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Wood Firing - Trevor Dunn
June 29 - July 1 and unload July 6
Starts Saturday 9am
Highland Center
$340

Explore the potential of surfaces generated in wood firing. In this workshop we will discuss the various results that can be influenced through different firing techniques using the wood fired train kiln. The uses of specific clay bodies, slips and glazes will be covered to enhance the participant’s knowledge of possible results for both functional and sculptural pieces. Trevor will share his knowledge of how to control the fire, atmosphere and temperature in the kiln during this hands-on workshop.  Bisque ware must be cone 10 clay.

 

Trevor Dunn studied sculpture and ceramics at the University of South Florida. After graduating he moved to Durango, Colorado to set up a studio where he built a small anagama kiln and pursued his interest in wood-fired ceramics. In 1999 Trevor joined the faculty at San Juan College to teach ceramics and sculpture until 2006. In 2009 he earned his MFA degree in ceramics from Utah State University. Trevor has lectured internationally and led workshops around the country in wood firing, salt/soda firing, and kiln building.  His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and is held in public and private collections. In 2009 he received the NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship Award for a proposed study and film project in Jianxi, China. He is currently an assistant professor of ceramics at the University of North Florida

 

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Mary Lou Friedman Chair:

Wood Firing: Collaboration with Earth, Fire and Spirit -Jack Troy
Aug. 25 - 27 and unload Aug. 31
This firing is combined with a studio workshop. See workshops schedule.

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Kaleidoscope of Alternative Firing Methods - Wally Asselberghs and Sue Morse  -  (June Intensive)
June 17 – 21
Mon.-Fri. 10am-4pm
5 Sessions
$590

Sue Morse will travel from Phoenix and Wally Asselberghs from Belgium to co-teach this novel approach called mutual firing techniques. In the first part of the program they will introduce variations of their personal slip-and-glaze method of Naked Raku. In the next section they will present the use of ferric chloride and organic materials, fired in aluminium foil. On a third level, they will share the results of their latest experiments using their new recipe of slip-resist,  including improved methods of application, different layer thicknesses and special tricks to create a unique range of new crackling patterns.  At the end of the workshop, a variety of cross-over techniques among all three methods will be included. Participants are requested to bring along a limited quantity of bisque, but day one will also cover burnishing techniques. The focus of this workshop will be highly experimental, using the surface of the bare clay as a canvas to be painted, a means for exploring the moods of the Gods of Fire.  Wally Asselberghs works and lives in Belgium, where he has specialised in "Naked Raku" since 1995.  From 2003, he has been invited every year for international workshops all over the USA and Canada, being assisted by Sue Morse since 2006. 

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Work Zone - Sam Taylor

June 24 - 28
Mon.-Fri. 9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

“Under Construction” comes back to Castle Hill for another round of building with clay. Seriously fun pottery exploring basic construction techniques: Pulling, throwing, rolling, stretching, cutting, paddling. Don’t get stuck! Make stuff. We will explore a bunch of different ways to integrate pieces formed on and off the wheel. We will look at form, function, weight, surface and balance while building, vases, boxes, bottles and pouring vessels, houses. And we’ll apply the Twelve Virtues of the Round: bravery, honor, courtesy, truth, grace, humility, courage, loyalty, virtue, authority and service. For beginner to advanced students, for wheel workers and hand builders. Come and hone your skills, come and learn some new moves.

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Building an Earthen Oven   - Paula Marcoux - June 26-27
Wed.-Thurs. 10am-4pm
2 Sessions
$285

A wood-fired oven is tremendous fun to use and a great boon to the passionate baker or pizza aficionado. It can also be a beautiful object in the garden landscape. This workshop will cover everything you need to build your own, mostly out of clay, sand, straw and dung. Over the course of two days, participants will learn to mix various clay mortars, build an arched brick oven mouth and lay a firebrick hearth, set up a sand form, and build and finish the body of the oven. We'll discuss thermal mass and insulation, siting and drainage, and using alternative materials, all as we work on this ambitious project.

Paula Marcoux is food editor and columnist at edible South Shore magazine. A food historian, she has written scholarly articles on the history of ovens, and occasionally builds ovens and teaches baking and cooking classes. She holds a degree in Anthropology (Archaeology) from Brown University and is a two-decade veteran of living history at Plimoth Plantation. She is the author of two forthcoming books, Codfish Muddle and Whortleberry Cake: Cooking for Family and Friends in Nineteenth-Century Plymouth (Plymouth Antiquarian Society), and Cooking with Fire (Storey Publishing). Her website is www.themagnificentleaven.com.

