Salt Glaze Workshop, Saratoga Art Center, July 5-12, 2019.

This weeklong workshop will feature two firings in the Art Center’s salt kiln, and will be a high-energy information gathering and exchange with hands-on experience. Whether you are experienced with this process or are a willing newbie, be prepared to learn about exciting possibilities for adapting this centuries-old method of firing our work.

We will arrive on Friday July 5th with bisqued sculpture and pots made from high-fire stoneware and porcelain clays, then decorate with slips and glazes prior to wadding and loading the kiln, which will be candled overnight and fired off the following day.

While the kiln is going on Saturday, we will be making work for the second firing, exploring the option of decorating fresh surfaces with a variety of slips. Jack will demonstrate some of his forming methods, including using bisque stamps, faceting, on-wheel altering, and a simple method of increasing the scale of thrown work. Depending on individual preferences, the emphasis will be on loosening and enlarging skills participants bring to the class, rather than perfecting methods we already know by heart.

When the kiln is unloaded Monday and the work assessed, we will glaze, wad and load either that day or on Tuesday, and unload Friday, completing the cycle.

Salt glazing offers the opportunity to set the stage for our work to be transformed by the firing process instead of simply using heat to fix our intentions, as happens in electric kilns. Atmospheric firing introduces variables that increase opportunities for discovering colors and textures impossible to achieve through other means. When used with the variety of clay bodies we’ll bring to the first firing, we will have an excellent sense of the aesthetic and expressive possibilities for salt firing.

The workshop will be limited to approximately 12 participants, each of whom should bring enough pieces to fill a box 30” square. Please, no plates or bowls wider than 8”.  (“Tall and thin always gets in, bowl and plate wait and wait.”)

We will have an assortment of slips and glazes known to perform well in the Art Center’s kiln. We will be firing to a soft c/10. If you want to test glazes of your own, be sure to put them inside a bowl, in case they run, to protect the shelves.

Light-burning stoneware clays, and porcelain usually respond best in salt firing. High iron (dark-burning) clays are often unsatisfactory, but seeing is believing, so feel free to make or refute this discovery for our mutual benefit if you like, by making some work from high-iron clays.

Jack Troy has been making pots for 55 years, and has taught more than 250 workshops in many states and countries. His book, Salt Glazed Ceramics is a standard text, and he also wrote Wood Fired Stoneware and Porcelain and Calling the Planet Home (poems), in addition to more than a hundred articles, commentary, and reviews in major ceramics periodicals. He recently did the 4^th firing of his new salt kiln, and can hardly wait for the next one. 

We expect this workshop will SELL OUT QUICKLY.  Register online TODAY!

jacktroy.net

The workshop will be limited to 12 participants, on a first come, first served basis with a preference given to our members.