OUR MISSION

To foster the arts and crafts by providing a wide range of instruction for adults and children. Castle Hill holds exhibitions, lectures, forums, concerts and other similar activities in order to promote social interaction among artists, craftsmen, laymen, and the community at large.

Letter from President | Letter from Executive Director

SUMMER 2010 WORKSHOPS - CLAY

The Castle Hill Train Wood Kiln

Malcolm Davis: Vase - carbon trapped shino
- taught the Fall Clay Intensive 2008

Summer 2010

Painting

Drawing

Clay

Printmaking/
Book Arts

Caitlin Nesbit

Mark Shapiro

Gay Smith

Mikhail Zakin, Summer 05

Hannah Niswonger

Val Cushing

Mark Shapiro

Clay 2010

Raku Extravaganza on Memorial Day Weekend

with Jim Brunelle & Lois Hirshberg

May 29 & 30
Sat - 12 - 8pm
Sun - 11 - 3
Castle Hill
2 sessions $220
free to watch!

Register
This amazing post-reduction firing workshop is for those who have bisque-fired stoneware pieces ready for a raku firing. Working with a variety of ceramic materials, including crackle, metallic and luster glazes, participants will experience one-of-a-kind results. Using combustible materials such as pine needles, seaweed, and sawdust, each dramatic hands-on firing offers an array of results that will intrigue participants. Students should realize that this workshop involves direct fire and smoke and it is important to dress appropriate to these concerns. Bring bisque ware; we will supply glazes. Remember that the kiln space is limited.

Huge Show of many artist of the Cape Cod Potters and faculty of Castle Hill.

Building a Salt Kiln Workshop Donovan Palmquist

May 31 - June 6
Mon - Sunday
10 - 4 pm, 7 sessions
$550 which includes firing

Learn the subtle--and not-so-subtle--craft of bricklaying and kiln construction while building a salt kiln at Castle Hill. Veteran potter and kiln builder Donovan Palmquist will lead an eye-opening discussions about kiln design and firing theory. Techniques learned in this 5-day workshop can be applied to kilns of any size or style.

Donovan has been making pots for over 30 years. While in graduate school at the University of Minnesota, his emphasis was on low-fire sculpture, but his primary interest is high-fire functional work. His current focus is on vessels in atmospheric firings

This workshop is open to all. No previous kiln building experience is necessary.

Donovan Palmquist founded Master Kiln Builders in 1996. He built his first kiln while a college student in Wisconsin, and has since built over 200 kilns. More than 40 of those have been custom-designed soda kilns. He has led workshops in both kiln building and pottery making throughout the US.

Wood Kiln Firing at Highlands Center

with Linden Gray

June 7, 8, 9 & 12
load Mon, Tues, Wed
unload Saturday
$325
Highlands
Center

Glaze your pots and then be part of the exhilarating firing of Castle
Hill’s Wood Fired Train Kiln. The wood-fired kiln is a great way to build community . Firings are typically 42 hours long and use 2 to 3 cords of a mixture of hard and soft wood.

Systems of Function
Mathew Metz and Linda Sikora

June 7 - 11
Mon - Fri
9 - 1

$380

This is a five-day hands-on workshop to guide participants through studio processes, beginning with making and thinking about wheel generated pottery forms. Notions and systems of function, such as containing, pouring, serving, and displaying, will be included as will processes that involve off-wheel construction, and surface embellishment such as sgcafitto, sprigging, carving, and pattern making/glazing.

Matthew Metz and Linda Sikora reside and work at their studio located in Alfred Station, New York. Matthew Metz studied at Ball State University (BFA), Edinboro University (MFA) has and been a making his living as a studio potter for the last 20 years. Awards he has received include a NEA Crafts Fellowship, and two McKnight Fellowships. During the academic year Linda is a Professor Ceramic Art at Alfred University School of Art and Design. Linda studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (BFA) and the University of Minnesota – Minneapolis (MFA) and, later taught at Emily Carr Art Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver Canada, Ohio State University and the University of Boulder Colorado before moving to Alfred. Linda and Matthew were both residents at the Archie Bray Foundation. Individually and sometimes jointly, they teach workshops, present at conferences and exhibit nationally and internationally.

