Sunday morning August 25th gathering on the new slab for future ceramics education building in Pot Hollow. Photo by Leonard Baca
As NMPCA celebrates 50 years, we gather together in
August, 2024 to renew our community in clay,
learn together and celebrate creativity over 3 days,
ensconced within the grandeur of Ghost Ranch.
[Prelude by Michael Thornton]
We can be grateful to Michael Thornton for organizing another year of New Mexico presenters – what happens every other year. This time we had this great line-up: Lee Akins “Fear No Glaze,” Barbara Campbell “Alternative Clay and Faux Finish,” Kerry Halasz “Photographing Ceramics,” and Sheryl Zacharia “Forming Technique and Design."
After the workshop, Michael sent a mass email to participants, which included an invitation for participants to send in comments and photos for the Slip Trail article. Here is what was sent:
Hello all, Just wanted to touch base after our great weekend of ceramics workshops at Ghost Ranch. Thanks to all who participated, and to our great presenters! Through this email thread we can all share our photos from the workshop with the group. Cirrelda will be working on writing an article on the weekend event for publication in the NMPCA Slip Trail, and requests that any participants who want to chip in their 2 cents to provide her a pithy statement of their experiences. Any submissions must be made by September 15. Cate reports that Sheryl’s Terra Sigillata is a custom mix made for her by NM Clay. It is not available off the shelf, but can be special ordered. Thanks to all for making the workshop a success! --Michael
Thank you, Michael for all of your hard work to make this Workshop so successful!! Not only was it very informative and inspiring, but it was a lot of fun!!! --Charlotte
Thank Michael for all your hard work. I really enjoyed spending time with the group. When my demo is completed, I will send out a photo and will send an in process to Cirrelda. Hope to see u soon! Thanks all for your patience and attentiveness!!! --Sheryl
Huge thanks to the NMPCA Board & volunteers for putting together the ceramics workshops at Ghost Ranch. There’s nothing better than conversations with other artists who share your passion! --Kat Richter-Sand
Thanks to all of you who helped the workshop run so smoothly, I enjoyed being a part. --Lee
It was a great workshop and I am so happy with everyone’s input for the new space. Wish I had paid better attention in the photo part, I thought I got a few things, but I sure messed up on others. I am trying very hard to get into a space that doesn’t resist learning this stuff. Thanks again to everyone for the great clean up job and all the wonderful exchange of information. --Barbara Campbell
Hard to believe a week has gone by already. I’m still thinking about the workshop and how much fun it was and how much I learned. Thank you to Barbara, Lee, Sheryl, and Kerry for your presentations, and to Michael and others who worked on the organization for this workshop. Looking forward to the next one. Best wishes, --Kathy (Kathleen Allen / Jemez Springs and Pittsburgh)
Some of us had come before, others for the first time! Regulars from Placitas, Albuquerque, Cuba, Rinconada, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Jemez Springs were joined by first timers from Philadelphia and West Texas. Our usual 3rd weekend in August saw some cloudy skies, and just a few raindrops. The pool was still open and a few of us swam on Saturday afternoon. Meals were fabulous connecting times as usual, and our evenings afterward spent at Pinon Pottery Studio with slide shows by presenters sent us into deeper realms of the imagination expressed in clay and fire and chemicals.
BARBARA CAMPBELL, the Ghost Ranch ceramics coordinator, shared her knowledge of the self-hardening "Taxidermy" clay (reinforced with fiber), the body she uses in her TruGreen Clay seminars at the Ranch. So, we all got to play with it! Barbara provided bamboo skewers for internal armature, and encouraged us to experiment with shapes we don’t normally try with standard clay bodies. In plentiful supply, our entire group engaged with the material in a varied array of expression, all around the one indoor table. A Facebook album shares all the pieces. Here is the piece Barbara made, showing the flexibility and strength:
And the form created by Katy Halasz
Above 2 photos by Barbara Campbell.
Cate McClain's finished Taxidermy piece, "Mochi."