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Raku Firing and Forming - Bob Green  
July 1 – 2 and 4-5
Mon.-Tues 9am-12pm, Thurs. – Fri. (firing)9am – 4pm
$395

Come experience this magical 16th century Japanese firing process which is closely associated with Zen Buddhism. This class is available to both the novice and more advanced potter. Whether you throw or hand build,  you will be excited by this fast glaze firing technique which yields subtle to very dramatic coloration on the surface of your pieces. We will make pieces for the first two days and Raku glaze fire for the final two days. During these four sessions, you will have several opportunities to try different glazes and learn how to control this serendipitous firing process. We will discuss the work you produce and everyone should leave with some WOW results.

BOB GREEN has an MFA in ceramics from Southern Illinois Universty Edwardsville, and an undergraduate degree in Sculpture. He has taught numerous workshops on Raku and alternative firing techniques. He currently teaches for Snow Farm, the New England craft program, as well as for Art New England, sponsored by Mass College of Art and Design at Bennington College.

 

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Beastly & Fowl: A Sculptural Exploration in Clay  - Hannah Niswonger

July 8 - 12
Mon.-Fri.

9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

In this five- day workshop, we'll explore diverse approaches to building clay sculpture inspired by animals, seeking the building technique best suited to conveying an animal’s form. Hannah will demonstrate a variety of strategies and techniques for approaching complex animal forms in clay, including 3-D tile building and slab construction of forms with slender legs. The class will address animal gestures, anatomy and expression. Glazing and firing techniques will also be discussed. Students should bring to class the images and/or drawings of animals they intend to incorporate into their work.

Hannah Niswonger received an MFA in ceramic sculpture from Alfred University in Alfred, New York. As an undergraduate she attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where she received a BA in studio art. She has taught courses in ceramics at Harvard University, MassArt in Boston, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. She exhibits regularly in galleries and juried craft shows, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. She lives in Winchester, Massachusetts with her husband, three kids and two dogs and three fish.

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Layered Surface and Intuitive Form
Adero Willard July 15 - 19
Mon.-Fri. 9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

In this workshop you will learn how to create intricate surfaces by combining and layering color and pattern using resists, sgraffito, and mishima.  I will show you these traditional techniques and how I alter and layer them to create depth. Through hand-on practice, I will teach you how to apply these layering techniques using  design principles — transparency, opacity, figure/ground, scale, abstraction, representation, and repetition — in a simple and intuitive way to create depth and complexity on your surfaces.
As we progress, you will have a chance to apply and play with some of these techniques using your own personal aesthetic and ideas.

As part of this intensive surface exploration, I will demonstrate a variety of thrown-and-altered and hand-built forms that I make and discuss how those forms evolved alongside my surface decoration. From simple to complex (depending on your level of clay experience), and with help through individual advice, you will create work in which surface treatment is integrated with form.

Adero Willard currently lives in Western Massachusetts where she is a studio potter and instructor of ceramics at Holyoke Community College. Adero received a Bachelors in Fine Art at Alfred University in 1995 and Masters of Fine Arts at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2006, where she studied with Walter Ostrom and Neil Forrest. She completed a year-long residency in 2008 at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, where she was the Salad Days Artist. As a full time artist, Adero has shown in a number of galleries and craft shows nationally, including Craft Boston and Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington DC. Her interest in surface decoration is lifelong and fueled by a passion for textile design, painting, and collage.

 

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SoundsWork in Clay (July Intensive) - Susan Rawcliffe
July 22 - 26
Mon.-Fri. 10am-4pm
5 Sessions
$590

Take a lump of clay and hollow it. How can we find its voice? In this workshop, Susan will teach students to put sound into a shape, and to choose a shape to sound. A variety of ceramic flutes, ocarinas, whistles, whistling bottles, trumpets and sound sculptures can be created. Using available techniques, designs emerge from hand-built forms: extruded, slab created, pinched or coiled. If desired, students can choose a preferred technique or form. For inspiration, we'll explore the images and sounds of prehispanic ceramic musical instruments; look at images and videos of the artist's work, and examine a traveling selection of her instruments.

For 30 years, Susan Rawcliffe has been making, playing and researching ceramic flutes, pipes, ocarinas, whistles, trumpets and sound sculptures. Her work evolves through a circular process of making acoustical studies of ancient and contemporary instruments, learning to play them, and then creating a next generation of instruments and music. In addition to extensive performances, exhibitions and lectures, she is also a recognized scholar of pre-conquest mesoamerican musical instruments. Grants include a McKnight Visiting Composer's grant in Minneapolis, MN; a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to research prehispanic ceramic flutes in Mexico; and in 4-5/20ll a Cultural Explorers International Grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles, for research on a collection of over 300 West Mexican prehispanic clay flutes and sound sculptures located in Bangor University, Wales, UK.

