Bruce Cochrane Workshop @ the Bray

by | Aug 4, 2010 | Uncategorized

Lidded Form and Surface Techniques
Instructor: Bruce Cochrane
August 12–15, 2010 Tuition: $400 (includes $40 lab fee)

Maximum Enrollment: 15
Open to artists with intermediate or advanced throwing skills

Registration Information During this four-day workshop, participants will focus on the relationship between form, lid and function. Proportion, scale, balance and utility will be discussed as participants complete specific projects throughout the workshop. An investigation of handles, knobs and feet will be encouraged and demonstrated, as well as various lid connections, and fitting lids to thrown and altered forms. A number of pre-fired surface techniques, which may be applied to any material or process, will be explored. Students will be encouraged to push their ideas beyond familiar solutions, make some awkward yet interesting work and return to their studios excited about new possibilities and ideas.
A soda firing will take place during the session and participants are asked to bring stoneware or porcelain bisque work to experiment on during the week. Cochrane will give a public artist talk on Saturday, August 14th at 7:30 pm in the Bray Resident Center.

Bruce Cochrane was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In 1972 he received a BFA from The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia, followed by an MFA from Alfred University in Alfred, New York. Since 1979 he has taught in the ceramics program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada, and has conducted workshops throughout North America, Europe and Asia. His work has been exhibited in over 300 exhibitions and is in such notable collections as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in Toronto.

Workshops with John Shirley

by | Aug 4, 2010 | Uncategorized

Friday mornings from 9:30am – 12:30pm at The Pottery Studio, 24 Old Kilcullen Road, Bryanston.

If you wish to attend any of the workshops listed please book now to secure a place by mailing: [email protected]

These are demonstrating workshops and a large amount of material is covered.

Cost R300.00 per workshop

Decorating Techniques – green and bisque ware: August 6th. This workshop covers a variety of surface treatments which can be carried out on both green ware and bisque-fired ware. Among the techniques covered are a number of resist methods, etching on raw clay, underglaze and majolica, stamping, a new method of tube lining, sponging and banding. You will also be shown how to make your own underglazes, majolica colours and ceramic crayons.

Creating a Professional Image: September 3. Are you doing enough to get your name and your work in the public eye? In this session we will look at various ways of how to go about promoting yourself and your work without outlaying large amounts of money. Also discussed will be the importance of creating your ‘brand’ and where to position yourself in the market.

Paperplaster; the mould making revolution: October 29th. The revolutionary paperplaster method has changed my approach to mould making forever. Introduced to me by Sandra Black as taught by Trudy Golley this is an excellent introduction to basic mould making as well as a great new method for those more experienced in this area. This method uses much less plaster than is usually used for mould making resulting in lighter easier to manage moulds. I will also be demonstrating and doing my best to take the mystery out of slip casting.

Paperplaster
Glazes, everything you wanted to know: November 5. This workshop will focus on all practical aspects of glazing. Glaze application methods will be discussed and demonstrated as well as ways of keeping glazes consistent. Glaze on glaze decoration as well as ways of creating specialised surfaces using a number of techniques will be covered as well as the introduction of line blending, a method that offers you the opportunity to create your own glazes with no technical knowledge.
Image Transfer on Clay: November 12. This workshop will cover ways of transferring images on to your work using a variety of methods. I will cover the making of your own decals using a normal laser printer as well as other methods of surface enhancement using photocopiers and printers, and other transfer methods, including a lithographic process that you can carry out on your own with few materials.

via John Shirley Ceramics

Monday Morning (err tuesday afternoon ) eye candy

by | Aug 3, 2010 | Uncategorized

Okay so i’m a little bit behind. Forgive me as I’m crashing from the most amazing month ever at Medalta. The residency ended with a bang (literally) and many sad goodbyes as we all went our separate ways, well except for Jeremy Hatch who is left in the studio all by himself to finish his work, hopefully it’s not too lonely.

Sunday morning after no more than 3 hours sleep I took one final swing by the studio to catch a peek at this week’s eye candy – a piece that Brendan Tang had just unloaded from the kiln hours before.


Stunning to say the least.

And then it was time to hit the road and head home to my lovely family. It has been such an amazing month that i’m still trying to digest it all. It really feels like it will be months/years before the inspiration I gained at Medalta will fade. My mommy brain was brought back to life and is still churning with theory talk, new techniques, business ideas and conceptual richness. Needless to say it’s been both lovely and strange to be back home in an all too familiar day to day routine. The studio is once again filled with the crackle of the baby monitor rather than Robin Lambert’s amazing studio mix of music. There is no one to stop by and provide random insight into my work, or to simply make me smile a mile wide with their humor. But it’s not like being home is a bad thing. I need to digest all this information, and more importantly finish all the pieces I started in Medicine Hat. It might be a few weeks before I have images to share with you all of the works completed, but fear not, you’ll get to see them finished.

The studio is in the process of being cleaned, the family cuddles abound, I have a wonderful gift of a new computer to keep up with all my work (killed not one but 2 MAC’s during the residency). Life is good. Friends will be missed, but never forgotten, and the internet as always will bring us together.

To sum up any thoughts on the “Technology” residency…hmmm….I think that it reconfirmed my beliefs that technology is an amazing tool for growth of a practice, of marketing and community building, of sharing and nurturing. I guess I have to declare that I officially remove my luddite label. I am fully and completely in tune with technology and my desire to find better ways of making it work to my, and the larger community’s, advantage has grown. After many chats about this blog with the residency’s artists and staff, I have a renewed energy for building this site into something even greater. What? i’m not totally sure yet. When? As soon as I have some time : )

Great things are a foot, stay tuned.