Photo by Cate McClain.
After our Friday afternoon working with Taxidermy clay under Barbara’s guidance, the evening was turned over to LEE AKINS, whose slide show focused on the inspirations that are behind his pieces. He showed us his works chronologically and sprinkled in autobiographical anecdotes about his journey with clay. Juxtaposed with a piece would be a photo of something that influenced the idea or the making of that piece.
"... Architectural influence... adobe walls and passageways … " Photo by CC Snider-B.
KERRY HALASZ is a photographer in Santa Fe, NM who also enjoys creating with clay. Her preferred way to photograph ceramic work is to use only natural light. She brought and recommends this type of light box which will also soften fluorescent light (Impact digital light shed from B and H photo).
Kerry: “Your camera doesn’t need to be expensive.” She uses a zoom lens, Aperture priority, f stop to 16.
Typically, she sets up camera at angle, always set at horizontal, unless it’s a tall piece. She uses deflector panels for her portrait work, and sets up outside if not too windy. Later, in the editing mode, she utilizes Photoshop Lightroom. In phones, she uses “Vivid” setting, along with “Adjust,” “Highlight,” “Shadows,” and “Contrast.”
Kerry demonstrating her preferred light box while shooting Sara D'Alessandro's piece. Photo by CC Snider-B.
Kerry offered custom photo sessions with participants later in the day. We all gained from hearing her honed perspective on making choices when photographing our work.
Katy holding the screen to focus more light, while Kerry adjusts camera to shoot object in outdoor setting. photo by CCSnider-B.
Kerry pointing out an object. photo by CC Snider-B.
LEE AKINS on GLAZE – Lecture with Slide Show. Lee lives in Rinconada, and is on the faculty at UNM Taos. “For all of us glazing is one of the most frustrating parts.” Lee added that if you want a certain look you have to approach this in a studied manner. How we decide what to glaze, like how we decide what to make, benefits from thought and intention, to achieve what we envision. “Choices” abound!
Choosing to use glaze to accent carving: Celadon glazes will run and flow into the lines. Lee recommends getting to know your glazes by working with 5 instead of 20. Shoji Hamada used four, saying, “When I learn these four, I will move on to more.”
Here are some useful anecdotes captured in Lee’s lecture: “What pattern what shape? Not arbitrary random.” … “Design principles: 1. Simple form can use a complex surface /abstract. 2. Complex form /keep glaze simple.” Lee tends not to use gloss glaze that causes reflection. One potter’s piece that was shared used “patterning, repeating shape of pot, implying function in the decoration.”
He showed examples where a “complex form was sticking with one glaze” then contrasted it with a “fairly complex form that had a glaze used to accent form with slip trailing.” Then, he presented an “opposite, to break the rules: large complex sculptures with multiple heads using many glazes.” Many more useful anecdotes were given by Akins in an absolutely wide-ranging panorama of glazing possibilities.
After the slide show, Lee had us assembled back at the common table, with all his tools laid out.
Photo by Kathleen Allen
Lee's glazing tools, photo by Kristin Welch.
The question, “WHAT IS GLAZE ANYWAY?” lead into demonstrations of DIPPING, POURING. BRUSH, SPONGING, SPRAYING, COMBING, SPLASHING, TRAILING. While glazing, he stresses the use of 95% minium mask, better to use a respirator because of the fine particle size. He uses a glaze notebook, as well as Pottery Notes app!
More advice: “Thickness is critical. Not preparing glaze properly will affect. Focus on measurement by weight more. 100 milliliters of water will weigh 100 grams. Make your own cup marked after weighing. Specific gravity! 100 water to 145 chemicals.”
Favorite tools of Lee’s: Whisks. Power mixer and immersion blender! IKEA whisk fits in drill! Brush vs spatula to force stuff thru sieve. “Thickness of a dime -- some glazes like shino need to be super thin.” More practical advice: Plastic knives better than metal for removing glaze. And, “Hamada used big ladle to do swirl.”