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Fresh and Sassy. Lively Up Your Pots. Soft Altering on the Wheel and Beyond- Gay Smith
July 29 – Aug. 2
Mon.-Fri. 9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

We’ll work with exciting ways to make your pots fresh and lively. Altering with freshly thrown clay makes pots look like they get up and dance. Utilizing techniques mastered over 30 years, Gay will show how to texture surfaces using faceting, fluting, and impressing: shape pots into squares, ovals, triangles; and make lids for these. Finishing touches and attachments, like handles and feet, enhance and complete our pots. Attention to the particular interests and the work of each individual will be emphasized, as well as how to work with porcelain clay, if desired.

Gay Smith, aka Gertrude Graham Smith, is a studio potter who single fires porcelain ware in a soda kiln near Penland School in Western North Carolina. Artist-in-residencies include the Archie Bray Foundation and Penland School. Teaching credits include workshops at Penland School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the Harvard Ceramics Studio, and the Findhorn Foundation. Her work is shown internationally, included in collections like the Mint Museum, Taipei County Yingge Museum, and can be viewed in numerous publications including Functional Pottery, Mark Making by Robin Hopper, Working with Clay by Susan Peterson, and as a cover feature of Ceramics Monthly. Grants include a 2006/7 North Carolina Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship award, and a 2010 NC Regional Arts Project Grant.

*Students enrolled in this course are invited to participate in a Salt Firing this week. If there is enough work to fill the kiln, pieces will be fired before the workshop ends. Please bring your ^10 bisque-ware to the first day of class to glaze and wad. Fee: $30 per cubic foot of kiln space.

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Pottery: Working the Hard Places to Make Better Pots - Mark Shapiro
Aug. 5-8
Mon.-Wed. 9am-3pm Thurs. 9am-1pm
4 Sessions
$395

Tall and thin cylinders? Handles? Lids that look good and fit right? A spout that pours? There is something daunting for everyone working on making better pots. We will dig into some technical aspects of potting and Mark will offer some tricks to overcome common stumbling blocks.  Working through more challenging exercises will allow a keener focus on our simpler pots. Some experience suggested. Please bring a notebook, ideas and tools.

Mark Shapiro makes wood-fired pots in Western Massachusetts. He is a frequent lecturer, curator, panelist, and writer, and is mentor to a half-dozen apprentices who have trained at his Stonepool Pottery. His work was featured in the 4th World Ceramics Biennial in Icheon, Korea, and is in many public collections. His interviews of Karen Karnes, Michael Simon, Paulus Berensohn, and Sergei Isupov, are in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and he recently edited A Chosen Path: the Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes (UNC Press 2010), which accompanies her current traveling retrospective. He is on the advisory board of Ceramics Monthly, and is a contributing editor to Studio Potter Magazine.

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From Concept to Resolution -Jeff Shapiro
August 12  - 16
Mon-Fri.

9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

This workshop will deal with soft and loose throwing and trimming as well as altered wheel work. While developing an appreciation for the beauty of the "imperfections" in nature, Shapiro will inspire and assist participants to come up with the appropriate forming process for the completion of ideas or concepts they have been considering, whether it be for functional or sculptural work. Shapiro will outline the thought process to this approach via demonstrations, slide presentations, and discussions. Participants will be encouraged to develop their ideas and build problem-solving skills. This class will help participants at all levels develop their approach to creating.

Shapiro studied in Japan for 9 years and has spent the past 30 years in upstate NY finding his own voice. Through trial and error and experimentation, he has developed a number of approaches to forming and manipulating clay to fit his needs; there is an appropriate process for every project. The class will include demonstrations on throwing and trimming soft and fluid. There will be discussions about participants’ needs for creating and developing their ideas to resolution, and of an aesthetic that appreciates the beauty that exists in the imperfections of Nature.

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Paper Clay - A Sculptural Approach - Rebecca Hutchinson
Aug. 19 - 23
Mon.-Fri. 9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$395

In this workshop we will explore paper clay as a sculptural medium. Demonstrations will include clay preparation, building techniques for using paper clay, surface and color, firing and non-firing options; all to achieve qualities of translucency, weightlessness and sculptural building ease. Participants will be encouraged to develop individual ideas and conceptual directions. The workshop will be balanced between demo watching and studio construction time. All skill levels welcome.

