Classes
I love to share the experience of connecting with self through the earthy grounding work of forming and firing clay.
"It's the clay we are forming, and ourselves as well"
PAULUS BERHENSON
PINCH POTTERY AND THE COLOR OF CLAY
Small Cone 6 Soda Classes @ The Clay Compound.
Five Week Intensives
cost: $250 + $25.00 firing fee total $275. Part 1 is a pre-requisite for part two with some exceptions.
Intro Part 1, September
Saturday Mornings 9:30 - 12:30 : September 9 - October 7th - 5 weeks.
Introduction to Cone 6 Soda Part 1: clay bodies, slips, glazes, atmosphere, reduction/ oxidation and soda. This course orients you to the kilns at The Clay Compound, and engages the multiplicity of variables involved in soda firing.
sign up now to be included in the fall group.
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For more information email chrisbaskinstudio@chrisbaskin.com
Reserve your spot with a 137.50 deposit to @Chris-Baskin-2 Venmo.
Above: students unloading the kiln in Introduction to Cone 6 soda class, 2022
Intro Part 2,
FALL SESSION, Intro Part 2, October 28 - December 2nd
Deepen your engagement with soda firing and forming a particular vision for the work. This is five weeks and two firings to bring together a palette of clay, color, and myriad soda surface possibilities together with your own forms and ideas. Included with critique and feedback on finding and exploring aspects - technical and conceptual - that you want to develop.
Above: Cone 6 soda group -2022.
INTEGRAL FORMATION: POETICS OF CLAY AND PERSON
Integral Formation class: forming clay / forming self. --- for beginners with clay or integral theory
Practices in personal formation -- in parallel with forming clay. Join me for a series of practices and conversations in my home studio on SE Liebe Street. This is a continuing development of my passion for bringing together the formation of ideas and person-hood ( non material) with the formation of clay ( matter). Join with a small group of others to practice and converse about interior and exterior, matter and spirit, clay and - religious, psychological, spiritual, and developmental - traditions. This is a complex task with many fascinating problems and opportunities.
"Integral theory and studies", provides a series of tools and questions to utilize while engaging "life, history, meaning, and everything".
What does Integral Theory cover? - It seeks to include and integrate as much as possible of the wisdom and traditions of the human story told from an evolutionary perspective --- "Up from Eden". It engages the questions named in Gaugin's painting titled -- Where did we come from, What are we,.. Where are we going?
Integral Theory offers a map of four quadrants of experience: interiors and exteriors, individual and collective. The AQAL Map seeks to include all quadrants, all lines and levels of development, all stages and states of consciousness, and takes into account horizontal and vertical "types" of people.
As a group we will combine idea and practice by using texts, readings, podcasts, and videos along with hand-building ceramics projects.
7 Sessions, 3 hour studio times. 4 students and myself:
Cost: $280.00 + $25.00 clay and firing fee. $305 total
for class outline and specifics email me: chrisbaskinstudio@chrisbaskin.com
Two Fall Session 2023:
1)Tuesday evenings, 6- 9pm. October 3rd - November 14th.
2) Wednesday mornings, 9:30 -12:30, October 4th - November 15th.
Let me know now if you interested to reserve your space.
Have a group of friends or colleagues you would like to engage this material with? Let me know and times and places can be worked out.
Pat in the process of forming a horse inspired by contemporary Indian Village Potters.
Left: Jan enters into a "Pre-Columbian" space with a swinging Mayan figurine and tera-sigillata. And Caleb has formed a Warka vase from the Sumerian Culture and prepares it for narrative banding.
Centering the clay on the wheel and centering the potter at the wheel.
to center here means to
move the clay with the energy of one's core
so that it is easily takes on new useful form
On Attention: William James: The Principles of Psychology
The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgement, character, and will. …. An education that could improve this education would be the education par excellence .
I can think of no finer meditation than focusing at the wheel. One centers, breathes, experiences their body, mind, and hands with the attention brought back again and again to what is right in front of you. It's beautiful!
AND THEN THERE IS FIRE
reduction cool
PRESSURE AND FIRE combine at the right moment in the cycle.
side stoking
adding smaller sticks to fireboxes in the middle of the 30 foot long kiln.
the firebox
the front of the chamber holds an engine of coals that build heat over days and naturally glazes the clay pieces inside.
Above photos at East Creek Anagama wood fire kiln, Willemina, Oregon
Small group classes
I can work together with you to create a small group class for working on the potter's wheel, for hand-building, or making work for a specific wood or soda firing. I also teach a cone 6 glaze class to help people better understand glaze science and chemistry and to see glazes form a multitude of perspectives.
One to one instruction:
Develop in your own direction and have personalized instruction and guidance.
Design, direct, and complete your own course of study and or project.
2 hour sessions, 5 session minimum.
Please email me to register or inquire further if you have a genuine interest! chrisbaskinstudio@chrisbaskin.com
I love to share the experience of connecting with self through the earthy grounding work of forming and firing clay.