Clay Workshops - Summer 2012
Image on Clay: Decal Tiles - Kala Stein
June 18-22
Monday-Friday
9am-1pm
5 sessions
Castle Hill
$380
In this course you will make decorative tiles by layering under-glazes with your own laser-printer decals. During the first half of the week we will expand our notions about tiles and their function through experimentation with slabs, stamps, sprigs, and under-glaze color. The second half of the week will focus on making your own laser-printer decals from scanned drawings, text, or collaged images. Bring high-contrast black and white images with you to turn into decals. You will leave the class with unique ready-to-hang tiles! All levels are welcome.
Kala Stein is a ceramic artist and educator from western New York. Kala's background in tile began at the historical Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania where she worked as a full-time tile maker. Traditional imagery and subject matter of Moravian tiles continually inform Kala's tile work. She shows her ceramics locally and nationally and currently teaches at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. www.KalaStein.com
Wood Firing - Brian Taylor
June 18-20 & 23
Starts Monday at 9 am
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!
This 2 hour glaze session allows people to glaze cone 10 bisque work for a gas reduction firing. Kilns will be fired weekly if enough work is there to fill the kiln. If you would like your work glaze fired the week after your class, sign up well in advance.
Volumetric Image Transfer: A New Twist on Surface Decoration -
Forrest Lesch-Middleton
June 25-29
Monday - Friday
9am-1pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
Experience a new way of combining form and surface as you explore the techniques Forrest has developed which allow him to integrate wheel throwing and image transfer techniques simultaneously to create uniquely decorative functional wares. Learn about editing images for silk-screens, developing silk-screens for image transfer, and the pitfalls that can be avoided during this way of working. Beginning on tiles and advancing to wheel thrown forms Forrest will walk you step-by-step through his process while encouraging your own creative exploration. You are certain to walk away from this workshop with an entirely new way of looking at pots as they relate to form and surface design. This workshop requires previous wheel-throwing experience.
Forrest Lesch-Middelton is a studio potter and educator currently living and working in Petaluma, California. In 2006 Forrest received his MFA from Utah State University, where he studied ceramics with John Neely and J. Daniel Murphy. In1998 Forrest received a BFA from Alfred University in New York, followed by residencies at both Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, and the Mendocino Arts Center in California. Forrest is currently the Ceramics Program Director of the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma, California and teaches ceramics at a number of colleges in Northern California. Inspired by a life-long fascination with the ceramic process Forrest develops fresh ways to integrate historic themes and references to current global trends in his work.
Exploring Naked Raku - Wally Assleberghs
July 2-6
Monday - Wednesday
10am-1pm
Thursday - Friday
10am-4pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$400
Wally Asselberghs will journey to Cape Cod from Belgium to lead an intense exploration of the theory and practice of “naked raku,” a technique he has specialized in since 1995. Participants will experience this raku-based process which uses sacrificial slip and glaze layers as catalysts to capture patterns and surface textures left behind by smoke and fire. Wally will present the basic naked raku approach, and also encourage participants to experiment with splashed and diluted glazes for more sophisticated effects. In naked raku, the artist applies slip and glaze to their previously bisque-fired work, then fires in a standard raku kiln. Works will be reduced in a post-fire smoke chamber and allowed to cool. The cooling slip and glaze crack, allowing smoke to penetrate underneath creating shading, specks, and irregular crack patterns. The egg-shell layer of slip and glaze is peeled and scrubbed off, revealing the smoke effects bonded to the bare clay. This process, different from using a traditional white crackle glaze, yields infinitely more varied results ranging from bold lightning patterns to soft, subtle speckling, often on the same piece.
Wally Asselberghs works and lives in Belgium, where he has specialised in "naked raku" since 1995. Since 2003, he has been invited every year for international workshops all over the USA and Canada. His work has been published in many international books and articles. A full biography and photographs of his organic objects, technique and workshops can be viewed on his website: www.wallyasselberghs.be
Animals in Print - Hannah Niswonger
July 9-13
Monday-Friday
9am-1pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
In this 5-day workshop we’ll focus on building clay sculpture inspired by animals. We’ll look at a variety of ways of building, but will focus special attention on slab construction. Hannah will demonstrate screen-printing and mono-printing patterns on slabs before using them to build. We’ll discuss printing materials and techniques for creating prints on clay, and 
how to incorporate printed clay into clay sculpture. 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 in 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 seven fish.
Intermediate Throwing - Paul Wisotzky
July 11 - August 15
Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
6 Sessions
This class will progress students through basic functional forms. The class is intended for those wishing to solidify existing skills or to add new ones. Each of the six sessions will be dedicated to specific skills and forms. Session one will focus on the basic cylinder -- the fundamental form of functional pottery. Session two will explore drinking vessels. Handles will be the focus of session three. The fourth session will cover lids and lidded pots. Session five will investigate basic altering and surface decoration techniques. The final session will focus on glaze techniques. Basic throwing skills are strongly encouraged.
