I spent Monday afternoon teaching a very compressed version of my one day Print On Clay workshop to Advanced Diploma Students at Central Institute of Technology, Perth. I whizzed through my demos and explanations of processes and materials involved, in order to allow time to 'play' at the end of the session. They were quick on the uptake. Before I knew it, two and a half hours had elapsed and they got an hour of trying stuff out. The students were so polite and friendly, especially Holly who made me a Vanilla Latte which I then allowed to go cold - and nobody yawned. We are enduring another heatwave in Perth and it was no surprise to hear it reached 40C, decidedly uncomfortable! I would have been comatose in their place. Happily, most of the students tried out a few of the techniques and seemed to enjoy themselves. We covered Inkjet transfer, Underglaze Tissue monoprints, silk screened imagery via Tissue, via Plaster and open stock decals as well as iron oxide laser decals. There were so many other things we could have done but I will keep some of them for a workshop later this year at The Potter's Market.
Tomorrow night I teach Wheelwork for beginners. One girl asked me if I felt she could ever make a teapot, good to see her planning ahead. I wonder will my Japanese lady with the broken fingers come back, I have a few ideas for her to try out. Anyone else got suggestions of what to teach her?
 |
| detail of one of my lotus series vessels, copper glaze on Southern Ice clay |
Hi-
ReplyDeleteHave you ever seen where people use a board- like, say, a small cutting board- to center clay with? I think they push the board in on an angle, keeping an edge on the bat/wheel head so the board is vertical. A few people in my ceramics class use this technique- including someone with carpal tunnel who was having pain flair up from trying to center... kind of noisy, but might be worth looking into.
I have never seen such a thing but would be very interested in seeing a snap of it in action. Any chance you'd be able to send a pic to me? I am considering putting a short course of hand building classes for the disabled together and seeing if it'd fly. Thanks for the comment Isaak. Sometimes you really wonder if you are talking to your imaginary friends when you blog.
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine.
ReplyDeleteI can try to get a picture of it in action- classes don't start back up until April though. I'm kind of surprised there isn't much information floating around out there about it, as I can't imagine that it's some local invention.