Recent Workshops
Shen Su: The Art of Kintsugi
In partnership with Boulder Tea Hut, we offered this two-day workshop honoring the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi ("golden joinery"). This workshop covered the philosophy of Kintsugi, followed by instruction for hands-on repairing with traditional materials and methods.
The workshop will be taught by Shen Su, a student of tea in Taiwan at Tea Sage Hut working for Global Tea Hut under the guidance of Wu De since 2012. Shen loves tea and the branching arts that gracefully harmonize with it including kintsugi, calligraphy, and woodworking. Kintsugi came into his life in 2017 after being presented with an opportunity by his tea teacher to repair a broken gongfu tea pot made by a famous teapot artist in Yixing. What began as a simple goal to repair a broken teapot turned into a substantial kintsugi practice that found him studying with a respected Taiwanese teacher (and a lot more broken teaware…). Shen believes that the practice of kintsugi is layered and nuanced – it is a delicate process that begs both precision and patience, but there is an indescribable joy that comes from restoring a broken object back into our lives with greater appreciation.
John Hamilton: Slip Casting and Molds
In this two-day workshop, John Hamilton explored the process of combining the world of slip casting and thrown functional pottery. He discussed the slip casting process and demonstrated pouring and attaching slip cast parts to thrown vessels. Attendees had the opportunity to create a small sprig mold, used molds and incorporated slip cast parts to their own thrown or hand built vessels.
Learn more about John and his work at:
www.johnrhamilton3.com
Mitchell Spain: mold-making/slip-casting
During this two-day demonstration workshop Mitchell Spain offered an introduction to the techniques used to create his complex ceramic works. Attendees left this workshop with the knowledge of how to create plaster molds used for slip casting or press molding, ceramic decals and silicone molds.
Read more about Mitchell at: www.mitchellspainceramics.com
Claire McArdle: Terracotta Figurative Sculpture
Students explored how to transfor expressions from their subbconscious mind directly into studies in clay. The hands-on workshop guided participants to create figurative sculptures using two types of Terracotta clay mined in Tuscany, Italy. McArdle taught her gestural, subtractive process and techniques for the application of terra sigillata to achieve color.
Learn more about Claire at cmsculpture.com.
A Celebration of Jomon with Ifurai, Genya Murakami, Ryujiro Oyabu
A huge THANK YOU to all our partners and sponsors for helping Studio Arts Boulder host master potters from Japan for a month-long Celebration of Jomon — Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CU Boulder Center for Asian Studies, Simpson United Methodist Church, Black Cat Farm, Boulder Public Library, New Vista High School, Boulder High School, Nisei Veterans Heritage Foundation, and The Japan Foundation.
Photos are from the hands-on workshop and the first Jomon Noyaki open firing in the U.S.
Works in Progress with Kim Dickey
Dickey led participants through a hands-on exploration of their own creativity, guiding beyond self-imposed barriers. She helped expand participants’ hand-building “vocabulary” and challenged them to invert their own expectations. “If the piece is sculptural, how could you make it functional? If it’s functional, how could you make it sculptural? If it’s an object, what kind of world could it hold? Or what kind of world holds it? If it’s a figure, how could it become an animal? If it’s a plant, where would it grow?” Using found objects, unresolved pieces, and gestures created by other workshop participants, students developed creative responses by extending these existing forms and contributing new ideas to the work.
About Kim Dickey:
Artist and Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Kim Dickey has exhibited her work in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK, and in the United States at MASS MoCA, Everson Museum of Art, the American Craft Museum (now MAD), and MCA Denver, among other venues.
