Surface design with Adero Willard – Arrowmont Workshop

A lot of you know I’m a self taught potter-never had formal instruction. Thanks to a good friend/patron, I’m taking a pottery workshop by Adero Willard at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee…my first pottery class!!!

Already, the workshop has been a transformative experience for me -and the way I think about ceramic surface design. It’s been intense, working in the studio from morning until we are kicked out of at midnight.

I have to process the firehose of information she is sharing with us before I share any pictures of the pots we are making, but look who came to join us for lunch today!!!

I’ve never seen a bear in the ‘wild’ before. It was a magical experience! This place is an artist dream come true!

I decided the bears were my muse, and I used it as a model for some of my pots during Adero Willard ‘s workshop. These are early pots from the workshop:

An early pot from the workshop:

At this point in the workshop, i was learning about layers, wax resist and slip trails using Amaco Brent underglazes. I was really curious about firing the underglaze and redware pottery at that temperature (cone 2)…it comes out very lovely! 

More pots from the workshop:

The main lesson (of MANY) that I took from the workshop was to be curious (what if?) and to experiment (try it!) while in the studio. While remembering to keep records and notes, so that we could duplicate the successful combinations, and avoid the not so nice ones.

If you are familiar with my work, you know this kind of mark making is WAY out of my comfort zone. It wasn’t easy to loosen up and just work with pattern and colors, but it sure was FUN, once I got into it! Don’t worry, i’ll still make cute little bears,goats and bunnys, but there’s a good chance there may be some new pattern and colors in future work.

a big thank you to everyone who made this wonderful experience possible!