Paul Wisotzky is a full-time functional potter living and working in Truro. Paul works in porcelain and stoneware and fires in reduction and soda atmospheres. He is an active alumni of the Penland School of Crafts as both a student and studio assistant, most recently assisting Gay Smith and Scott Goldberg. In addition, he studied in concentration with Cynthia Bringle. Paul owns and operates Blue Gallery in Provincetown, the home of his pottery as well as the work of more than 20 functional craft artists. Please visit www.bluegalleryprovincetown.com for more information.
The Mary Lou Friedman Chair honors:
"An American Ceramicist, A Japanese Aesthetic, a Universal Approach”
Jeff Shapiro
July 16-20
Mon. – Wed.
9-1pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
This course will address concerns about forming and firing, using the kiln to create the palette. It will include demonstrations on throwing and trimming loosely with soft clay and slab construction. This workshop is meant to challenge your perceptions and to bring you out of your comfort zone, to look for growth and the evolution of your work.
Jeff Shapiro is known for workshops that encourage discourse about technique, aesthetics, and philosophy. He has also become a story teller and relates poignant anecdotes from his 9 years spent in Japan. His work has been extensively exhibited both nationally and internationally and is in many collections including The Mint Museum, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and the American Museum of Ceramic Art. His writings have been published in numerous magazines and books. He's taught workshops in across the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Italy and has just returned from a successful workshop in Pondicherry, India at the Golden Bridge Pottery.
Try-it! Wheel Throwing - Ceramics Manager
July 25
Wednesday
1-4pm
1 Session
$50
Always wanted to make something in the clay studio? This is your chance to get your hands dirty! Bring a date, a friend or just yourself over to Castle Hill for a one-time 3-hour clay class. In this class we will make a piece, add colors and a few days later your piece will be out of the kiln and ready to go home with you.
Raku Totems - Joe Woodford
July 23-27
Monday – Tuesday 10am-1pm
Thursday-Friday 9am-4pm
4 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
This course will be directed towards building larger scaled totemic sculptures with an armature. Special emphasis will be placed on form, texture and design in a larger scale format. We will utilize the wheel as well as hand building in the creative process. The firing process used will mainly be done in the Raku kiln.
Joe Woodford studied at the Mesa Art Center. After ten years of attending classes and workshops, he was hired as an instructor. In 1993, he began a career showing in art shows and galleries throughout the western United States. In 2002, Joe was a featured artist in episode 608 of the Home and Garden Network’s show Modern Masters and has received many awards for his work including four Best in Shows. He is currently working with the prestigious Celebration of Fine Art as a resident specialist in ceramics and Raku firing.
Pottery Work Area: Hard hats not required - Sam Taylor
July 30 – Aug. 3
Mon.-Fri. 9am-1pm
5 Sessions
$380
Seriously fun pottery exploring basic construction techniques. This workshop is about how to put it all together. We will explore a bunch of different ways to intergrate pieces formed on and off the wheel. We will look at form, function, weight, and surface while building, vases, boxes, bottles and pouring vessels.
For beginner to advanced students for wheel workers and hand builders. Come and hone your skills, come and learn some new moves, come with an open mind, come and practice believing is seeing.
Sam Taylor has been making pottery in the foothills of the Berkshires for over 20 years. He is a self described “slow potter”, making pots on his treadle wheel and firing them in his wood kiln. Sam is a studio potter and has performed all the associated tasks that go along with that title, exhibitor, teacher, organizer, builder, promoter. His pottery has been shaped by Michael Simon and further influenced by Mark Shapiro and Michael Kline.
*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: $35 per cubic foot of kiln space.
Pouring | Drinking | Thinking - Mark Shapiro
August 6-9
Monday-Thursday
9am-1 pm
4 Sessions
Castle Hill
$350
How do proportion, contour, profile, scale, weight, and surface treatment come together in that special cup that we always reach for? We will focus on simple and more complex drinking and pouring pots thinking about how elements combine to engage and please the user. Demonstrations will feature wheel skills but hand-builders are also welcome.
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.
Low Tech Ceramics: Carbonized Clay - Mikhail Zakin
August 13-17
Monday - Friday
9am-1 pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
Enjoy a journey of exploration in clay, with a focus on the dynamics of form free of the need to glaze. Our work will be bisque fired and then refire in a Raku kiln, and smoked black with organic materials for a direct and complete ceramic experience. For the experienced potter as well as the beginner.
Mikhail Zakin is a co-founder of the Art School at the Old Church Cultural Center. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Art Students League in New York. She has taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Greenwich House Pottery, Sarah Lawrence College, Castle Hill, Mendocino Art Center, and Harvard University. Her awards include the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts grants. She has led seminars in England, Japan, Mexico, Scotland, Italy, China, Korea, Holland, and Morocco. Her work is included in major collections nationally and internationally.
Pottery: Ideas and Making - Linda Christianson
August 20-24
9am-2 pm (Instruction)
2-4pm (Open Studio)
5 Sessions
$500
Our ideas for pottery come from what we pay attention to. This workshop will focus on our own personal curiosities and becoming comfortable with ideas, shapes, and methods that have eluded or are new to us. Explore the sparking of ideas and making functional pots through demonstrations, lively discussions, fun exercises, and plenty of individual attention. This workshop is one of discovery and risk taking. All levels are welcome.
