Sculpture creation is step-by-step process:
1. Moulding the clay and learning about how clay behaves.
2. Form the basic shapes of your sculpture, namely a cylindrical shape for the body and a 'ball' for the head. If you are making a dog, the muzzle is moulded from the ball shape later.
3. Once the basic body shape is smooth, you then create even and standardised legs.4. Then you begin to join pieces together. This is the part where attention is given to stability, leg-body weight ratio, and making sure that all pieces are attached securely with special knives and sculpting tools. Extra clay pieces can be added for enhanced security and aesthetics.
5. Then, with shape, posture and stability assured, you move on to shaping the head and attaching it to the body. When the button-nosed head has been attached, the sculpture suddenly seems to come alive.
6. Ears are next, followed by the tail.
7. Finally the eyes are indented- and your pet is 'all smiles'!
8. After initialising your sculpture, glazes, or an underglaze and glazes (choice of 4) are chosen and applied. The sculpture rests for 3-4 weeks, and Northcote Pottery does two rounds of firing for you.
This 2.5-hour small-group workshop promises that you complete a small, glazed pet sculpture. It is more accurate, however, to say that you get what you are able to do in the timeframe allowed. You do not actually 'walk out with the sculpture' as there is a 3-4 week drying period before your piece can be fired. In the group workshop that I attended, time did not allow for us to glaze our pieces but we left the sculptures with one glaze-brief for a Northcote professional to complete. I found this a little disappointing, as it mitigated the sense of accomplishment and compromised the complete learning process. However, Northcote quickly followed up with an email explanation of the drying process, and we all look forward to collecting our glazed-fired pieces in another month. Workshop information and communication from the Small Gallery Department of NPS are excellent.
Teaching Style and Workshop Format
The workshop that I attended was the first of this series to be conducted by Ella Bendrups, who is to be commended on her ability to teach fundamentals and for taking participants through the step-by-step process. I expect, that in time, the teaching style may become a little more attuned to different levels of student inquiry, talent and experience so that while teaching fundamentals remain prime, participants who are ready for greater technique exploration are not held back. Small-group tutorship would be improved if students were given equal attention, interest and encouragement. Positive energy, which would go toward confidence-building and creating a 'community art vibe', also needs to be teacher-inspired. This workshop is particularly recommended for pairs or groups: in fact, specific workshops can be arranged for a family or groups of 4 and more who are looking for activities to share.
