Class description:
Join Charlie Varney of Moldy Crow Pottery for a two day workshop exploring the topics of glaze chemistry, geology, materials and glaze testing. Participants will learn about finding local stones and clays suitable for use as either body or glaze materials, process them into a usable form, and develop testing practices to develop glazes and clay bodies. Each workshop participant will finish the workshop with up to twelve test tiles, glazed in their own blends of local and studio materials.
Saturday will focus on teaching and discussion. We go through local geology, cursory glaze chemistry, classes of materials both commercial and wild, processing methods, and testing schemes.
Sunday is dedicated to some further discussion on testing schemes and then turning the students loose to develop their own blends of glazes and/or clay bodies.
Topics covered:
Relevant geology of eastern New York State and its industrial ceramics history
Basic glaze chemistry – flux, glass former, refractory elements and quirks of using wild vs commodity materials
Processing methods – crushing stones, slaking clays, sifting wet vs dry, washing wood ash
Considerations in clay body formulation – plasticity, maturing temperature, iron content, atmospheric considerations
Testing schemes – substitution within established recipes, line blends, triaxial blends
About Charlie Varney
I'm a self taught potter who grew up south of Cooperstown, NY. Since the beginning of my career I've used exclusively local materials, both dug from the ground and gathered from various waste piles, to make all of my glazes. All of my work is wood fired. Exploring the interplay of unexplored materials and the unpredictable atmosphere of the wood kiln has become the foundation of my practice. I find inspiration in the works of the American alkaline glaze tradition along with English makers such as Phil Rogers, Richard Batterham, and Bernard Leach.