The result of this far-ranging lecture had many around me echoing my own feeling that we couldn’t wait to get back to our own glazing tables – this “refresher” had us inspired to go back home and try all the different methods we’d known of, but had forgotten or ignored.
SHERYL ZACHARIAH, born and raised in New York, and resident of Manhattan as an adult, has made her home in Santa Fe for over ten years. She has been a member of NMPCA for a while and has given another workshop to us in the past. She began her demo in the afternoon, and brought a piece already bisque-fired, then created another sculpture with a whole stack of slabs she had pre-rolled out, to be stiff enough to build with.
Sheryl Zacharia with her bisque-fired piece she brought to demo glazing. Photo by Kathleen Allen
In her description of her making-mode, she spoke of “coil vs. slab’ and talked of joining slabs in a coiling method. She went on to describe more of what’s important to her, saying she is "self-taught, no training.”
Uses the clay body Super Sculpt (NM Clay) fired to cone 5. She has one thousand sketches in her phone – an idea can be in her head, or not.
Drawing process is what leads her creations – she showed the drawing that she will create for us. She will identify the ones she likes, so the same shape may have 6 different ways to finish.
Describing herself as a Modernist, she was a kid who loved Picasso. She strives to not let “others’ ideas get in [her] head.”
Starting with oval, she cuts away. Then she stamps the slabs before she builds with them, using templates. A very key tool for her are the oval and circle cookie cutters! 18” bottom - to make oval, long line with circle drawn. Eyeballing vs measuring - it doesn’t have to look perfect, just has to “look right.”
Builds with slab strips like coils. Builds hollow, no supports. Starts by rolling slabs 1-2 days ahead so not lousy goosey. Cutting slab pieces for building she uses straight edges. Loves texture- goes to garbage room. Makes her own stamps. Keeps scrap bowls that become the slip for joining. Scores and slips sides to be joined. Uses old scraps to shore up seam. Fills in the seam.
Generally she works on two pieces at same time. Combining white and brown clay bodies even when folks say you cannot.
Paddles seams. Justin Novak teacher, was a proponent of drawing, and a big influence, because Sheryl, too, is a proponent of drawing! Loves texture and is inspired by textiles. NY Museum of Art and Design resident!!
She’s a painter. Not just solid color but rendered color three coats. Layering makes it interesting
Light wash of black Mason stain over stains in terra sigillatta. 1.5 cups hot water white terra sig, Mason stain.
Gestural wiping following form of the piece. Black underglaze pencil is also her “go-to,” making lines with flexible, metal straight edge. She definitely goes for the “Layered Look.”
That evening, we got to hear her story via slides – from her earliest pieces and years, on through many affiliations with other artists, in school settings, or studios. She shared an amazing, varied journey of shape exploration. Series upon series inspired all of us in the darkened room. There are many different “periods” and many different influences. Thank you so very much, Sheryl!
Roller Coaster Sky #5 side 2300, by Sheryl Zacharia
Roller Coaster Sky #5 side 1300, by Sheryl Zacharia. Finished piece from workshop demo, submitted a few weeks post-workshop. Photos by Sheryl Zacharia.
BARBARA CAMPBELL’s Day 2 shared the next step with the now dry Taxidermy pieces: painting of our pieces. An array of acrylic paints and acrylic inks (Golden “High Flow”) was shared with the group. The “test” piece we each created was first painted white, then allowed to dry. We then painted a few coats of the color, then applied sealant which is thin.
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Before lunch, we gathered at the cement slab for the new ceramics studio, in the area near the arroyo below the Dining Hall, where the former Ghost Ranch ceramics studio, Pot Hollow, sat before the 2015 flood. We heard Barbara Campbell describe the building that would be constructed in months to come.
A fitting end to an elightening weekend – looking to future times with clay camaraderie, ahead!
On the new Pot Hollow Ceramics Classroom slab. Photo by Kathleen Allen.
--Slip Trail Editor, Cirrelda Snider-Bryan, September 22, 2024.
