Leach Sessions: Dig, Make and Fire with Rosanna Martin
Beginners, Improvers and Intermediate
Progressing Skills
Monday 13 -Saturday 18 July.
Overview
Dig, Make, Fire, Wood, Electric, Gas
Deepen your understanding of clay and glaze through experimenting with found natural and waste material to make a collection of glazes and clay bodies.
Explore the landscape of Cornish china clay extraction, gathering materials and processing them to make clay bodies, slips and glazes from scratch.
Participants will make a series of hand-built test pieces and pots that will be fired in a fast-fire wood kiln, a reduction gas kiln and an electric kiln, to compare the effects of atmospheric conditions on the materials gathered. Participants will learn how to process and test local waste materials, including crushed rocks and plant ashes to make experiments and develop a unique ceramic palette specific to Cornwall.
The course will take place in two locations, starting at Brickfield for the first day, then at the Leach Pottery for the next two days. The final days will be at Brickfield, Imerys' Blackpool Pit, near Trewoon, St Austell.
“Before actual production is attempted many experiments with clay are necessary. It is important, moreover, to ascertain that the source of one’s chief material is dependable, for the composition in a clay pit tends to vary from seam to seam. These experiments should be carefully recorded, and raw and fired specimens preserved for future reference. In the actual working of a small pottery: these clay tests would probably be combined with slip, pigment, and raw glaze experiments. In Cornwall our local materials consisted of a fusible red secondary clay, china clay, feldspar and sand. For some years we depended upon a mixture of these for our stoneware body.”
Bernard leach, 1940. The Potter’s Book.
Schedule
Monday 13 July
10am: Meet at Brickfield.
10.30am: Set off on walk around the site (1.5 hours).
12 - 1pm: packed lunch at the top of Watch Hill.
1 - 2pm: walk down
2:30/3pm – 4:30pm: Introduction to clays, sieving, mixing clay bodies.
4.30 - 5pm: Tidy up and organise materials to bring back to the Leach Pottery.
Tuesday 14 July
10am: Meet at Leach Pottery
10 - 10:30am: Tour of the Leach Pottery and introduction to the Leach legacy.
10:30am: Introduction to the day - presentation on raw materials, what and how they can be used for grogs, slips and in glazes.
10:30 - 12:30pm: Mix clay, make test bodies, add grogs.
12.30 - 1.30pm: Lunch.
1.30 – 4:30pm: Mix slips, finishing making clay tests.
6:30 - 7:30pm: Evening artist at the Leach Pottery talk by Rosanna Martin for the class (attendance not compulsory) and wider public.
Wednesday 15 July
10am: Meet at Leach Pottery.
10:30am: Second presentation on raw materials - ashes and rock dusts for glazes.
11 – 12:30pm: Mix test glazes.
12.30 - 1.30pm: Lunch.
1:30 - 4:30pm Finishing tests and applying glazes. Organise tests ready for the three different firings.
Thursday 16 July
Day off (Electric firing and gas firing to be undertaken at the Leach Pottery by Leach Pottery staff).
Friday 17 July
10 – 10:30am: Meet at Brickfield. Talk about the kiln loading plan.
10:30 – 12pm: Pack kiln. Making wadding, etc.
12 - 1pm: Firing starts. Two-person shifts on the kiln. Participants can observe when they are not on shift, put up tents, cook.
Shared meal in the evening at kiln side. Option to camp onsite or leave and come back the next day.
Saturday 18 July
10 – 11am: Meet at Brickfield. Prepare to unload kiln.
11 – 12:30pm: Unpack kiln and review results. Talk about future tests.
12:30 – 1:30pm: Eat lunch together. Celebrate.
1:30pm: End of course.
The course covers:
- Overview of clay extraction and the Cornish clay industry.
- Overview of the geology of kaolin formation.
- Using waste materials to make clay bodies, clay slips and glazes: different methods of testing.
- Loading a wood kiln.
- Firing a wood kiln.
Firing
This course will be an introduction to several firing methods. It will be really interesting to see our test results in oxidation from the electric kiln, reduction from the gas kiln and then wood fired as well. Lots of firing technology and information will be covered.
Ability & Skill Level
This course is for anyone from beginner to intermediate who are keen to learn more about ceramic materials and firing. No prior throwing is necessary or knowledge of clay. The more participants know the deeper they will be able to go with their tests. This course is potentially physically strenuous, working in the open air, potential extreme weather conditions and walking to site required. A certain level of fitness is necessary.
Rosanna Martin Biography
Rosanna Martin is an artist, educator and PhD student at Falmouth University. She has worked with clay for over 20 years, and spent her early years regularly visiting, swimming in, and sliding across a source of waste china clay on the River Fal where her grandparents lived. Rosanna is the Creative Director of Brickfield, a research driven participatory brickworks set within the china clay landscape of Cornwall that uses waste clay, quartz and mica to collectively make bricks by hand.
More about Brickfield
Brickfield is a community brickworks based in a disused clay pit in the heart of Cornwall’s china clay country created by ceramic artist Rosanna Martin, curated by Katie Bunnell and supported by Imerys.
The main Brickfield site is located nearby Imerys’ now disused Blackpool Pit where the team have special permission to take people onto land ordinarily inaccessible to the public, to explore the giant terraces surrounding a 300ft deep lake, once one of the biggest and most productive pits in the UK.
Where to stay?
By car Brickfield is approx. a 55 minute drive away from the Leach Pottery. While some participants may wish to find accommodation in St Ives and make the journey to Brickfield on the Monday, Friday and Saturday, others may prefer to stay in the Brickfield area or somewhere between to the two locations. Camping at Brickfields is available on selected evenings, at no extra cost, facilities are basic. Please get in touch with Hamish Jackson if you wish to know more.
When: Monday 13 July – Saturday 18 July (no workshop on Thursday 16 July)
Where: The Leach Pottery Learning & Production Studios
Places: 12
Price: £475
Duration: 4.5 days. Core teaching hours (some days may run a little longer): 10am – 4pm.
Equipment & materials: clay and waste materials from Brickfield will be provided. Participants are welcome to bring materials of their own independent finding for use in making test slips, clay bodies and glazes too. We just ask that these are dry and in powder form. Rock dust is also a useful ingredient, as is any sort of clay. Please sieve/screen your materials to 60 mesh and bring them as dry powder for use in tests.
Please bring any additional tools if you wish to use them along with an apron and hand towel.
You will leave with: A variety of test pieces from each of the firings electric, gas and wood firings. The nature of these pieces will vary from test tiles to finished hand built pots.
Level: Beginner, Improver & Intermediate (See here for explanation of skill level criteria)
*if the address that you would like your work posting to is non-UK, extra postage will apply.
We are delighted to offer one 10% discount in our Shop during your course.
Any questions? Please visit out FAQ — The Leach Pottery
Please be aware, only assistance dogs are allowed in the Learning spaces.
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