Reflecting with Natural Forms

Monday - Friday, June 25 - 29   10 am - 4 pm
Medium: ceramics
Level: I, II & III
Instructor: Alice Ballard

Tuition: $460 member / $495 non-member

Create 4 vessels for the 4 seasons! This class will focus on numerous ways to hand build simple vessels inspired by nature. Hand building demonstrations will show how to contain nature in unusual ways. The natural surroundings of the Bascom coupled with a speaker on the subject of the art of Ikebana plus a trip to the nearby Botanical Gardens will serve as inspiration for the design of these vessels. We will use slab and slump, dowel and drape techniques as a way to form our vessels. At the conclusion of the class we should have at least our first vessel completed which should be both bisque and glaze fired; ready for an Ikebana arrangement! This will give us a chance to put our knowledge of the concepts of Ikebana into action as we each choose plant materials that best complement our vessels.
*We will use stoneware and cone 5/6 glazes and electric kilns for firing.
*Some working knowledge of clay is recommended.
Alice received her BS degree in design and her MA degree in painting from the University of Michigan. Her work is in the permanent collections of Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC), Mint Museum of Craft + Design (NC), Resen International Ceramic Colony Collection (Macedonia), Greenville County Museum of Art (SC), Tennessee State Art Collection, South Carolina State Art Collection and Bank of America (NC). She has also exhibited at North Carolina Museum of Art, York County Museum (SC), Spartanburg Museum of Art (SC) and Anchorage Museum of History and Art (AK). Alice currently works from her studio in South Carolina.