Angela Davis on thu 16 jun 05
Martha Ann and I just got home late yesterday from
Brian Gartside's amazing workshop in Atlanta. We are=20
road weary but still very excited about our experience with
the glaze wizard.
We mixed 50/50 and 1/3 combinations first part of Sat morning,
28 of us with cups and spoons choosing ingredients and coloring agents
and trying to get it written down before we forgot. The afternoon and =
Sun morning
was spent on paperclay and design elements. The Raku was on Monday.
Erik and Luba loaded our tests into the kiln and fired them overnight.
After lunch on the second day we returned to find them laid out in =
wonderful
variation on the tables. There were hundreds of them and we were =
amazed
at the results. A very excited group exchanged notes on ingredient =
combinations,
some even tried to buy others test tiles ! We came home with a box full =
of exciting tiles
that will provide a head start on new decorating and texture glazes.
Brian is a delight and his workshop has given us all new vision,
a whole new way of thinking (and working) was presented. I feel so =
lucky
to have had this eye opening experience.=20
Brian is now headed to his Petoskey Michigan workshop if there are any=20
openings try to get in there.
I cannot say enough nice things about Mudfire Studio, a wonderful=20
space run by lovely people. Erik and Luba worked very hard to make=20
the workshop come together smoothly. They did an amazing job of
organizing the oversized, hands on event. Feeding us, providing glaze
chemicals and equipment for our hundreds of tests and then doing the =
firing,
both electric and raku. A real "Southern Hospitality" experience.=20
I have posted my photos if anyone would like to have a look and
get a taste of what you missed. You will see some closeups of =
interesting
tests, I can't tell you anything about them other than I took the =
photos
for the beauty of the tile. These were our simple mixes with oxides and =
Mason
stains as colorants, there are no recipes just experiments to see what =
the chemicals
do when combined.
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=3DEeENWLNy3bs3zw
Hope this gives you an idea of our weekend.
Angela Davis
(I tought of you often Alisa)
John Johnson on fri 17 jun 05
I too attended the Brian Gartside workshop at Mud Fire in Atlanta. And I
concur with all that Angela has said! Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for
the Raku workshop portion on Monday.............
For me, the most exciting and important part of the workshop was learning
how Gartside works towards his graphic designs. He does what he
calls "Visual Calisthenics" spending about 30 minutes daily drawing on his
computer using Corel's Painter software. He doesn't print these images and
then reproduce them on clay but sometimes creates slides and projects the
image on his unglazed pieces to see what happens which gives them the third
dimension they lack as a slide.
We did some of this at the workshop and the results were astounding!
Having worked so many years in a left brain occupation, his perspective has
given me the doorway out of my "box". Ordinary everyday images are now
being viewed from a very different awareness. A major "A-HAAA!"
I've begun glazing a series of bisqued ware that I was saving until after
the workshop. We'll see the results in about a week from now.
Johnnie J. (John Johnson)
Mud Bucket Pottery
843-399-8702
www.mudbucketpottery.com
| |
|
