Clay: Ginger Geyer

Course Description

Porcelain is the most refined and challenging of all clay bodies, lending itself to intimate and detailed work. We will explore its subtleties and exploit its technical limits by hand-building small, realistic objects of your choice. These will be fired off-site at the end of the week. Urban T. Holmes once said “objects are the pegs upon which we hang the stories of our lives”. We will look for ubiquitous objects in our surroundings, and search them for meaning while learning the basic techniques of hand-building, sgraffito with colored slips, and painting with underglazes. This class will be appropriate for beginning artists, but advanced ceramicists will benefit the most. There is a $40 lab fee for porcelain clay and other materials.

Register now!

About Ginger Geyer

Austin artist Ginger Geyer has worked in the hybrid medium of porcelain sculpture and storytelling for twenty years. Her work has been featured in IMAGE, The Christian Century, Visual Theology, The Door, Blue Rock Review, thehighcalling.org, CIVA/Silver and PBS Religion & Ethics News, with primary exhibitions in Texas, D.C., Arkansas, and Vancouver. A former art museum professional and adjunct professor, she holds a M.F.A. and a seminary degree and serves as arts consultant for Laity Lodge, a retreat center supported by the H.E. Butt Foundation. Ginger’s ever-expanding stories and sculpture can be found at www.gingergeyer.com, and at Valley House Gallery in Dallas.

Materials List

Clay and some tools will be supplied by your lab fee; however you are encouraged to bring what you can, as we will be sharing tools. Many of these items you may already have; just bring what you can. We will concentrate on hand-building but some of you may have time to paint underglazes and slips.

• Slender utility knife or disposable surgical knife
• Small turntable (a plastic one made for spice cabinets is OK)
• Assortment of small paintbrushes such as
     - small, detail brushes, size 000 and up
     - filbert brushes, size 6 to 10
     - soft brush for dusting, like a Japanese ink brush
• Plastic bags (from drycleaners)
• 2 small lidded containers for water and slip
• Wood workboard, such as a round bat used in throwing, or piece of scrap wood about 12” square
• Textured fabrics, etc. for rolling clay textures
• Objects to replicate—anything that is not made of transparent material, something not overly detailed.
• Apron
• Small container to carry home finished work

If you want to invest more:

• Small clay tools (available online or at most art supply stores—think detailing here, NOT heavy duty tools for throwing. KEMPER is a reasonable brand.)

   - wood tool with curved end (called a finger tool)
   - wood tool with curved blade and needle end (lace tool or incising tool)
   - fettling knife
   - wire scratch tool
   - sgraffito tools (small wire loop on end)
   - rubber rib
   - texture rib of wood or metal

• Round wooden bat
• Small elephant ear sponge
• Large, ball-bearing rolling pin
• Small rolling pin (a wood toy one is fun, also pastry rollers)
• Tools used for sewing, dentistry, baking, carving
• Play Doh tools, extruders
• Small clay extruder

For more information, please write to:
Image, 3307 Third Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119.
Phone: (206) 281-2988. Or send us an e-mail.