Beginning Handbuilding Andrea Gill

June 14 - 18
Mon - Fri
9am - 1pm
Castle Hill
5 sessions $380

Explore diverse approaches to making hand-built functional and decorative ceramic forms. This class will cover use of a slab roller and extruder, moldmaking, and a variety of approaches to construction. Aspects of surface decoration will also be discussed.

Andrea Gill received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and her MFA from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1976. She's been teaching at Alfred since 1984. Gill has won fellowships from the NEA and the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as the Ohio Arts Council. Her works are in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Glaze Calc: Rumor Milling Mathew Katz

June 14 – 18
Monday – Friday
9 am – 12 noon

$380

This class aims to familiarize ceramicists with the chemistry of clay and glazes, and how these systems work. Glaze calculation is a daunting subject for the ceramicist: most potters and sculptors are not trained in chemistry and ceramic science. But while clay and glazes are complex chemical systems, they don’t have to be scary or difficult. The course is designed to help the ceramicist understand these systems better and to better utilize glazes. Selected course topics include: What is a glaze and how does it work? Material substitutions, temperatures, glaze flaws and how to fix them, and Rumor Milling: Dispersing Ceramic Myths. Everyone welcome, from beginners to professionals.

Matthew Katz is a ceramicist and educator who lives in Alfred, NY. Educated in ceramic arts and science, he takes it as a personal responsibility to make ceramic science accessible for the artist.
He received his BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2000, and his MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007. He has also worked as a research consultant for the ceramics industry under the tutelage of Dr. William Carty, the preeminent whiteware scientist in America. He teaches at the NYSCC at Alfred University, specializing in materials and techniques, and has presented numerous times for NCECA and ACERS.

THE JOYCE JOHNSON CHAIR HONORS:

THROWING Val Cushing

June 21 - 25
Monday – Friday
9 – 1 pm (instruction)

(open studio 1 - 4pm)

$495

This will be a hands-on workshop. The emphasis and objective will concern finding and developing ideas that can be incorporated into making vessels with the goal of giving more personal expression to your work. He will give demonstrations on the wheel, show some relevant slides, do some readings and try to generate class discussions. He will give project assignments each day which, when completed as leather-hard or green-ware, will be the basis of group critiques. At other times, he will give individual help and advice as appropriate or requested.

Val Cushing was born in Rochester, New York on January 28th, 1931. He received his BFA in 1952 from the School of Art & Design in the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. After serving two years in the Army, during the Korean War, he returned to Alfred and received his MFA in 1956. His full-time teaching career began that year at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. The following year, 1957, he returned to Alfred where he taught pottery and technical courses concerning clays, glazes and related subjects. He retired from Alfred in 1997, after forty-one years of teaching and was designated “Professor Emeritus”. The Cushing Handbook, concerning clays and glazes relates to the material provided in those courses. His pottery has received many awards and honors, has been seen in well over 200 exhibitions, and in numerous one-person shows.

Tile Making Kala Stein
June 28 – July 2
Mon – Fri
1 – 4 pm

$380

This course explores ceramic tiles as vehicles for image, texture, pattern, decoration, repetition, and modulation. We will explore the individual tile as an interesting and aesthetic object in addition to tile as a repeated component for installation.
Students will learn traditional and non-traditional tile and mold-making techniques, including the slab roller, extruder, and hand pressing. Students are encouraged to bring in imagery, drawings, and patterns they are interested in translating into a tile format.

Kala Stein’s work spans the diverse possibilities of clay: she makes tiles; throws a unique variety of functional pottery; and hand builds art tiles. While a ceramist at Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Kala made historical tile while teaching others the art of tile making. After receiving her Master in Fine Arts degree from Alfred University, she accepted an associate professorship there, and she now teaches and creates her ceramics full time. Her tiles are featured in the Lark Publication 500 Tiles. For more information, please visit www.kalastein.com

Beginning Throwing Paul Wisotzky
June 28 – July 2
Monday – Friday, 9 am – noon
$380

This workshop is designed for individuals who have never touched clay or would like to review and refresh basic skills in a fun and creative environment.

Students will start at the very beginning from wedging and centering to learning how to throw basic forms such as bowls, cups, and vases. Work from this class will be bisque fired only. Those who are interested in glaze firing their work, should discuss options with a studio manager.

