Steven Hill Participatory Workshop -

Pouring Vessels - Bowls - Cups /
                        Atmospheric Effects for Electric Firing
 

In this 6 day workshop, working alongside Steven Hill, you will throw, alter and work with decorative slip. Steven will discuss his philosophy on making pottery, while throwing, assembling and decorating the forms and techniques that he is well known for. The focus will be on spouts, handles, form, surface, and the relationship between these elements. Steven will demonstrate pouring vessels, bowls, mugs, yunomis and other forms over the course of the week and students will concentrate on the forms that inspire them the most.

When glazing, Steven will address ways to achieve the kind of richness and surface variation in electric kilns that potters have come to associate with fuel burning kilns and reduction firing. The goal is not to imitate reduction, but to set the stage so that multiple layered glazes can interact with each other in the firing. The basic techniques of spraying and the more advanced theories of layering and blending glazes will be addressed. We will fire at ^6 oxidation. Steven's glazes will be available to use, but students are encouraged to bring recipe's and small containers of glaze to experiment with.

This will be an intermediate / advanced workshop. Steven is a thrower and his demonstrations will be about throwing and assembly, but hand-builders aer welcome as well. Students are encouraged to bring a few small ^6 -10 porcelain or white stoneware pots (bisque fired) with them, to glaze fire early in the week.

A note from Steven...
I am an amateur guitarist and singer (highlight the word AMATEUR!). I invite everyone to bring an instrument if you play one (even if it’s just an empty box to use as a drum!) for after-hours jam sessions around the campfire.   

 Agenda for the week:

 Sunday evening 7pm

• Orientation and SH demo

Monday - Wednesday

The first half of the week the emphasis is on making pots… throwing, assembly, form and surface, including slip. We will do at least one firing, however, with the bisque pieces brought to the workshop. This will help get students comfortable with the concept of spraying and layering glazes.

Thursday-Saturday           

• The emphasis is on glazing, with theory, demo’s, lectures. Students will glaze the pots they made the first half of the week. We will fire as many kilns as it takes!
• Students will go home with KNOWLEDGE and hopefully a few nice pots, but our motto for the week will be “Process not Product!”
• The last kilns will be unloaded by 11am on Saturday

About Steven
Steven Hill received his BFA from Kansas State University in 1973 and has been a studio potter since 1975. Steven's work is exhibited and sold in nationally juried shows and is featured in many ceramics books. He has conducted nearly 200 workshops throughout the United States and Canada and has written many ceramics articles; "An Approach To Single-Firing" (January 1986, Ceramics Monthly), "Long Distance Runner" (December 1989, Studio Potter), "Don't Put The Flames Out" (February 1994, Ceramics Monthly), “Pulling Handles”, (Spring 1998, Pottery Making Illustrated), “Where You’ve Been Is Good And Gone, All You Keep Is The Gettin’ There” (April 1998, Ceramics Monthly), “Spraying Glazes”, (March 2002, Pottery Making Illustrated),“An Approach to Single Firing – Further In”, (January 2006, Ceramics Monthly), and , “The Eight Month Workshop – A Journey of Discovery”, (June 2008, Ceramics Monthly).  Steven’s most recent article, “Atmospheric-Like Effects for Electric Firing” is in the March 2012 Ceramics Monthly.

In 1998 Steven co-founded Red Star Studios Ceramic Center in Kansas City, MO and co-founded Center Street Clay in Sandwich, IL in 2006. Currently Steven is doing what he does best… Making pots, writing about ceramics, teaching workshops and letting someone else take care of business! His new home is 323 Clay in Independence, MO.

 

 

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