In our technological world, studio artists are easily seduced by tools and machinery, assuming the product of their endeavors will be improved. In ceramics, that can be misleading. The Potter’s wheel is appropriate for certain forms, while handbuilding offers unlimited possibilities in symmetrical and asymmetrical form. This workshop helps participants handbuild with a sense of adventure and discovery through focused exploration of pinch, coil, and slab construction in forms such as mugs, covered boxes, and large vase/jar forms. No previous experience is required, but this workshop is appropriate for clay-workers of any skill level. That includes those most familiar with throwing, because every potter benefits from an adventurous inclination to use handbuilding in interesting ways. Primary emphasis is on efficient design, construction, and decoration of handbuilt forms. A number of digital slide shows will introduce a range of important historical and contemporary handbuilt form and technique.

Course Fee: $650        Supply Fee: $22        Student Supply List: PITELKAStudentSupplies2017

Course tuition includes lunch and two snacks.  Prices include all applicable taxes.

Vince Pitelka has been professionally involved in ceramics for over forty years. After ten years as a studio potter in California, Vince received his MFA in ceramics at the UMass-Amherst, where he became fascinated with pattern development in ceramics with colored clays and bisque-stamps. Vince has taught at Northeastern University and North Dakota State University, and for the past twenty-three years at Tennessee Tech University’s Appalachian Center for Craft, where he runs the Clay Program. Vince is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and has exhibited work and taught workshops nationally and internationally. His column “Tool Times” appears quarterly in Clay Times magazine, and the second edition of his book Clay: A Studio Handbook was published in 2016 by the American Ceramic Society.

This workshop is currently FULL. Please contact the MISSA office at missa@missa.ca if you would like to be added to the wait list.

$672.00