Linda Christianson is an independent studio potter who lives and works in rural Minnesota. She studied at Hamline University (St Paul, Minnesota), and the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada). She exhibits nationally and internationally, including one person exhibits in London and St. Louis. Her pieces are in numerous public and private collections, including the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Glenboe Museum. An itinerate educator, Linda has taught at colleges and universities, including Carleton College and the Hartford Art School. She received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation. Her recent writing appeared in Studio Potter and The Log Book. One of her goals is to make a better cup each day.
*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: $35 per cubic foot of kiln space.
Hand-Building and Raku - Jim Brunelle
August 27-31
Monday-Tuesday
10am-1 pm
Thursday-Friday
9am-4 pm
4 Sessions
Castle Hill
$380
This class will explore the many wonders of form and surface through a variety of hand-building techniques by building a personal vessel or small figurative sculpture. Students may take this further by building a pedestal that displays the vessel/sculpture. Students will complete an archival object that marks their time and presence with their piece, and 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.
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.
Wood Firing - Brian Taylor
August 27th – 29th and Sept 1, 2012
Starts Monday at 9 am
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!
FALL CLAY INTENSIVE
Happiness Is A Warm Extruder - Hayne Bayless
September 3-7
Monday-Friday
10am-4 pm
5 Sessions
Castle Hill
$575
In this workshop we'll explore extrusion and slab techniques as they relate to making functional stoneware. Our approach will be to let the process show in the work, keeping in mind if we keep out of clay’s way, the material will reveal its true nature and the results will remain fresh and lively. We will work with unconventional forming methods and unusual approaches to surface decoration. Myths will be busted and secrets revealed. Topics include: cutting stencils from Tyvek; colored slip inlay and stretched slabs; liquid latex resist and deer-tail brushes; fashioning tools out of common materials and modifying existing ones to suit specific needs; and how to make custom extruder dies. This workshop will also interest throwers looking to expand their horizons beyond the wheel.
Hayne Bayless is a studio potter in Ivoryton, CT. In college he managed to avoid all academic art. He quit a perfectly good job as a newspaper editor in 1992 to make pots. He has exhibited at the Smithsonian Craft Show nine times and the Minnesota Potters Tour five times. He is represented by galleries including AKAR, Ferrin, Blue Heron, Crimson Laurel, and Hibberd-McGrath. His work is published in Studio Potter magazine, Objects for Use: Handmade by Design by Paul Smith, and Design Language by Tim McCreight. Hayne has taught workshops at Arrowmont, Castle Hill, The Clay Studio, Odyssey Center, Penland, and Shakerag, and has had three residencies at Watershed.
Traditional English & American Slip Trailing Techniques Guy Wolff
September 15 &16
Saturday & Sunday
10 - 4 pm
$300
Guy Wolff (with guest potter Sharry Stevens Grunden ) Using traditional “Gravity Flow Slip Trailers” we will have a day of making Hump mold “slip trailed”, “Joggled “, redware plates and tiles . This will be a party of slip decorating! We will also spend time making and trailing pots for the next Castle Hill salt glazed firing ! Making your own slip trailer will also be part of the weekend.
Guy Wolff is a traditional potter working out of Litchfield County Ct for the last 40 years. Guy worked for a short time with Joffy Snell at Wetheriggs Country Pottery in the north of England in the early 1970’s . Wetheriggs pottery specialized in “gravity flow slip trailing” since 1855 and is a 19th Century Industrial Monument near Penrith Cumbria UK .. Sharry Stevens Grunden was at Wetheriggs as a production potter for years in the mid 1970’s and is a master trailer.
Wood Firing - Brian Taylor
Columbus Day Weekend, Oct. 6-8th and 12th 2012
Starts Saturday at 9am
Highland Center
$325
Register
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!
Summer Firings -
Ongoing throughout the summer
High Fire Glaze Firings - Ceramics Manager
Did you take an amazing class and leave with new friends, boundless inspiration and bisque-ware? Contact the Ceramics Managers to schedule a time to get your things glazed. (The kiln will be fired as often as possible once there is enough glazed work to fill it.) Fee: $25 per cubic foot of kiln space.
Salt Firings - Ceramics Manager
The Castle Hill Salt Kiln is turning out amazing fired results! Salt firing is the process of introducing salt into the kiln that reacts with the materials in the clay and glazes to form intriguing and dynamic surfaces. Contact the Ceramics Managers to schedule a time to get your things glazed and wadded and if you have any questions about clay bodies, slips and glazes that will take full advantage of the salt firing process. (The kiln will be fired as often as possible once there is enough glazed work to fill it.) Fee: $35 per cubic foot of kiln space.
Castle Hill honors distinguished artists in our five annual chairs.
Workshops Summer 2012
This year over a hundred workshops are being offered in all disciplines.
About Us
A location, nestled in the dunes of Truro and within walking distance to Cape Cod bay, provides an inspirational and meditative backdrop that enhances the workshop experience.
A distinguished faculty that consists of prominent artists in the fields of painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, jewelry and writing.
A student body consists of both working artists and art students who hail from all over the US and Canada. Today Castle Hill celebrates its 40th year Anniversary.