firing methods. We will explore variations of pinching, including creating larger forms, producing a variety of vessels and shapes burnishing and applying terra sigillata. We will fire the work in a slow-burning, overnight sawdust firing. The course is designed to combat the misconception that pinching is a just a beginner’s technique.
Jimmy Clark is the executive director of the Peters Valley Crafts Center in Layton, NJ. He is also director emeritus of Philadelphia’s Clay Studio. Jimmy has more than 20 years of arts organization leadership, and many more years experience as a master potter.
September 19 – 21
More Pots Without a Wheel
Ron Korczynski
All Levels
$195
This is a great chance to work with Ron if you missed his class in the spring. But if you took his first class this year, this is a great opportunity to build on what you learned. Using Styrofoam balls as molds to create round forms will be explored. Be ready to create a teapot and other forms utilizing a sphere as a building block. This workshop will present a technique that will open many possibilities for anyone working in clay.
See Ron’s biography under May 16 - l8, Creating Round Forms without a Wheel.
September 26 - 28
The Colors of Low Fire Decoration
Christy Hedman
All Levels
Come experience the vibrant attributes of low fire clay, underglazes, slips and glazes! Students will have the opportunity to experiment with low fire white and earthenware clay in conjunction with many different application and decoration methods of under glazes and majolica glazes. Students may bring bisque fired (cone 04), green, and leather hard pieces for the class. Students will be hand building several pieces to glaze. Sgraffito, brush work, wax resist, and glaze trailing techniques will be introduced. All participants will leave with many colorful ideas and finished pieces.
Christy Hedman is a ceramic artist and an art teacher at Deer Lakes High School where she’s dedicated to helping students find their artistic voices through clay. She was nominated as a Teacher of Excellence in 2006, completed a ceramic residency sponsored by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association as a part of the Teacher as Artist in Residency Program in 2007, and has been recognized for promoting and advocating the arts by the Arts Education Collaborative of Pittsburgh in 2008. When she's not encouraging the artists of tomorrow, she works in her home studio making sculpture and pottery using majolica clay, slips, and underglazes. Christy's work can be found at The Clay Place in Carnegie, PA, Windblown Studio in Marchand, PA, and Sarah Howell Gallery in Jonesboro, AR (www.sarahowellgallery.net).
October 3 - 5
Alternative Raku
Joe Sendek
All Levels
$195
Originally taken from the Chinese, Raku is sometimes known as “happy circumstances.” In the West, the happy circumstances of Raku loosely mean the use of the Raku firing method with a wide degree of outcomes. Each piece of pottery may be produced exactly the same way, glazed the same way, and Raku (kiln) fired the same way, but each piece will yield different results, or happy circumstances. In this way, Raku has come to be identified with being happy with each moment and happy with the results obtained within each moment.
In this two-day intensive workshop, explore “happy circumstances” by working with various glazes and combustibles. Bring bisque fired pieces with you, if you have them. If not, there will be pieces available for you to experiment with.
See Joe’s biography under Exploring Raku, April 25 - 27.
October 10 - 14
Hot Metal / Hot Clay: Earth – Fire – Metal
Joe Sendek and Dave Olson
All Levels
$310
Iron and clay, a paradox? Actually, the two have more in common that you might think. Both are plastic and malleable at certain temperatures, they are capable of exhibiting a myriad of textures and patinas, and both may be worked mechanically or by hand. Most important, both require fire to take them to their ultimate form. Time will be divided between the blacksmith studio and the pottery studio as students learn fundamental exercises to advanced forming techniques. Emphasis will be on the creation of objects that successfully integrate these two amazingly plastic art forms. Students will work in three modes: traditional pottery forms with iron as a supporting material, traditional hand forged forms, and free form assemblages.
Dave Olson has been a sculptor, metalsmith, musician, and teacher for more than 30 years. Dave’s work is in a variety of public collections, including US Steel, and he has performed in a various concert bands and orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony.
See Joe’s biography under Exploring Raku, April 25 - 27.