PORCELAIN SPOON WORKSHOP
JULY 30TH @ CEDAR FARM GALLERY
This year we were lucky enough to be joined by Ceramic artist and renound crafts person, Emma Louise Wilson.
Famous for her delicate and sculptural work in Porcelain, Emma works in fine detail to create and decorate her paper thin vessels.
As avid collectors and followers of Emma’s work, we were thrilled when she agreed to deliver a special workshop at The Gallery as part of our 30th Anniversary celebrations.
MORNING
The day started early as we had a lot to make. Participants each made 3 ceramic pieces from porcelain, a spoon, brooch and wall plaque.
We began by using a mould to form the shape of the spoon, building the form up in layers carefully as to not leave any weak or thin areas. Once built up in the moulds, these were decorated with decals, lace and stamps to create detail on the spoon. Left to dry in the sun, we began working on our next pieces.
The brooch and wall plaque we built by hand. Simple clay pieces sized and cut out of rolled porcelain clay. We again built up detail with more clay and used lace patterning and stamping to form texture.
AFTERNOON
By the time we’d had lunch most of our pieces were dry enough to work onto with oxides and glazes. We used two main oxides to bring out the texture and gentle patterns created by the lace and stamping- Indigo blue or deep brown. It was a test to apply the right amount of oxide as the colour only comes out in the firing. (Most of the class were overly cautious in this, which we discovered when our pieces arrived back from the kiln.)
Oxides applied, we moved onto glazes. Less is more in this type of ceramic as the perfect white of the porcelain is feature enough. We very carefully applied small amounts of glaze in the areas we want to highlight, and carefully packed up our little pieces for their short journey back up the M6 to Emma’s kiln in The Lake District.
FIRING
It wasn’t long before our pieces were fired and posted out to the happy recipients. As mentioned earlier, in attempt to not overdo the oxide application some pieces could have had a little more, but the entire day was a learning experience and we certainly took a lot from it, and accomplished so much.
Looking forward to using these new skills and working with porcelain again soon!
