Exploratory Workshop

Instructor: MArty Fielding

Explore Slab building techniques!

Dates: November 22nd & 23rd
Full days of working with clay. 9:30am-4:30pm

1/2 Hour Lunches - please pack a lunch
(consider a cooler bag, as our small staff fridge cannot fit everyone’s lunches).

Workshop Fee: $245 -
Refund Policy: Please read this before registering.

Description

This workshop will explore slab building techniques for constructing functional pots such as cups, boxes, and pouring vessels. We will look at visual and conceptual sources, ceramic and non-ceramic, as starting points for making personal work. Forming demonstrations will include using paper templates, drop molds and a variety of alternative approaches to making handles, feet, lids, and spouts. Discussions of color theory will inform demonstrations on building surface interest and conveying meaning through the application of color.

Artist Statement

My ceramic vessels combine modernist architecture, abstract painting, and color theory to re-envision archetypal pottery forms while conveying or evoking emotional responses. Inspired by architecture, I use slabs to construct abstracted vessels comprised of intersecting geometric shapes. Through exaggerated proportions and visual mass, the pieces communicate a sense of monumentality in objects of modest scale. The forms are brushed with layers of bold color, giving them the presence of utilitarian 3-dimensional Color Field paintings.

Tools and Materials

RCC will provide up to 25# of reclaimed clay per person, we use a Cone 6 porcelaneous stoneware. Participants may choose to purchase more clay, or bring their own light colored clay to work with. No dark/red clay bodies. Please manage your own reclaim for out of house clays.

Please bring your own set of tools for this workshop - here’s what we recommend! Make sure your name or initials are written on all your items.

Banding Wheel (if you are local. we have a few for those traveling)
Ribs – metal and/or soft rubber
Fettling knife
Exacto knife
Assorted soft brushes, sumi-e, hake, fan
Assorted wooden modelling tools
Scoring tool
Sur-form

About Marty Fielding

Marty Fielding became captivated by clay as an anthropology major at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He continued his study of ceramics at Penland School of Crafts and worked for decade as a studio potter prior to earning an M.F.A. from the University of Florida.

Fielding’s work has been included in invitational and juried exhibitions and published in numerous books and magazines. He teaches at Florida State University and his teaching experience includes the University of Georgia Studies Abroad in Cortona, Italy and workshops in craft schools, universities, and community studios.

Learn more about Marty Fielding by visiting his website. www.martyfielding.com