Ceramics: The Art of the Teapot: Handbuilt & Thrown with Susan Raber Bray

Title:  Ceramics: The Art of the Teapot: Handbuilt & Thrown with Susan Raber Bray
Instructor:  Susan Raber Bray
Schedule: Wednesdays & Thursdays, February 6 & 7, 13 & 14, 20 & 21 from 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm
# of Sessions:  6
Level/Prerequisite:  All Levels
Tuition/Admission:  $216 Member / $260 Non-Member
Supply Fee:  $55

Full description:  Time for tea! Join visiting artist Susan Raber Bray to explore the many possibilities of creating your own custom tea set using handbuilding and/or throwing techniques. In this class, students will have the opportunity to create teapots, teacups and saucers, tea bowls, pitchers, plates, platters, lidded forms, napkin rings and anything else that will make your tea set complete.

The creative possibilities are endless within this broadly-interpreted genre.  Explore new forms, combine thrown and handbuilt parts into your unique tea set.  Fabrication and decorative methods and techniques will all be explored with many specific demonstrations on all the elements that make up a tea set, starting with the main form that holds the tea. We will explore the very definition of what makes up a teapot.

Collaboration or working individually are both encouraged. Interested students are invited to work together to create a tea set. This will be an atmosphere where people are sharing their skills, learning from and being inspired by one another, and in the end, making a tea set they would never have come up with on their own!

At the end of the class we will have an opportunity to look at all the work that was created and have a tea party!

Instructor bio:
Susan Raber Bray, born in New York and living in Vermont since the early 70’s, works in several media, including clay, oils, and  local  plant materials. After earning her B.A she developed her technique in numerous studios across the country, followed by a two-year apprenticeship with Mirko Orlandini, a master Italian ceramicist living in Brussels, Belgium. On her return to U.S. she founded her first studio in South Londonderry, Vermont in 1975.

Susan’s work is shown both nationally and internationally. In recent years she has held workshops in France, England, and Italy. As a visiting artist sponsored by the Vermont Council On The Arts (since 1989) Susan has taught in numerous Vermont public schools. She has also taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Community College of Vermont, St Michael’s College, and is currently teaching at the University of Vermont and her own studio school, Springhouse Pottery in Charlotte.

Supply fee includes:

• 25lb bag of clay (student choice of Cone 6 clay body)
• DMAC glazes and underglaze products
• Bisque and glaze firing

Students should bring:

• We have community ceramic tools to use but you may wish to bring your favorites (with your name on them!) if you have them
• Dress to get muddy!
• Notebook/Sketchbook
• Water bottle
• Sack Lunch

Minimum Enrollment: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 12

If Adult program: Adults and focused teens age 16+ welcome.