Steven Hill – Finding Your Voice
Steven Hill will discuss his philosophy on making functional pottery, while throwing, assembling and decorating the forms that he is known for. His focus will be on spouts, handles, form, surface, and the relationship between these various elements.
As students work on thrown/altered/assembled forms, they will be encouraged to experiment with new ideas and techniques. There will be group discussions on finding your own voice and developing a personal body of work. Throughout the week Steven will work with each student to facilitate this process. Steven is a wheel thrower, but this class is also appropriate for hand builders.
Glazing techniques and ways to finish the work will be discussed, but firing is outside the scope of this workshop.
Prerequisites: Students signing up for this workshop should have a basic technical understanding of their media and a desire to make their work more personal. If you are a thrower you should be comfortable with centering, raising cylinders and making basic forms. The same principle applies to hand builders.
Preparing for the workshop – Items to bring with you and things to think about…
- Digital images of your current work. We will assemble everyone’s work for a show on our computer. It would also be nice to see an actual piece (or more) if you have the ability to bring it with you.
- Gather digital images, photographs or photocopies of ceramic work, either historical or contemporary, that you find meaningful or influential.
- A sketchbook you have been working on or a journal of ideas. If you don’t have either, then please spend some time thinking about, sketching and writing down ideas as a starting point for discussions.
- A sketchbook and notebook to have available for the workshop.
- Think about what inspires you and bring as much support material as you can, including photographs, written material, CD’s. We will use this material as a starting point for personal discussion. Your inspiration should be personal, but could include music, nature, architecture, art, family, or anything else that inspires you.
- All ceramic tools you want to work with. We will have clay available for students to purchase, but if you want to use your own body you should bring it. This class will NOT include a glaze firing, but bisque firing will be available for those who plan on taking the work they produce with them.
July 23-28, 2017