ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTER Snowmass Village, Colorado

Mixed-Media Ceramic Sculpture

Put it all together in this adventure in assemblage. Combining multiple clay bodies of varying firing temperatures opens up a world of creative possibilities. Whether making ceramic sculpture in segments or assembling separately finished components in the post-fired stage, participants in this workshop experiment with techniques that are not only fun, but allow for a wide range of decorating approaches.

Terracotta handbuilding body, mid-range porcelain and/or a heavily-grogged clay body for auxiliary components. Combination of coil, pinch, slab building and tile techniques. For surfaces, the emphasis will be on creating a variety of textures, using simple forming and decorating techniques, slip techniques, plus terra sigillatas, oxides, stains and/or velvet underglazes.

Angelica shares techniques to create sculptural assemblages with multiple clay bodies and finishing approaches. She demonstrates how to incorporate various non-ceramic materials for aesthetic and structural purposes. Students are encouraged to experiment!

If you’ve tried your hand at drawing and painting on paper, you’ll find some familiar ground here. Underglazes let you mimic several works-on-paper techniques.

Liquid underglaze brushwork can resemble tempera, but just water it down a bit, and soft, beautiful watercolor effects appear. Trailing tools with fine pen nibs combine with liquid underglaze to echo pen and ink washes. Ceramic chalk and pencil are much firmer than their pastel counterparts, but they can still deliver a soft chalk effect, thanks to the bisque’s abrasiveness. And aided by masks and stencils, one can sponge, spatter, and spray the bisque surface to create rich textures and collaged images.

In this workshop, I’ll demonstrate a sampling of underglaze drawing and painting techniques. After each demo, you’ll have a bit of time and access to materials and tools to get a taste of the various techniques.  

For those with prior ceramics and/or drawing experience, this sampler may provide enough information for you to take back to your own studio and artwork. Those wishing to delve more deeply into any of these techniques are encouraged to sign up for one of the From Paper Onto Clay Concentration Workshops where I’ll demonstrate the specified technique, offering more advanced tips. Participants then get the opportunity to have a more concentrated experience and develop a larger finished panel(s) made of multiple tiles.   

From Paper To Clay Concentration Workshops: Chalk Drawing, Pen & Ink and/or 'Picture Postcard' Painting With Underglazes

For those who would like more intensive guidance and experience with one or more of my “Paper To Clay” decorating techniques.

Instruction and guidance provided for participants to concentrate on and work towards mastering one decorating technique and/or creating a more significantly sized tile piece. You’ll be creating a larger multi-tile image(s) using the specified technique. You will want to come to workshop with image sized to your desired finished piece. I can provide guidance in advance on this if needed. In the workshop I’ll show you how to transfer your image onto the tiles in preparation for the underglaze work.

Great class for beginners! With my instruction and guidance, even those with the most minimal confidence in their artistic skills will be able to find their inner artist, flex their creativity and create works they can be proud of.

Workshop hours: 11-2 - $50, includes materials

In this workshop, I will guide you in doing just that. Participants will create tile panel and mosaic pieces that combine a variety of tile decorating techniques. Working with a terracotta tile clay, I’ll start you off with my secrets for flat tile perfection. Then I’ll demonstrate a selection of wetware decorating techniques. Students will have the opportunity to practice these methods on small individual tiles, but will be lead to apply them right away on a larger panel. Starting with a small central image or panel, I’ll encourage you to build the piece out, concentric row by row of tiles until the panel feels complete. In this exercise students will also be gaining an understanding of how to gauge and plan for shrinkage and grout lines as they figure the sizes of the tiles that will frame their central panel.

The workshop will culminate with a discussion and demonstration of proper tile installation practices.

Sidle up to a rich smorgasbord of wetware decorating techniques. Low fire terra cotta tile will serve as the canvas for carving, impressing, stamping, combing, chattering, sgrafitto, slip trailing, masking and inlaid slip techniques. Students, working on both individual tiles as well as larger tile panel pieces, will be encouraged to practise the specific processes, as well as to experiment by altering and combining multiple techniques for interesting effects.

With the limited palette of white and black slip and the lights and darks created by our manipulation of the tile surface, we’ll be able to concentrate on texture, pattern and how to utilize it to enhance imagery. Drawing transfer techniques will also be covered so come prepared with your own drawings and sources of visual inspiration, if you like, though some will be available to arouse your creative juices.

Using primarily wetware vitreous slips on terracotta tile clay body, workshop participants will get the opportunity to work on several outdoor tile projects. In order to be sure to have something to install by week’s end, we’ll start off with a wall tile piece. After that it’s your choice of either several smaller projects, such as small panels, stepping stones, a bird bath, or larger projects, such as, a table top, a larger wall piece or even a bench top, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious.

Materials included in your workshop fee are the vitreous slips, your first 50 lbs of clay, including firing, and substrate and all installation materials for your first tile wall panel. Pre-cast concrete objects, or furniture you want to work on, are your responsibility. Also some additional installation materials for those objects, may have to be purchased separately, such as specific grout colors or for a particularly large project. If you need additional clay, you may purchase it by the bag for additional fee which would cover firings as well.

Make something you can beautify your garden with this summer! In this workshop you get to work on your choice of  project(s)– It can be mosaic stepping stones, a birdbath and/or a wall piece for an exterior installation.

You’ll learn the basics involved with creating and installing ceramic tile work for exterior situations in northern climates while you make something you can use in your garden this summer. First weekend will be spent forming, decorating and cutting the tiles. I'll then dry and fire your tile piece. Second weekend would be dedicated to installing on Saturday, and grouting on Sunday.

Clay and installation material fee will depend upon size of chosen project. You can bring your own concrete birdbath or stepping stones. I would just need a photograph and dimensions so I can make sure it’s right for exterior work and for this workshop. Also I can then estimate your material fee, which will likely range around $20 or so. If you prefer, you can purchase your substrate object from me.  You will need to decide and either submit your request or an image of your item 2 weeks  prior to workshop. I also advise you to bring a prepared image to work from to spend workshop time making and not just planning. I can advise you with this.

This workshop will cover all the necessary stages to creating and installing a ceramic mosaic tile overlay for a concrete garden bench, starting with the design/planning stages, through the tile making and decorating stage and finally the installation and grouting, with emphasis on the specific requirements needed for an exterior handmade tile project.   Instruction will include special tips for the arts educator who would like to complete such a project collaboratively with their students, however information will be useful for all who would like to learn how to create and install exterior tile pieces.

All students will get hands on experience as they work together on two of my benches. We’ll work concurrently on the two benches. Each day of workshop, we'll complete a stage of wet work on one bench as well as a step of the installation process on the second bench. This is to help condense the time so that participants may see and experience all the steps involved in a tiled bench project within the 3 days of the workshop. Meanwhile each workshop attendee will design and create their own 12 x 12 mosaic panel, which they get to take with them or leave for me to fire and ship.  At home the panel can be installed onto a concrete stepping stone, so that you can review all the installation steps for yourself before tackling a larger project. 

Also part of the experience will be a slide presentation of Angelica Pozo’s tile studio work, numerous public art and school collaborative art projects to send you off with plenty of ideas and inspiration for what you could do in your strudio or classroom projects.