Beth Katleman on Her Ceramic Curiosities

 READ THIS! (click link below)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/garden/13qna.html?_r=3

Ceramics Art Daily

 Hello All,
I am going to suggest that you join Ceramic Arts Daily for supplemental info.
It is a wonderful resource.

 http://ceramicartsdaily.org/

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-art-and-artists/ceramic-sculpture/testing-the-limits-of-porcelain-in-wheel-thrown-altered-and-carved-sculptures/#more-89103

January 21, 2011

Testing the Limits of Porcelain in Wheel Thrown, Altered and Carved Sculptures

by Jennifer McCurdy Read Comments (1)

Jennifer McCurdy sands a wheel-thrown, altered, and carved porcelain sculpture. A couple of months ago, I attended the Potters Council Porcelain II conference in San Diego for the purpose of capturing some of the presenting artists’ impressive techniques on video to share with you! And today I will do just that.  Jennifer McCurdy has been working with porcelain for over twenty five years and for the last several years, she has been really putting it to the test structurally. She has been experimenting with how thin high fire porcelain can be before it collapses in the kiln and how much can it be cut away and still maintain structural integrity? The results of these experiments are stunning sculptures that reflect the movement of the potter’s wheel and the fire of the kiln. Today, Jennifer demonstrates her techniques from the initial thrown form to the lighter-than-air finished piece. - Jennifer Harnetty, editor.

Download Video: MP4 HTML5 Video Player by VideoJS Having trouble watching the video? Please see our Video FAQ to troubleshoot.

This video was filmed at the Potters Council Porcelain II workshop. Click here for more information on upcoming Potters Council workshops!

Finished wheel-thrown, altered and carved sculpture by Jennifer McCurdy. Click to enlarge! To learn more about Jennifer McCurdy or see more images of her work, visit www.jennifermccurdy.com.

Welcome to Raku/CR218

Hello All,
Welcome to the Spring semester of Raku.
You will find the syllabus here.
Students will receive a weekly schedule in class, Tuesday, 01/18/2011.
Just this past week, the Ceramics community lost one it's most innovative artists.
Paul Soldner passed away at the age of 89. He was an incredible gift to the world of Contemporary Ceramics.
Please see the post below for information about Raku and Paul Soldner.

Paul Soldner dies at 89; ceramicist known for American raku He stumbled onto the style he became known for, befitting of an artist who celebrated the beauty of the accidental and unpredictable.

Taken from:http://www.paulsoldner.com/

Paul Soldner has made numerous invaluable contributions to the field of ceramics, including developing what has been come to be known as "American Raku", and a technique known as "low-temperature salt firing". His involvement with raku, for which he is now internationally known, came by chance. As Garth Clark relates:

"Invited to demonstrate at a crafts fair in 1960, Soldner decided to experiment with the technique. Using Bernard Leach's "A Potter's Book" as his guide, he set up a simple kiln and improvised a few lead-based glazes. The results were disappointing: the clay body did not respond well to the quick firing technique, and the glazes were shiny and too brightly colored. His fascination with raku (a Japanese technique developed in the sixteenth century) did not diminish, however, and Soldner continued to experiment. At first he produced mainly tea bowls, but soon found these restrictive and somewhat academic, as there was no tea ceremony in Western culture that would give the forms their traditional significance. He gradually discovered he was more interested in raku as a technique and an aesthetic than as a tradition. This attitude resulted in a much more playful approach to form, scale, function, and material." (Garth Clark)

The traditional raku technique, which involves throwing and bisque-firing vessels which are then glazed and placed directly in an open raku kiln to be withdrawn a few minutes later and plunged into water, was adopted, transformed, and manipulated by Soldner as his major medium of expression, and as a result has gained widespread popularity in the ceramic art world. Though through Soldner raku has grown away from it's Oriental traditions and become a strongly American art form, the form still requires the same depth and sensitivity to succeed. As Soldner states:

"In the spirit of raku, there is the necessity to embrace the element of surprise. There can be no fear of losing what was once planned and there must be an urge to grow along with the discovery of the unknown. In the spirit of raku: make no demands, expect nothing, follow no absolute plan, be secure in change, learn to accept another solution and, finally, prefer to gamble on your own intuition. Raku offers us deep understanding of those qualities in pottery which are of a more spiritual nature, of pots by men willing to create objects that have meaning as well as function." (Soldner, 1973)

Go HERE for article by Jori Finkel.