Paul Wisotzky has been working in clay for nearly thirty years and began his early ceramic arts education at Castle Hill as a teenager. His studio is Blueberry Lane Pottery in Truro. He also has a seasonal working studio and exhibition space on MacMillan Pier in Provincetown. Most of his work begins on the wheel and often includes altering, surface decoration, and hand-built elements. He works primarily in porcelain and stoneware. www.blueberrylanepottery.com.

High Fire Glaze Days Ceramics Studio Managers

June 29, July 27, August 10, 24
Tuesdays
2 – 4 pm

$50 for each session

Register
A chance to get stoneware prepared for the finish, this workshop will cover the essentials of selecting and applying cone 10 reduction glazes and the loading of the big gas kiln. Whatever fits in the load will be fired next day, so come with bisqued pots and be prepared to work hard and fast!.

Beastly and Fowl: A Sculptural Exploration in Clay
Hannah Niswonger
July 5 – 9
Mon – Fri, 9 -12
$380

In this 5 day workshop we'll explore diverse approaches to building clay sculpture inspired by animals. We'll consider the building technique best suited to conveying an animal form in clay. 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 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 a number of schools, including Harvard University, MassArt in Boston, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. She regularly exhibits her work at galleries and craft shows nationwide. She lives in Winchester, Massachusetts with her husband, 3 kids and Elijah the dog. You can see her work at: www.hannahniswongerceramics.com

Woodfiring Steve Wicklund
July 5, 6, 7, 10
Mon – Wed - unload Saturday
9 am on Monday - shifts to be scheduled during class

$325

With in this workshop we will focus on the methods of load and firing a wood kiln. Discussing forms and wheel throwing techniques that accent the atmosphere of the kiln. We’ll explore tumble stacking, wadding placement, and forms that will promote flame movement and ash collection. The goal of the workshop will be to usher in the idea of thinking about the placement with in the kiln during the beginning stages of the work process. Creating works that have the best potential for the atmosphere. Participants should bring a verity of bisque pottery and materials for stacking such as seashells, rice hulls, and wadding mixtures.

Steve Wicklund is a functional potter who received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2004. With the objective of making daily use pottery for a wood kiln, Steve set up a studio out side of Duluth, Minnesota and continued to study the aesthetics, methods, and philosophies of wood fired pottery. In 2006 wanting to fully commit to ceramics, Steve moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he found studio space and employment with the Northern Clay Center. Accepting a yearlong residency at the Clay Studio of Missoula in 2008 he turned his attention to studying large community anagama wood kilns. Currently Steve is an intern at Gustin Ceramics in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts where he continue to study large anagama wood kilns while developing new form that collects ash fall and records the flame pattern.

Modeling a Portrait in Clay Elsa (Tina) Tarantal

July 12 – 16
Monday – Friday
9 am – 12 noon
$395

Students in this class will focus on the structure of the head and face of the model to create a sculpture that captures an individual likeness. The class will explore methods of seeing and translating the forms that are responsible for the unique appearance of each person. Working with traditional tools and materials, the group will use techniques that sculptors find indispensable when working from life.

Elsa (Tina) Tarantal is a graduate of the Cooper Union in NYC and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned an MFA in sculpture. She is a Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she teaches Three-dimensional Design and Figure Modeling. She has also taught portraiture at the New York Academy of Figurative Art. Her sculptures and paintings can be seen at the Kendall Gallery in Wellfleet, where she has exhibited her work for over twenty-five years. She is a member of the National Sculpture Society.

Evening Throwing Linden Gray
July 7, 14, 21, 28, August 4, 11
Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Drop-in $75
Register for 6 evenings for $400

At Castle Hill

This is a pottery course for beginners and ideal for those who would like to refresh their skills. Students will cover the basic throwing techniques for creating functional forms, such as bowls, cups, and vases. Work produced in class will be bisque fired only.

Linden is currently working as our Clay manager; this will be her third year with us. She holds a BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and has been throwing pots for the past 9 years. Most recently her work has primarily consisted of wood fired functional pots. In her work, Linden is interested in exploring the impacts of the process, either thru wet altering or focusing on forms that highlight the effects of wood firing.

Glaze Firing Workshop Linden Gray
July 12, 13, 15
Mon -9-1
Tues - 10-12
Wed- 3-4

3 Sessions

$200

This workshop will cover a variety of glazing techniques and the firing of a gas reduction kiln. Day one will be a 4 hours of glazing with the loading of the kiln in the afternoon. Day two will be a day of firing and discussion of how a down draft kiln works. Thursday afternoon we will unload the kiln and talk about the results!

