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Thank you to all who participated in our November workshops!
New workshops coming August 2023.

November 5th & 6th

10:00am to 4:00pm

The Making of an
Organic Sculpture

A 2-day workshop led by one of New Mexico's most respected ceramic sculptors:

ANDREA PICHAIDA
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This hands-on, 2 day workshop with ceramic sculptor and President of the NM Potters and Clay Artists, Andrea Pichaida, will explore how to build an organic sculpture by starting with a hollow, air containing shape built with a mold. Your imagination will play freely with the unique plasticity that clay offers and you will discover an unexpected and surprising shape as your hands play on this air-containing structure. We will discuss and work an organic shape by discovering how nature presents us with the rules of composition, symmetry, movement, direction, texture, color… to be applied to make an interesting three dimensional piece. Let us be surprised by this building method and its possibilities! Workshop fee includes clay. 

$395 / Participant (Limited to eight!) A bag lunch is suggested.

SORRY YOU MISSED IT!

REGISTER ONLINE BELOW or CALL 575.758.2580 (please leave message if no answer)

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Andrea is a native of Santiago, Chile, where she graduated with honors in 1987 from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile with a Master's Degree in Fine Arts. She participated from 1985 -2010 in many exhibits and her work can be found in public spaces as well as private collections in Chile, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, USA, Canada, Spain and the Vatican. 

 

From 1994-2010, Andrea was an Associate Professor, Vice Chair and Head of the Sculpture Department at the Art School of the P. Catholic University. Her book “El Arte de la Tierra y el Fuego, Manual práctico para el alumno” (The Art of Clay and Fire, Student’s manual) was published in 2003. In 2010, she moved to Santa Fe, NM. Since moving, her work has been widely exhibited and collected throughout the state and beyond and has won numerous awards. In 2020, Andrea was elected President of the state-wide New Mexico Potters and Clay Artists association and still holds that position.

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November 12th and 13th
10:00am to 4:00pm

Ancient Pottery Techniques with Native Clay

An extraordinary 2-day workshop with two of the area's best...

Carl Gray Witkop and

Bernadette Track

This wonderful workshop will work with the native micaceous clay long used by Pueblo and other Native American potters to make pots using traditional coil building techniques and using the hemisphere puki technique. Each participant will receive 5 pounds of native micaceous clay, with the option of purchasing more. Processing of the clay will be demonstrated so that any clay collected can be processed at home by the participants. (An optional field trip to the clay pits on November 5th is available for an additional $25.) Bernadette will give all a glimpse into the traditional ways Pueblo potters think about clay gathering and potting and about cooking with micaceous clay pots. An optional pit-fire to be held at Carl’s place in Pilar is available to all participants on November 19th for an additional $25. 

$395/Participant for 2-days, (5 pounds of native micaceous clay included)

SOLD OUT! It was loved by all!
Participants are requested to bring a bag lunch. 

REGISTER FOR WAITLIST BELOW 

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Carl Gray Witkop began working with clay as a child. His mother was a sculptor, painter and ceramic artist. He taught himself techniques based on Native American and neolithic European traditions beginning in 1968 after seeing Highland Maya potters working in Guatemala, while majoring in anthropology at Colorado State University. Accidental effects during pit firing led to the first horsehair firing in the early seventies. With his first wife, Mary Blake Witkop, he devised a variation of coil-building stemming from the Pueblo use of a puki for forming vessels. Introduced to Taos / Picuris micaceous clay in the late seventies, Carl and Mary worked with Bernadette Track, some of her family members, and with other potters to learn the magical properties of that clay. Since then, Carl has continued to develop traditional and novel firing methods.

 

Bernadette Track learned the art of potting from her grandmother. She studied potting at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Bernadette was thinking of taking up potting as a serious endeavor when she chanced to meet Mary in 1976, who encouraged her. As her work progressed, Bernadett became one of the principals in the revival of Taos Pueblo potting along with family members, a friend, and other artists. As Pueblo culinary traditions were one of Bernadette’s passions, she found that micaceous clay vessels were indispensable, so she followed the tradition of creating bean pots and other items from that clay. Bernadette, with sisters Soj, Doll, and Maxine, her mother sculptor Geronima Track, her aunt Juanita DuBray, and friend Henrietta Gomez, worked to introduce the idea that micaceous clay could be used as an artistic medium, not limited to functional ware. Bernadette taught Pueblo pottery at UNM for several years. The extraordinarily generous sharing of her knowledge of Pueblo potting has inspired artists of various backgrounds.

 

 

 

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Fear no glaze!

Lee Akins Two-Day Workshop​

November 19th and 20th (10am-4pm)

Some Experience with Clay is Required 

Everything you ever wanted to know about glazing your work but were afraid to ask!

This workshop, hosted by the incomparable Lee Akins, will cover basic through advanced glaze applications. Topics will include glazing strategies, layering and resist techniques, considerations of form as relates to best glaze application, how to clean up drips, dealing with glaze mistakes, and overall troubleshooting glazes. You will learn to glaze with confidence!

The workshop fee includes the glaze firing of two works no larger than 6"in any one direction. Please bring your own bisque-ware and green-ware for glazing. Participants wishing to glaze-fire more or larger pieces can do so at TCC's standard firing fees.

Participants are encouraged to bring a bag lunch.

$325 / Participant (Limited to eight!)

SOLD OUT! We'll be doing it again in 2023!

REGISTER ONLINE BELOW or CALL 575.758.2580 (please leave message if no answer)

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Lee Akins received a B.F.A. from the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio in 1975 and a M.F.A. in Ceramics in 1986 from Southern Methodist University. He has taught ceramics at the college level for more than 40 years. His work has been featured in ceramic magazines and publications, including an article in Ceramics Monthly (August/September 2006). Lee has been an instructor at the TCC since January 2021.  

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