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Early spring scene


Early spring classes are open for registration

Although it may not look like it right now, winter is on its way out. We'll soon be welcoming longer days, crocuses and daffodils, returning birds, and our early spring classes. Meanwhile, there's still one upcoming winter class starting this month.

Introductory and Continuing Wheel Sundays
The last of our winter term classes, Introductory and Continuing Wheel Sundays with Kevan O. Wilson, begins on February 26. This class, which offers a welcome alternative for those who cannot make our Monday or Thursday wheel classes, runs from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

Coffee and Clay
Our early spring classes kick off on Saturday, March 4, with Coffee and Clay, taught by Nancy Bulkley. This class, which runs from 9:30 to 11:30 am, focuses on hand building and is open to both beginning and experienced students. If you are a wheel thrower, consider taking this class so you can create pieces that combine both thrown and hand-built elements. Don't forget about our Early Bird Enrollment Discount, which is available through February 5 for this class.

Introductory and Continuing Wheel
Our early spring term offers three Introductory and Continuing Wheel
classes:

Mondays, Mar 13 through Apr 17, 7:00-9:00 pm, with Kevan O. Wilson.
Thursdays, Mar 9 through Apr 13, 12:30 to 2:30 pm, with Nancy Bulkley.
Thursdays, Mar 9 through Apr 13, 6:30 to 8:30 pm, with Kay Yourist.

This class is where you begin your adventure in throwing pottery or develop your skills to a higher level. You will receive an Early Bird Enrollment Discount for these classes if you register by February 9.

Understanding Glazes
Master potter Alex Pratt will teach you how to make successful glazes in this class. Learn more about it in the feature article that follows. Our Early Bird Enrollment Discount for this class is available through February 10.

Try It Once on the Wheel
Finally, for those who want to give clay a try for the first time, we have two upcoming Saturday Try It classes:

Saturday, Feb 11, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm with Nancy Bulkley.
Saturday, Mar 11, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm with Nancy Bulkley

It's time to say goodbye to another cold, dreary, sunless Michigan winter and get those creative juices flowing again. Enroll in our early spring classes today.

Featured class!
Unlock the mysteries of making glaze

Have you ever regarded the process of making glazes as a sort of alchemy?

Glaze test tiles 
 After all, most
glazes are not WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). And they involve chemistry, with lots of unfamiliar ingredients like Gerstley borate, ferro frit, EPK kaolin, whiting, Custer feldspar, and nepheline syenite. To produce a successful glaze, you must be able to interpret a glaze recipe correctly, measure the ingredients accurately, figure out the specific gravity, and that's just the beginning . . .

Master potter Alex Pratt will demystify glaze making in our 6-week class, Understanding Glazes, which begins on Sunday, March 12. You will examine how glaze materials behave, how to combine them to create a functional glaze recipe, and how to make line blends with different materials to pinpoint exactly the glaze you want. Each class will involve a glaze talk as well as hands-on glaze mixing. For quick testing results, the studio will fire to cone 6 every week.

This is a rare opportunity, so don't miss out. Our Early Bird enrollment discount for this class is available through February 10.

Calendar icon
Studio calendar
   
Students, please pick up your pots! 
We're clearing our shelves for the new class term. All student work left from 2016, bisque and glaze, will be discarded on February 4. If you have left any of your pots, please pick them up by Saturday, February 4 at 12:00 pm.

Ready, load, fire 
It's time to get your glazing done for our next gas kiln firing. Here's the tentative schedule for the next firing:

Loading:
Sunday, February 5.
Firing: Tuesday, February 7.
Unloading: Friday, February 10.

Be aware that this schedule could change depending on the amount of work that's ready for firing. 
   
Tool time demo 
Throwing a teapot. Sunday, February 5, 4:30 pm. What better time than the cold, gray days of February to pour a comforting cup of hot tea from your own ceramic teapot? From handle to spout and all parts in between, Kay will show you how to throw and assemble this essential serving piece. This demonstration is free and open to the public. No registration necessary. Just drop by the studio at demo time.

Got an idea for a demo you'd like to see Kay present? Let us know. We're interested in hearing from you.

Upcoming classes
Take advantage of our $10 Early Bird Enrollment Discount. Book your class now.

Coffee and Clay

Saturdays, Mar 4 through Apr 8, 9:30-11:30 am, with Nancy Bulkley.
Early Bird discount available through Feb 5.

Introductory and Continuing Wheel Sundays
Sundays, Feb 26 through Apr 2, 2:00-4:00 pm, with Kevan O. Wilson.

Introductory and Continuing Wheel
Mondays, Mar 13 through Apr 17, 7:00-9:00 pm, with Kevan O. Wilson.
Thursdays, Mar 9 through Apr 13, 12:30 to 2:30 pm, with Nancy Bulkley.
Thursdays, Mar 9 through Apr 13, 6:30 to 8:30 pm, with Kay Yourist.
Early Bird discount available through February 9.

Understanding Glazes
Sundays, Mar 12 through Apr 17, 3:00-5:00 pm, with Alex Pratt.
Early Bird discount available through February 10
.