Linden Gray has been a studio manager at Castle Hill for the past year and has been very involved in the building and firing of the new wood kiln. She has been throwing pots for 9 year and holds a BFA from Alfred University. In her work, she is interested in the material nature of clay, which is often reflected in her wet altered work. Primarily working with functional forms she is interested in exploring notions of use.

Making Better Pots

Mark Shapiro
July 14, 15, 16
Wednesday - Friday, 9 am – 3 pm
3 sessions $380

This class focuses on making functional pots and developing visual and technical skills. A range of forms and techniques will be shown in daily wheel and table demonstrations that students can apply to their own work. The goal is making clearer, better executed, and more compelling pots, eliminating the weak parts and adding details that strengthen the overall piece. Students will leave with plenty of ideas to work on in the months that follow.

Mark Shapiro has made wood fired pots in Western Massachusetts for the past twenty years. He is a frequent workshop leader, panelist, writer, and curator. He is interested in early American stoneware as a source of inspiration for contemporary potters, apprenticeship, and documentation of the field. His work was recently featured in the 4th World Ceramic Biennale in Korea, is shown by the Ferrin and Lacoste Galleries in Massachusetts, and is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Racine Art Museum, the Mint Museum, NC, and the International Museum of Ceramic at Alfred, NY, among others.

Finding Form and Surface: Earthenware Michael Connelly

July 19 - 23
Mon - Fri
9 - 1
$380

In this five-day workshop, participants will explore the potential approach to form and surface of utilitarian earthenware pottery.

There will be demonstrations on achieving atmospheric results, while using layered additive and subtractive techniques with engobes, terra sigillatas and glazes.
There will be discussions and demonstrations on the building of finials, handles and lids as well as many opportunities for students to develop their own work.
There will be opportunities to exchange ideas and concerns regarding student work. All participants will take what they learned from the workshop and apply it towards lidded vessels and vertical forms.

Michael Connelly is a studio potter in Philadelphia, as well as the Head of Ceramics at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. He received his M.F.A from Alfred University. Connelly has taught and presented lectures and workshops at various venues nationally and internationally, including classes at Alfred University, Haystack School for Crafts, Alberta College of Art and Design, Archie Bray Foundation and Penland School of Crafts. His utilitarian pottery is in the permanent collections of the China Yaoware Museum, the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Asheville Art Museum.
And Long Beach Museum of Art

Beginning / Intermediate Throwing Linden Gray
July 19 - 23
Mon - Fri
2:00 - 4:30pm
$380

Image and Narrative in Clay Rebecca Barfoot

July 26 – 30
Monday – Friday
9 am – 1 pm

$380

This class explores the theme of personal narrative in clay with the use of images and text. Students will be introduced to a variety of basic image-making processes which occur during different stages of making and firing, including a lithographic technique adapted for use on greenware, as well as working with china paint and decals over glaze. The significance of content in ceramic work will be the focus of class dialogue. Students will share sources of artistic inspiration, and discuss how history and memory inform contemporary work. Participants will create either wheel-thrown or hand-built forms, and are welcome to bring their own personal selection of high-contrast black and white photocopied images for use with the lithographic process.
The emphasis of the class is on process and the exploration of new techniques.

Rebecca Barfoot is a self-taught artist from Durango, CO. Her work combines ceramics, printmaking, and painting in a contemporary fusion of old and new, past and present. She has received awards for her innovative works, and is a recent fellow of Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark. She has also been a ceramics resident at Women's Studio Workshop in New York, and received a painting fellowship at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, CO. Her work has been featured at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and BoxHeart Gallery in Pittsburgh. She is currently artist-in-residence at the Tin Shop in Breckenridge, CO, where she is teaching and developing techniques with alternative photographic processes and ceramics. Her next art adventure is teaching ceramics at sea for Princess Cruises in the Caribbean.

