I attended Day 1 of the Zart Conference at Dripstone Middle School. The paper clay trophy making session with Bonnie Hislop was a highlight and a great introduction to working with this material. Her works are inspiring and the idea of creating trophies to celebrate everyday achievements is especially fun and relatable to all students.Of course it’s always nice to catch up with other art educators and to relocate for a day.
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Artwork Title: 8
Artist: Codi Abella
Artist Statement:
Portrait
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Artwork Title: 7
Artist: Francisco Felipe
Artist Statement:
Portrait
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Artwork Title: 6
Artist: Toby Koefoed
Artist Statement:
Pattern
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Artwork Title: 5
Artist: Messina Finocchiaro
Artist Statement:
Pattern
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Artwork Title: 4
Artist: Lily Topham
Artist Statement:
Character
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Artwork Title: 3
Artist: Dea Purcell
Artist Statement:
Pattern
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Artwork Title: 2
Artist: Jude Bird
Artist Statement:
Logo
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Artwork Title: 1
Artist: Jude Bird
Artist Statement:
Character Desgn
Collaborative Clay Dry Season Art immersion
The Collaborative Clay Dry Season Art immersion short course gave 10 budding potters/ceramic artists the chance to realize the creative possibilities of hand built pottery. Under the expert tutelage of Gerald Clapham, we explored techniques including pinch pots, coiling and slabs. Day one started with hard labour grinding and sieving clay for a Terra Sigillata mixture, a surface slip used to seal and decorate pots by ancient Greeks and Romans. The mix was left to settle for a couple of days before we had to siphon off the usable liquid (yum).
Several days of building followed and individual projects included functional pieces, vases, bottles and plates. More organic forms included seed pods, and tropical flowers. The week of construction culminated in two alternative firings at Studio Elevenlee, Raku firing and smoke firing. Raku firing involved removing pots from the kiln and placing in containers filled with flammable materials such as saw dust and shredded paper. Smoke firing was in a converted steel rubbish bin and involved wrapping pots in a foil sagger filled with flammable materials and Gerald’s concoction of ‘swamp juice’. The danger and uncontrollable nature of these processes just made the results even more special and a real highlight to finish the course.