Learn how to take your work to the next level by altering wheel thrown pottery. We will spend the day watching Hanna Traynham and Sarah Chenoweth Davis demonstrate their unique process. Each artist starts with a simple wheel thrown form and then alters it to create work that is graceful & dynamic.
Hanna’s demonstration will consist of working with clay in its various stages. While soft, she will show how she plans out her design and alters the form to create voluptuous and organic movement. Once leatherhard, she carves away specific voids from the vessel, opening the form as if it is gracefully decaying. She also shows how she troubleshoots specific challenges in this way of working and will discuss how pushing material to its brink affords new avenues of technique. Finally, she’ll address the influences wood and soda firing has had upon her forms and their surfaces.
Sarah’s demonstration begins on the wheel, where she throws a bottomless cylinder and then alters it out of kilter. She completes the piece with slabs and other handbuilding techniques. For her surface decoration, she’ll demonstrate how she paints a lyrical design in a simple, high-contrast palette. She’ll also discuss her current body of work, which emphasizes the tactile experience of pottery, employing dimensional glazes while leaving much of the clay exposed – delighting both the eye and the hand.
Price: $35 OPA members, $45 non-OPA, PCC Pottery Guild Free
Seating is limited to 25 paying guests. Non-refundable drop date is June 15th.
This workshop has been sponsored by the Oregon Potters Association and the PCC Pottery Guild
Artist Bios:
Hanna grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, exploring nature and hearing fiddle and banjo music regularly. She has lived in the Pacific Northwest for eight years teaching Art and sharing her passion for creative growth. She received her BFA in Virginia, a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State, and Fall 2019 she will be pursuing an MFA in Ceramics at Eastern Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. Hanna has traveled to Denmark and Japan experiencing the dynamics within global ceramics communities, connecting through clay. While she loves the Northwest, her connection to home in the Appalachian Mountains compels her to return to her roots to further her career in Ceramics education. Her work mimics how life's unexpected turns often result in outcomes greater than planned. Visit Hanna's website.
Sarah, a porcelain addict, makes pots and other vessels in a crusty industrial area near the foot of the Fremont Bridge in Portland, Oregon. She earned a BA in Biology from the College of Wooster, OH and an MFA in Applied Craft + Design from Oregon College of Art and Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Art, which awarded her an Entrepreneurial Fellowship in 2017. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US and in Japan and has been featured in various publications including Ceramics Monthly, The Journal of Australian Ceramics, and the interactive e-book American i-Pottery. An alumna of the American Pottery Festival, you can find Sarah’s pots at Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN, as well as Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh and Eutectic Gallery in Portland, OR. Sarah currently maintains a studio in Portland, where she is also the Gallery Manager for Eutectic Gallery and drummer for the band, The Sidewalk. Visit Sarah's website.
