Tag: ceramics

Posted on by

Bonded by a Bronco

Students Anna Burke and Krisin Grandy with Kristin's Ford Bronco
Anna Burke (left) and Kristin Grandy (right) with Kristin’s Ford Bronco.

Kristin Grandy, who was a student in the third session clay workshop taught by Linda Christianson, is a high school ceramics teacher in Neptune Beach, Florida. In addition to the usual pottery and sculpture, she likes to familiarize her students about other careers that use clay skills. One of these is industrial modeling, including automotive clay sculpting.

Kristin is also the owner of a beautiful, blue-gray, 2020 Ford Bronco.

Anna Burke was a student in David Wolske’s third session letterpress workshop. She has a BFA in ceramics and graphic design from Alfred University in New York. Since graduating in 2017, she has worked as an automotive clay sculptor at Ford in Detroit. The two women met during the session and discovered they had this shared interest in industrial modeling. It also turned out that on Anna’s first day as an intern at Ford she was put to work shaping the full-size clay model of the exact Bronco that Kristin drives.

That should be a good story for the kids.

If you are not familiar with automotive clay sculpting, here’s a nice video introduction. They work with an oil-based plasticine and move from scale to full-size models, which are then laser scanned.

Posted on by

Photo(s) of the Week: From Bag of Clay to Handled Tray

This Saturday, we’re thrilled to welcome Courtney Martin back to the Penland clay studio for our third Penland Everywhere live Q&A!

These live events are part of our very first online programs and go hand-in-hand with prerecorded video demonstrations featuring a handful of expert instructors sharing their techniques, tips, and tricks. If Courtney’s Q&A is anything like our first two with Cristina Córdova and David H. Clemons, it will be an hour packed with useful insights, detailed information, and a bit of that Penland camaraderie we’ve all been missing. Sign up now to join the conversation—the Q&A starts at 1 PM ET tomorrow, February 20.

Courtney’s demo takes participants through her steps for creating a handbuilt tray form, complete with her signature cut handles and decorative carving details. Here’s a look at the process in three screenshots taken directly from her hour-long lesson.

15:04—Join the two ends of the coil that will form the walls of the tray.

Potter Courtney Martin in the early stages of making a tray in the Penland clay studio

 

41:32—Mark out the handle openings on the refined tray form.

Courtney Martin marking her tray form with a needle tool

 

59:03—Give the foot of the tray some personality with decorative carving!

Courtney Martin uses a loop tool to carve a geometric pattern into the underside of her clay tray

 

Participants in Courtney’s demo will have 30 days of access to watch, rewatch, and try out her techniques. Register now to give it a try!

For a deeper dive into handbuilding with clay, sign up to join Courtney’s immersive online workshop March 11-13.

Posted on by

Photo of the Week: From a Slab to a Head

Tomorrow, we’re marking a milestone in our new online programming initiative—our first live event! Renowned ceramic sculptor and instructor Cristina Córdova will hold a live Q&A session over Zoom for participants in her online demo, A Simplified Way to Make a Hollow Head. Cristina’s demo is a remarkable distillation of years of her own learning and discovery in the studio, and we’re thrilled to offer participants a direct window into her practice.

Here’s a quick look at Cristina’s transformative abilities with clay in three images. Each of these shots is a frame taken directly from Cristina’s hour-long demo.

3 minutes in—forming a flat slab into a hollow cylinder for the beginnings of the head

Cristina forming a clay slab into the beginnings of a head

 

20 minutes in—using proportions as guides to establish the facial features

Cristina refining the features of her sculpted head

 

55 minutes in—experimenting with gesture before attaching the head to the neck

Cristina playing with gesture with her nearly completed head and neck

 

Intrigued? Register to take part in the demo! But hurry, you’ll need to sign up before 1 PM tomorrow, January 23 to join the Q&A.

For more about Cristina’s process and the way teaching and making blend in her practice, watch this short video visit with her!