Try It Once on the Wheel
Saturday, Feb 11, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm with Nancy Bulkley.
Saturday, Mar 11, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm with Nancy Bulkley. 
 
Potter's pipeline
Potter's quick tip
A clever method of slip trailing

Q. I'd like to decorate my pots with slip trailing, but I have difficulty applying my slip designs with standard slip trailers. Is there another method I can try?
 
 
A.
Try the method demonstrated by potter Lisa Orr in this Ceramic Arts Daily video to see if it gives you more control over your slip trailing.  

Orr trails slip from a plastic bag from which she has snipped the tip of one corner. She also puts her trailed slip to some interesting uses, which she will show you.


Readers, if you have a burning pottery question for Kay, ask away . We'd like to know what you want to know.  

Events to know about 
Brief notices
Clay community digest
Piece by Peter Voulkos 
Voulkos: The Breakthrough Years 
If you are going to be in Manhattan any time between now and March 15, don't miss this display of Peter Voulkos's work at The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). MAD dscribes the exhibit, which spans the years 1953 to 1968, as "the first exhibition to focus on the early career of Peter Voulkos, whose radical methods and ideas during this period opened up the possibilities for clay in ways that are still being felt today."

Get details about the exhibition here.

Dates: Now-March 15, 2017
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY
212-299-7700
English coffeepot in DIA exhibit 
Bitter|Sweet: Coffee, Tea & Chocolate
Did the arrival of coffee, tea, and chocolate in Europe spark a revolution in ceramic and other serving, drinking, and storage vessels? Explore this question at Bitter|Sweet, the upcoming exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art.

The exhibit runs from November 20, 2016, through March 5, 2017. The DIA bills Bitter|Sweet as ". . . the first exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts to engage all five senses. In addition to seeing art, you can touch, hear, smell and even taste coffee- and tea-related beverages." You'll find details here.

Dates: November 20, 2016-March 5, 2017
Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI
313-833-7900
Tray by John Glick
John Glick: A Legacy in Clay
Cranbrook Art Museum is presenting "the first major exhibition and publication to survey the immense range of ceramic vessels, tableware, and sculpture that has made Glick one of today's premier figures in American studio pottery." The exhibition will feature nearly 200 pieces from throughout Glick's career as a potter.

For details, visit Cranbrook Art Museum. View a catalog of the exhibit here.

Dates: June 18, 2016-March 12, 2017
Cranbrook Art Museum
39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI
248-645-3323
Ceramics by Hailey Banda
Hailey Banda at May RNR Workshop
Get ready to join R NR Ceramics on Saturday and Sunday, May 6-7, for a "hands-on adventure in clay."

This 5th workshop from R NR Ceramics features up-and-coming potter Hailey Banda, who will show you how to incorporate captivating textures in your work.

In her artist's statement, Banda says " I create stylized utilitarian work to enhance an individual's day and to create a connection between the handmade object and the user." Learn more and register here.

Open to the public: While the workshop is limited to registrants, this event offers something for everyone interested in ceramics. The public is invited to attend the reception, gallery sale, and artist's talk at trustArt Studios on Friday, May 5, from 6:30 to 9:00 pm.

Dates: May 6-7, 2017. Registrants only.
Public reception, gallery sale, and artist's talk: Friday, May 5, 6:30 to 9:00 pm
trustArt Studios
7885 Jackson Road, Suite 1
Ann Arbor, MI
734-253-2551

Stop, look, listen . . . and learn
First porcelain made in America?

First porcelain made in America
You wouldn't think this modest white bowl, 5-1/2" in diameter, could create such a stir. And, in fact, the bowl didn't when it was first uncovered during an archaeology dig preceding the construction of the new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Instead the bowl was stored in a box after being written off as a stoneware slop bowl.

But a closer look convinced Robert Hunter, editor of Ceramics in America, that the bowl, dated from around 1772, was indeed something special. According to Hunter, "It's like the holy grail of American ceramics. It appears to be the first evidence of American efforts to make hard-paste porcelain." The bowl will go on display at the Museum of the American Revolution when it opens on April 19, 2017.

You can see a more detailed photo of this special bowl and learn more about its story here and here.   
 
Share what you know

Do you know of resources or upcoming events of interest to the clay community? We invite you to pass the information along to us so we can feature it here.

Just for fun
How would you fare?

 
The Brits have done it again. First The Great British Bake Off and now  The Great Pottery Throw Down. So how do you think you'd do on the challenges faced by the 10 contestants in the first episode:
  • Throw, decorate, and glaze five perfectly matched earthenware nesting bowls.
  • Pull identical handles for two sets of 10 mugs in two different styles and attach them to the mugs in 90 minutes.
  • Throw the most egg cups off the hump in 20 minutes.
And all under the critical eyes of master potters Kate Malone and Keith Brymer Jones. Delightfully nerve wracking. Watch for episode 2, to come.

Yourist Studio Gallery | 1133 Broadway, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
734-662-4914 | www.youristpottery.com

Inspiring classes and workshops for new and experienced students | Bright, modern, fully equipped community studio workspace | Comprehensive selection of pottery tools for sale | Gallery exhibiting the works of celebrated artists | Online gallery shop for the purchase of ceramic art