Greenwood Studio Tours

First stop on the Greenwood area studio tours was Martha Peddicord, Earth Works Studio in Ninety Six, SC. Martha converted her former horse stable and an adjacent building into her studio.

 Martha showed us her studio layout for working and teaching classes.

Next Carolyn Genders critiqued a group of small pitchers Martha has been working on.

We all had a great time talking out the trials and tribulations of pottery making.

The next studio tour was Laura Bachinski at Bell House Pottery.

Laura showed the hump molded jar she was currently working on. Laura had carved an intricate pattern on the top portion of the jar.

Laura converted a small log shed behind her home into her current studio. Laura specializes in outdoor bells and showed us how she puts the two bell parts together.

Laura talked about her love of carving in her work and we admired her new red glaze which breaks to green, blue and blackish brown, lovely.

Later Carolyn Genders suggested Laura make sketches in a variety of patterns to vary the patterns she normally works with. Next we broke for lunch at the Mill House Restaurant in Greenwood.

After lunch the next tour was in Greenwood at the Partners In Clay studio where a small group of potters work in a group studio, including Dohnna Boyajian, Beverly Burton, Phyllis Collins, Hannah Poe, and Colleen Tebo.

Above are some random shots of the potter's at their studio and some of their work. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Carolyn Genders Workshop Synopsis

Carolyn Genders began by outlining her career in ceramics. She brought along her sketchbooks, one of which was a small pocket size she carries while traveling.

Here is a close up of the rich surfaces Carolyn builds up with layers of slip applied on bone dry work.

Most of Carolyn's work is pinched and she gave us a demonstration of her method of pinching. Carolyn uses large coils and scrapes the inside and outside of the pieces as she goes with various sizes of metal ribs.

Carolyn treated us to a slide show of artists who inspire her and then examples of surfaces which inspire her from patterns in nature to buildings. 

We had a wonderful lunch at the Landers University cafeteria; I'd eat there everyday if I lived close by, it was that good.

In the afternoon Carolyn demonstrated how she applies her vitreous slips or engobes to bone dry work. The engobes are the consistency of cream or half and half and are mixed with stains, oxides, and frits, sieved and brushed on the clay surface.

Carolyn applies the various colors of the engobes in many layers and patterns. After a once firing the rich surface full of color is revealed.

The pieces are then scraped, scratched, or Carolyn uses various sgraffito methods to carve through the surfaces to achieve just the patterns and surfaces she desires.

When Carolyn's pinched pieces are leather hard Carolyn sometimes adds feet or completely enclosed the form and makes a small opening in the piece.

The final shape of the pinched piece is scraped and scraped away with metal ribs to obtain the smooth and well defined shape Carolyn wants.

At the end Carolyn cuts off the rim and uses a surform to smooth and finesse the rim's shape.

Sometimes Carolyn cuts the rim on angles and uses slight dips to shape the rim. Sorry about the quality of this photo but you can see the idea of using different shapes to the rim.

I'm still synthesizing details from the workshop which was jam packed full of information. Up next information about GASP, Greenwood Area Studio Potters, and tours of several ceramic studios in the Greenwood area. This post is part of The Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Carolyn Genders Workshop

You know how I'm drawn to using colored slips in many of my pottery pieces. I noticed there's a workshop with Carolyn Genders at Lander's University in Greenwood, SC so I signed up. Carolyn is teaching her methods for making colorful vessels and forms for the first time in the United States. Carolyn is well known in Europe and the UK for her ceramic pieces and has been a ceramic artist for 30 years.

Her work is handbuilt, primarily coiled, and her surfaces are painted with vitreous slips (engobes) or burnished terra sigillata slip. Carolyn is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britian. She is author of 'Sources of Inspiration' 2002 and 'Pattern, Colour & Form 2008, both published by A&C Black. I'm looking forward to slowly 'slipping' (pun intended) back into clay. This post is part of the Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.