Carolyn Dorr

AMY SANDERS The Stamped Surface Working with cone 5 stoneware, Amy’s presentation will focus on soft slab construction and altered thrown forms, while also considering how stamped patterns and clay appliqués enhance the surface. Amy will demonstrate how to make several forms using varied building methods with slabs, while focusing on how to create a sense of volume and “breath†in your work. She will also work on altering thrown forms at the soft-leather hard stage, stretching and patterning the clay with stamps to add interest. Some pieces will be created by pinching, folding, and draping thin slabs over bisqued clay molds; while others will start with simple paper templates or thrown form. Discussion will focus on how pattern, line, texture, and proportion inform composition and aesthetic decisions made while creating a pot, as well as balancing studio practices with a busy family life. Glaze recipes will be shared, and questions and open discussion is encouraged! Additional Information Amy first discovered clay as an undergraduate studying biology at Centre College in Danville, KY where she quickly switched majors and graduated with a BA in art and secondary education. She and her husband Brian then moved to Charlotte to work for Habitat for Humanity as Americorps volunteers and happily discovered an amazing clay community in NC. Amy has been teaching throwing and hand building classes at Clayworks Studio in Charlotte for 11 years, and also greatly enjoys teaching workshops all over the US. After completing a 1-½ year artist residency at McColl Center for Visual Art, she has been a full time studio artist for 6 years (in between hanging out with her two young boys: Guthrie and Sammy). In 2009, Amy completed a large-scale public art tile project for the city of Charlotte in conjunction with a residency at Garinger High School. Amy’s work is exhibited nationally and has been featured in many publications. Read more and register:

DENNIS MEINERS Pursuing Narrative Surfaces for Expressive Pots Dennis’ presentation will focus on the possibilities that arise from making slabs by hand, rather than with machines, and will demonstrate the advantages of this process for discovering what we each have to say through the ceramic process. This is a simple, fun, low-tech way to use clay. Dennis will demonstrate scoring, stretching, stamping, sprigging, and overlays that he uses to produce what he refers to as psychodramas on the surfaces of his utilitarian and sculptural pots hand-built from slabs. Conference participants will have the opportunity to see a way of working with clay that requires little other than a good table, homemade tools, and an ability to be observant and open to what the art-making process offers. Dennis uses cone ten stoneware fired in a reduction atmosphere, but the possibilities he will present are applicable to any clay or firing method. Students will learn how to make and use rolling stamps and sprig molds to create their own iconography. Additional Information Dennis Meiners earned a BA in Fine Arts from Washington State University in 1973, and has been a full time studio potter, mostly, since then. He has taught at Portland Community College, Oregon College of Art and Craft, as well as many workshops and classes. He has published articles and photographs in numerous books and magazines, and has pieces in several public and private collections, including Racine Arts Museum and the Washington Cultural Trust. For the last 15 years he has lived near Jacksonville Oregon where he built a strawbale house and adobe studio with his wife, painter and former clay artist, Leslie Lee. Read more and register: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/potters-council/altered-ceramics

MARTHA GROVER Thrown and Altered Porcelain: Creating Curves Discover the idiosyncrasies of working with porcelain on and off the wheel as Martha Grover demonstrates how to make her undulating functional forms. She will discuss special throwing and altering techniques suited for this elegant and sensuous material and how to exploit its best qualities. Demonstrations will include working with various wheel-thrown forms and slabs in both the soft and leather-hard stages to create a mug, large pitcher, butter box, and basket. She will explore bottomless thrown forms, with the additions of slabs, handles and spouts. Crack repair and mending techniques will be addressed as well. There will be brief discussion of how to achieve her glaze surfaces by spraying layered glazes. Martha will also talk about her sources of inspiration, philosophy of making, and studio practices. Additional Information Martha Grover is a functional potter, creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. Martha received her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has been a resident at the Northern Clay Center Archie Bray Foundation and Red Lodge Clay. Her work can be found at the Red Lodge Clay Center, the Archie Bray Foundation, Schaller Gallery, 18 Hands Gallery in Houston, Texas, Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, North Carolina, Charlie Cummings Gallery in Gainesville, Florida, and Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, 500 Pitchers, 500 Platters and Chargers, and 500 Vases. It was the cover feature of Ceramic Monthly’s May 2010 issue. Read more and register: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/potters-council/altered-ceramics

