Create Spring Planters in the Clarke Ceramic Club Studio!
Learn hand-building, slump molding, and how to utilize stamps and tools to create texture for your own custom planters.
Workshop includes learning about how to work with clay, applying simple hand-building and slump molding techniques, and how to apply texture to create interesting patterns.
The workshop fee includes:
- Access to clay and all tools required
- 2 planters up to 6” diameter
- Kiln firing using 2,000 year old Japanese firing technique
- History of firing technique
Location: 1550 Clarke Drive; Clarke College Ceramics Studio
All planter creations made will be part of a bigger Anagama wood firing community project, in Cassville, Wisconsin. Optional firing event experience included and ability assist with firing shifts.
A portion of the registration fee helps fund the Clarke Ceramics Club!
Cassville Anagama Kiln Big Firing Event #Cassvilleanagama
Is April 12th-15th where loading begins for 3 days
The kiln will be fired for 8 days with shifts for volunteers and participants to sign up.
Anyone participating in this workshop can put their piece in the kiln for free!!
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS:
Ken Bichell has taught wood firing and kiln construction techniques nationally and internationally, from the Navajo reservation in Arizona to the Snake kiln of Taiwan. Born in Baltimore in 1959, he fell in love with clay in the 1970’s and has pursued his craft with influences by his mentors, Ching yuan Chang, Joy Brown, and Bill Farrel. His training includes residency at the Archie Bray Foundation, Graduate level courses at Towson State, and studying under Joy Brown.
Passionate about teaching, he has taught classes at Baltimore Clayworks, Jewish Community Center of Baltimore, Navajo Community college, Gifted and Talented Program for Baltimore, and School of the Art Institute Chicago. Additionally, he has taught workshops in Italy, and Taiwan, and extensively throughout the United States. In recent years, he has concentrated his efforts on the Midwest.
Ken co-founded a regional studio tour, Twenty Dirty Hands, and constructed three wood kilns, including a thirty-foot Anagama kiln and is currently teaching from his studio in Dubuque, IA
Troy Aiken grew up in Los Angeles California and spent his youth fascinated by the vast amount of culture and art constantly surrounding him. Early on he decided to work with ceramics as a medium and was drawn to the malleability of clay and the broad range of personal expression that could be achieved with the material. In 2012 he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from California State University Long Beach and was later accepted into the graduate program at the University of Notre Dame to complete his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2016. Troy currently lives in Dubuque, Iowa where he teaches ceramics and sculpture at Clarke University. He continues to exhibit nationally as well as internationally.
Laura is the owner and Plant Aunt of Planted. And is absolutely obsessed with tropical plants! Laura has a Horticulture Degree from Iowa State University with over 15 years of experience growing, teaching, tending, and admiring tropical plants, growing food, and teaching people about plants. AND! She has a real passion for building community around plants.
The ceramics program at Clarke encompasses a variety of student makers at different skill levels. The clay studio is a welcoming environment for students and their peers to experiment with the medium of clay in traditional as well as more contemporary forming techniques.
