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Workshop with Carol Gouthro

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Workshop with
Carol Gouthro

 

Ceramic Sculpture (All Levels)
2022 (Dates TBD)
$700

Join us for “Exuberant Clay”, a five-day, ceramic workshop with Carol Gouthro. Due to COVID-19, the workshop originally scheduled to be held from Sept. 13–17, 2020 at Karen Russo Studio in Elmira, OR has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled in 2022, with specific dates to be determined. Registration information is located at the bottom of the page.


In this workshop, Carol Gouthro will demonstrate her signature "segment mold" process. Learning Carol's innovative technique will allow you to incorporate undulating and expressive forms into your ceramic vessels and sculptures — like those we marvel at in Carol's masterworks.

We will also work with wooden drop molds. Carol will demonstrate how to combine, cut, and re-assemble shapes to arrive at many differing expressions of form. We will follow Carol’s rich, multi-layered approach to surface between wet clay, bone dry, and bisque. Techniques for creating depth and texture will be explored, including the use of textured skins to wrap forms and clay sprig molds to embellish. A focus on color and pattern will be given through numerous demonstrations using slips, underglazes, stains, wax, shellac, and paper patterns. Carol will share the many processes that she has developed in over 40 years of working with clay.

Workshop Outline

  1. First, we will create plaster segment molds. This process involves drawing simple shapes on paper, cutting paper templates, sculpting solid clay into wooden forms, and covering the forms with plaster to create our segment mold.

  2. From this segment press mold, we will build numerous forms and variations quickly by connecting, altering, piercing, stacking, and re-combining the component parts. Carol will bring wooden drop molds for participants to use. We will drop and assemble multiple shapes to create more unique organic forms. These can be used by themselves or combined with your press-molded pieces to create volumetric forms.

  3. Next, Carol will show how to create unique clay texture skins for covering your forms with texture, adding another degree of depth to the work.

  4. Finally, we will explore many surface design techniques to create richness and depth in the work. These will include:

    • layering colors & patterns with underglazes
    • stenciling
    • carving & inlay
    • wax & shellac resist
    • accentuating surface texture with stains
    • using slips to transfer pattern, texture, drawings

  5. Most of these techniques will be used on the leather hard and bone dry stages of clay.

  6. Carol fires her pieces multiple times and discussions about glazes and options for finishing our work will be explored.

Artist Biography

Carol Gouthro, a graduate of the School of Art, University of Manitoba, Canada, is a Seattle-based ceramic artist and educator who has been maintaining a studio practice and exhibiting for over 40 years. Carol has taught workshops internationally, as well as in numerous locations in Canada and the United States. She has been a ceramics instructor at the Seward Park Clay Studio in Seattle, WA and the Kirkland Arts Center in Kirkland, WA for over 25 years.

Carol has an extensive exhibition record of solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions, including the current installation of her work in the forum at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, WA, which has been on-view for the past year. Other recent shows include "Profusion" at Eutectic Gallery in Portland, OR, "The Subversive Flower" at the NCECA Conference (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) in Pittsburgh, PA, and "Biomophics" at Studio Amoca in Pasadena, CA. Carol is represented by Gallery IMA in Seattle, WA.

Carol’s ceramic works have been published in many books and periodicals, including the Mar. '18 and Mar. '16 issues of Ceramics Monthly. Her ceramic works are included in many public and private collections, including the Racine Art Museum, Kamm Teapot Foundation, and Kolvo/Sullivan Ceramic Collection.

Artist Statement

“At the core of my ceramic work is the vessel which has many associations including ripening, sexuality, and transformation. I am drawn to ornament, embellishment, color, and pattern. I have a strong interest in detail and minutiae. When I start working on a new piece I am often responding to something that I have seen that captivates me. It might be something very small, something in my garden, a seed, or flower petal, or it might be something I have seen in my tool drawer like the elegant line of a plastic French curve, or I might be stimulated by one of the many clay studies, bits and pieces of inspirational detritus that accumulate on my studio shelves over time. Sometimes it is language that motivates me. Words like ‘Articulatus’ and ‘Laciniatus’ invite interpretation. As I start working, I am only interested in abstracting and translating these stimuli and feelings into a tangible, evocative object.”

Please note: All images are attributed to Carol Gouthro.

 
 
 
Carol Gouthro
 
 
 

Registration Information

 

  • $700 fee includes:

    • Instruction

    • Demonstrations

    • 25 lbs. clay, underglaze, all mold-making materials

    • Open studio hours

  • 12-student enrollment

    • First-come, first-served

  • Open to all experience levels!

  • No bisque firing provided