Today was my first day of teaching at the local pottery center, & I think it went pretty well. Not stellar, but not bad. For one thing I'm a novice teacher - I've taught kids at a summer camp handbuilding with clay. That's about the extent of it, and now I have two entirely different classes: adult clay building - a mix of hand building & throwing - & kids throwing.
The adult class consists of old-timers who have taken that same class together for months, perhaps years, and they all had an idea of what they wanted to do, they all had projects they were already working on. They're quite sociable and it seems they take the class simply for fun, to enjoy the company of their classmates, and to have someone to answer this classic question when they see something interesting in a picture: "How did they do that?" I can usually answer those questions, but for the remainder of the class, I'm not entirely sure what I should be teaching with everyone going in different directions. So I started out demonstrating how to make pots footed, similar to these works by Willi Eggerman & Tara Wilson, then socialized & answered sporadic questions the remainder of class, wondering how else to make myself useful as most of the students seemed to be fine with their current projects. Next week I plan to teach more on throwing, but of the two classes, it's the true beginners that I'm more concerned about...
Kids are a whole nother animal. I have a difficult time as it is enunciating precisely what I'm doing as I throw a pot, but to get an 11-year-old to simply center clay is a challenge. Any advice in this area is more than welcome. Do I need to watch every video I can of beginning pottery and teach all my friends & family to throw in order to become a good teacher? I'm sure that wouldn't hurt... so what videos would you recommend I check out from the local library?
Showing posts with label Willi Eggerman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Willi Eggerman. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Fun with Watercolors
The last of my cards for the turquoise ATC swap is an abstraction of this Willi Eggerman cup that I bought when she came to UNC last April as a visiting artist. It's the perfect little juice cup. This is the most abstract of my drawings so far and I really had fun with it. Right after I painted the base coat I tossed on some salt for that spotted crystalline effect and I realized it was quite appropriate because it was a salt-fired cup that I was drawing.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Visiting Artist
As I mentioned before, we had a visiting artist at the University last weekend - Willi Eggerman. It was awesome! Better than NCECA - for one thing, it was free for the students (funded by the school), second, it was more personal. I sat no more than 10 ft away from her and asked questions left & right. Third, since the group was pretty small we ended up doing some hands-on work and having a quick group critique of each other's work. I didn't benefit as much from this, but I know some other students did and I was grateful for the experience. What did she demonstrate? ...
Throwing. She says she isn't very good at it, which is kind of encouraging. She makes beautiful pots, so it's nice to know that you don't need to be a perfect potter to be a great artist.
Tripod pots. It's something she's been making for several years now, and she still enjoys making them (perhaps goblets will become that thing for me, something I never tire of).
Slab built teapots. She first rolls a slab with a good ol' rolling pin, then rolls her hand-made stamps into it, and makes it into a cylinder. Since she stretches them, she doesn't wait for the slabs to set up, and since they're becoming cylinders anyway, they'll stand up easily without the slab being stiff.
Leaf-like bowls. A technique she learned from a Julia Galloway workshop, she pinches the lip and foot rims all around to give it an organic appearance.
Water etching with lacquer. Wax is commonly painted on bone-dry pots to make a design that will be etched away using water and a sponge. Instead, Willi uses clear lacquer because it isn't washed away as easily as wax and it gives a more crisp line.
Incising / mishima. This was similar to the way that Lorna Meaden was decorating her cups at the NCECA deomstration, using an exacto knife to make thin lines. The important trick to remember is to first water down the slip to make sure it runs down into the thin lines, then apply thicker slip to give it the color you want. The other thing she did differently than Lorna was wipe away the last bit of slip with a sponge. It sounds like Willi actually heard about first scraping away the slip with a rib from someone who saw Lorna's demonstration. See how useful demonstrations are? :-D
Faceting cups using a paring knife. A few things she did to her pots were similar to preparing food. It looks like she could be peeling an orange in this picture. When she was pinching the rims of the bowl, she said it was sort of like pinching the edges of scones.
So that's a wrap up of the weekend, both days 10 am - 4 pm. Willi and her wonderful assistant stayed at a lovely bed & breakfast called the Sod Buster Inn. Highly recommended! Cozy, friendly, and a delicious breakfast.
If anyone's reading this who is a student, teacher, or administrator at any type of school, find a way to host a visiting artist. They are inspirational, educational, and otherwise awesome.
Throwing. She says she isn't very good at it, which is kind of encouraging. She makes beautiful pots, so it's nice to know that you don't need to be a perfect potter to be a great artist.
Tripod pots. It's something she's been making for several years now, and she still enjoys making them (perhaps goblets will become that thing for me, something I never tire of).
Slab built teapots. She first rolls a slab with a good ol' rolling pin, then rolls her hand-made stamps into it, and makes it into a cylinder. Since she stretches them, she doesn't wait for the slabs to set up, and since they're becoming cylinders anyway, they'll stand up easily without the slab being stiff.
Leaf-like bowls. A technique she learned from a Julia Galloway workshop, she pinches the lip and foot rims all around to give it an organic appearance.
Water etching with lacquer. Wax is commonly painted on bone-dry pots to make a design that will be etched away using water and a sponge. Instead, Willi uses clear lacquer because it isn't washed away as easily as wax and it gives a more crisp line.
Incising / mishima. This was similar to the way that Lorna Meaden was decorating her cups at the NCECA deomstration, using an exacto knife to make thin lines. The important trick to remember is to first water down the slip to make sure it runs down into the thin lines, then apply thicker slip to give it the color you want. The other thing she did differently than Lorna was wipe away the last bit of slip with a sponge. It sounds like Willi actually heard about first scraping away the slip with a rib from someone who saw Lorna's demonstration. See how useful demonstrations are? :-D
Faceting cups using a paring knife. A few things she did to her pots were similar to preparing food. It looks like she could be peeling an orange in this picture. When she was pinching the rims of the bowl, she said it was sort of like pinching the edges of scones.
So that's a wrap up of the weekend, both days 10 am - 4 pm. Willi and her wonderful assistant stayed at a lovely bed & breakfast called the Sod Buster Inn. Highly recommended! Cozy, friendly, and a delicious breakfast.If anyone's reading this who is a student, teacher, or administrator at any type of school, find a way to host a visiting artist. They are inspirational, educational, and otherwise awesome.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Some Good News
I haven't had much to write about ceramic-wise lately, because I haven't been creating much lately. I've been unmotivated. So that sucks. But moving on to the good news - 1) 5th Annual Intercollegiate Swing Battle, Friday & Saturday night; 2) visiting artist Willi Eggerman coming to the University, Saturday and Sunday; 3) I finally got a job. THAT took long enough. Yeesh, now I can afford that damn porcelain.
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