Rebecca Hutchinson is a ceramic installation artist and Professor of Ceramics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her site specific works have been influenced by observation of place, specifically looking at environmental concerns. She has used and taught with paper clay for the past fifteen years, has shown nationally and internationally, and has just recently exhibited at San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, Solo exhibit at Linda Darke Gallery in Houston, 2012 Taiwan Biennale, Bracciano Museum, Italy, and has been awarded a Pollock Krasner Grant, Puffin Foundation Grant, Virginia Artist Fellowship, and Society of Arts and Crafts Artist of the Year award. Additional shows in the last several years have been at the Holter Museum of Art, Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, University of Tulsa, Islip Museum Manchester Crafts Guild, Pittsburgh, Lowe Museum of Art, Miami, The Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis and the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

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Jack Troy – Wood Firing and Studio Workshop: Collaboration with Earth, Fire and Spirit (August Intensive)
Aug. 25 – 31
Firing: Sun. 9am-Tuesday evening
Studio Workshop: Wed.-Fri. 10am-4pm
Kiln Unload: Saturday morning 9am
$590

We will be firing Castle Hill’s train kiln for natural ash glazed, shino, and tenmoku effects. Glazing and wadding bisqueware will begin Sunday morning with the firing proceeding through Monday and Tuesday.

During the cool-down, we will have access to the studio. During this time we will be considering alterations to cups, bowls, bottles, and jars. We will have the opportunity to move our forms forward, rather than getting better at doing what we already know.  We will have frequent discussions about goals and values relative to our processes. Books and image presentations will cover wood-fired aesthetics and sources of inspiration.

Our session promises to be a high-energy event, with ample opportunities for camaraderie, mutual learning, and enlivening the studio and kiln environment with our unique interpersonal chemistry. Unloading, discussion of the work, and kiln cleanup will be on Saturday morning.

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Hand Building and Raku Firing  - Jim Brunelle
Sept. 2 – 3 and 5 - 6
Mon.-Tues 9am-Noon, Thurs.

Fri. 9am – 4pm
$395

Thorough building a personal vessel or small figurative sculpture, participants in this class will explore the many wonders of form and surface through a variety of hand-building techniques. They may take this even further by building a pedestal that displays the vessel/sculpture. In addition, they’ll complete an archival object that marks their time and presence with the piece, then experience and witness its Raku firing. The class will build with clay and other materials for two days, take a one-day break while the pieces dry for bisque firing, and return to Castle Hill for glazing and firing on the final two days.

Is this a workshop that would be especially inviting to those rather new to pottery and raku? Might be good to note for whom this workshop  intended .

Jim Brunelle returns to Castle Hill from Hartford, CT, bringing his teaching and hands-on techniques to a variety of interest levels. He has a wide range of experience in working with clay, including wheel throwing, pinching, sculpting, and primarily Raku firing. His works bear evidence of his recent discoveries using the kilns at Castle Hill. Among these are salt reduction and oxidation firings.

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Throwing Traditional Early American and English Pottery  Guy Wolff
Sept. 14-15
Sat. –Sun. 10am-4pm
2 Sessions
$250

In this 2 day workshop we will learn to make archetypal pottery like crocks, bottles, jugs, bowls and planters that have evolved for thousands of years. Guy will demonstrate on the pottery wheel while talking about the history of these forms, how they were used and how prominent aesthetic elements of these shapes have developed from needs for efficient stacking in the salt kiln. Pots made in this workshop will only be bisque fired but a salt firing in the Castle Hill salt kiln may be arranged at a future date based on class interest.

Guy Wolff is a traditional potter trained in Britain and America working out of Litchfield County Ct for the last 40 years. His pots are at Monticello, Mt Vernon, the White House, Winterthur Museum, and the Mingai Kon Tokyo. He has also been a frequent guest on Martha Stewart.

 

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Wood Firing - Brian Taylor

Columbus Day Weekend, Oct. 12, 13 & 14th and 19th 2013
Starts Saturday at 9am
Highland Center
$325

Come experience the excitement, camaraderie and beautiful results of wood firing in Castle Hill’s wood kiln! You’ll help stoke the kiln all the way to 2300 degrees using only wood as a fuel source all the while creating colorful flashing and ash deposits on your pieces. Students will participate in all aspects of the firing. Bring your bisque pieces of various sizes (4 cubic feet or about 30 pots) to glaze and fire. All bisque-ware must be ^10 clay. We will glaze and load all day Monday and fire the kiln from Tuesday morning into Wednesday night. The exciting unload will be on Saturday morning. Contact the Ceramics Managers if you have any questions about suitable clay bodies, slips and glazes that will take full advantage of the results possible with the wood firing process.

Brian Taylor has been practicing ceramics for the past 16 years.  He received his Masters of Fine Arts Degree in 2010 from Alfred University and his Bachelors of Fine Arts from Utah State University in 2006.  Throughout his career he has taught or been a visiting artist at numerous institutions including Maryland Institute College of Art, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Western Kentucky University.  He has also held residencies at several reputable art centers including Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and Watershed Center for Ceramic Art where he designed and built a low-fire wood kiln. He has fired and helped construct numerous kilns throughout his career including a train-style kiln at USU designed by his professor, John Neely, the original creator of the train kiln design.  Brian is currently the Ceramic Studio Manager at Castle Hill and has had the pleasure of firing the train kiln there with great results! 

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