MARTY FIELDING The Hybrid: Throwing and Handbuilding The presentation will illustrate altering wheel thrown forms. Darting will also be demonstrated as a way to alter the form further. Problem solving in terms of design and function is an integral part of resolving altered pieces. Marty will make a square pitcher and a box from start to finish. In addition to the altering techniques employed in these pieces, the demonstration will also show making a slab built spout from a paper template, pulling a handle, and applying surface texture. Marty’s work is predominantly thrown on the wheel and altered, with hand built additions, i.e. spouts and lids. He had developed depth variation on the surface by layering texture, terra sigillata, resists, underglazes and glazes. Marty works with red earthenware and fires to cone 03 in an electric kiln. He has a supply of renewable electricity that is generated from methane collected on Vermont dairy farms. Attendees will be learning: Throwing and altering a bottomless cylinder Darting Making paper template for a slab built spout Making a spout from a paper template Pulling a “bone†handle Texturing the surface Making a box and a pitcher Additional Information Marty Fielding became captivated by clay as an anthropology major at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He continued his study of ceramics as a student and teaching assistant at Penland School of Crafts. Marty is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Florida. Fielding’s work has been included in invitational and juried exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. Craft galleries throughout the U.S. represent his pottery. Marty’s teaching experience includes adjunct positions at Ohio Northern University and Middlebury College, several community studios including Frog Hollow in Middlebury, Vermont where he was Resident Potter, and various workshops including Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Truro Center for the Arts on Cape Cod. His work has been published in several books as well as Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, and Clay Times. Read more and register: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/potters-council/altered-ceramics

ISRAEL DAVIS Screen Printing on Clay Israel demonstration will cover technical information regarding screen printing onto clay slabs with underglazes. The slabs will then be used to construct functional objects such as cups, trays, and vases. Additional information will cover generating imagery, exposing screens, and firing types and temperatures. Attendees will learn how to take simple line drawings and photos to the screen print process and apply them to clay objects. Attendees will be learning: Printing onto clay slabs with underglazes as printing ink Information regarding firing at cones 04 and 6 oxidation and cone 10 wood-fired Earthenware, red stoneware, nylon fiber and paper in clay to help with attachments and timing Information on generating imagery for the screen print process Information on exposing a screen Information on how to set up a simple screen print lab in the clay studio Information on basic technology such as computer and programs to use in the process Additional Information Assistant Professor, Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University, Grand Rapids, MI; Teaches at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist’s Residency, Saugatuck, MI; Formerly Ceramics Program Director, Urban Institute for Contemporary, Arts Grand Rapids, MI; Exhibits nationally in juried, invitational, group and solo exhibitions. Read more and register: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/potters-council/altered-ceramics

NATALIE BLAKE Carving in Curved Clay, Vessels and Tiles Natalie will demonstrate undulating tile making by draping slabs over hand-sculpted forms as well as demonstrating thrown forms. She will show slip application and sgraffito carving. Natalie will discuss her glazing techniques and firing temperatures. Natalie will also share her experience working as an independent artist and business person which includes travails and triumphs she has been through and where they have landed her now. Additional Information Natalie has been working in clay for 25 years. She started as a functional potter and then shifted to the vessel to explore the thrown form in porcelain. Natalie carves texture and sgraffito design into her forms. More recently, those vessels have been ‘unwrapped’ and shifted to tile surfaces. Rolled slabs lain over hand sculpted forms produce an undulating three dimensional surface over which to follow curves in the clay with a design in mind and a carving tool in hand. Natalie received her BA at Kenyon College in Ohio and started making clay pieces while in high school at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. She received the Thomas J Watson fellowship to study ceramics in Asia for a post graduate year from 1992-93. Returning home, Natalie studied with several area potters and ceramic artists in southern Vermont, setting up her own business in 1994. She currently has a studio in Brattleboro, Vermont, where she has resided for the past 18 years. Read more: http://ceramicartsdaily.org/potters-council/altered-ceramics