Making Pots Come Alive
Altering on the Wheel with Soft Clay Gay Smith

August 2 – 5
Monday – Thursday
9 am – 2 pm
4 Sessions $380

Do you love to make pots, especially throwing? The possibilities presented in this workshop are exciting, and easily utilized. Altering the forms and surfaces of freshly thrown pots enlivens and animates them, giving the work a spontaneous feeling. We’ll work with methods of squaring, ovaling, fluting, and faceting, lidded forms too, and will trim an oval. Finishing touches and attachments, like handles and feet, will enhance and complete our pots. Demonstrations and exercises are designed to meet participants’ interests. Topics for discussion include what’s of interest to participants, raw glazing, single firing, firing a soda kiln, aesthetics. Pots made with these techniques are extremely well suited to be fully enhanced by firing in Castle Hill’s salt or wood kilns.

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 such as 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.

Burning Expectations: Wood Firing and More Kevin Crowe

August 9 – 14
Monday – Saturday
Monday – Wednesday (firing)

Thursday and Friday (demo) 10 am – 4 pm; Saturday, 12 noon - unload

6 sessions $500

Register

In this workshop participants will surface bisqued pots to be fired in the Castle Hill wood kiln. On the first day, the class will focus on slips and clay bodies that best exploit the river of ash and flame, and explore various approaches to loading. Students will develop a firing plan, form shifts, and fire the kiln. While the kiln cools, the class will spend two days in the studio throwing and discussing combustion cycles, wood kiln designs, the advantages of single firing pots, and the ecological costs and responsibilities of wood firing. On the final day the kiln will be unloaded.

Kevin Crowe is the founder of the Tye River Pottery in Virginia. He has 28 years of experience as a studio potter, and conducts workshops throughout the United States on throwing large pots, and on the design and construction of wood-fired kilns.
www.kevincrowepottery.com

Salt Firing Mikhail Zakin
August 16 – 20
Monday – Friday, 9 am – 1 pm, open studio until 4 pm

5 sessions $495

Potters often feel there is nothing livelier than a wet pot. Vapor glazing, which makes a transparent coating on the fired clay gives the pot that wet look liveliness. Textures, even subtle ones, can be an important factor in forming. Clay which has been beaten, folded, fluted or stomped will yield advantageous surfaces for salt glaze.
We will fire greenware to maturity in one firing.

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.

Architectural Law Pertaining to the Wheel Guy Wolff
August 23 – 27
Mon - Fri
9 – 2 pm (open studio all day)

$495

A Conversation on traditional throwing and how its structural laws relate to you at the wheel. This will be a class open to all interested in the wheel and will be a one on one response to giving traditional directions to your throwing ; a class about learning how to move clay under compression and the use of ribs . Working larger and clay joinery will be addressed.

Guy Wolff is a potter trained in Briton and America and has been making pottery since 1966 . His life's work has been a study of how clay moves . His pots are at Monticello, Mt Vernon, The White House, Winterthur Museum, and the Mingai Kon Tokyo.

Guy Wolff has been a frequent guest on Martha Stewert

Raku Firings Jim Brunelle
August 30, 31, September 2, 3
Monday, Tuesday, 10 am – 1 pm
Thursday, Friday, 9 am – 4 pm

$380

Register
This class will explore the many wonders of form and surface through a variety of hand-building techniques by building a personal vessel. Students may take this further by building a pedestal that displays the vessel. Students will complete an archive 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.

FALL CLAY INTENSIVE

Extruded Pots: Hayne Bayless

September 6 - 10
Mon - Fri
10 - 4pm
$550

Happiness Is A Warm Extruder: We will focus on the extruder, a marvelously expressive but often misunderstood tool that can foster a personal aesthetic. Even though it’s a gizmo, it can produce a very fresh and direct approach to clay. The course is not just for hand-builders; it will offer insights to throwers who want to expand their clay horizons beyond the wheel.

Hayne Bayless is a studio potter in Ivoryton, CT. Other than lessons from a potter in Tokyo when he was 19 and later a handful of classes and workshops, he managed to avoid formal instruction in ceramics. He abandoned wheel-throwing early on, preferring the freedom of handbuilding afforded by slabwork and extrusions.

Hayne has had the great fortune to be awarded the top prizes at two of the country's most important craft shows: the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, D.C. and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

High Fire Glaze Days Ceramics Studio Managers

June 28, July 27, August 10, 24
Tuesdays
2 – 4 pm

$50 for each session

© 2010 TRURO CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT CASTLE HILL
10 Meetinghouse Road, P.O. Box 756, Truro, MA 02666
www.castlehill.org | e-mail info@castlehill.org
tel. 508 349-7511 | fax 508 349-7513