Studio Visit: Greenwich House Pottery

Teen Wheel Workshop

Working on the wheel is amazing. You take a blob of shapeless clay, place it on a wheel, start the wheel turning and press on it with steady hands. It wiggles a bit, but soon,  as if by magic, a beautiful pot rises. It grows taller, or wider, as you press it. You stop to admire it.

We visited the popular Teen Wheel Workshop at Greenwich House Pottery in Greenwich Village. Master Potter, Dave Gibson, is the instructor. It's an exciting workshop where teens (13 to 18 years old) learn to shape beautiful pots on the wheel. 

Dave Gibson Demonstration 

A video of Dave's "centering" demonstration on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvLZIkcwR-s&feature=g-upl

The students practice "centering" on the wheel:

They add decorative details...

...with "slip," liquid clay.

One student adds graphic letters to his artwork.

The pots can be painted with shiny glaze in every imaginable color.

When the pots are ready they are loaded into a kiln and fired...

... at 2000 degrees.

Here are some "fired" pots waiting to be picked up.

Here is a wall of beautiful pots on exhibit in the gallery.

Meet Christopher Adams

Greenwich House Pottery is proud of its artist-In-residence program.
Leading artists like Christopher Adams are invited to share
their art with students and with the community.

Greenwich House Pottery is pleased to announce Christopher Adams as its 2012-2013 Resident Artist. Of his work, Adams writes: “My ceramic work relates intimately to my interests and experiences outside of art...and falls into the category of ‘organic abstraction.’ The pieces are influenced by a variety of creatures, but none of them represent any specific organism. Instead, the works usually play on biological concepts—speciation, convergence, mimicry—to generate aesthetic novelty. My most recent efforts relate to a series of wall-hanging ceramic biomorphic abstractions that play on the biological speciation concept of adaptive radiation – a phenomenon in which some pioneering organism enters into a relatively untapped environment and differentiates wildly and rapidly while at the same time not departing too dramatically from its original form. All the works in the series are members of an arbitrarily designed family. The population—currently hovering at around 5,000—has been evolving over the last 10 years…pieces range in size from half an inch to four feet in diameter and all are hand-built.”

This project was inspired by artist Christopher Adams' work...

 You can do this project at home. It is based on the fantasy forms Christopher Adams creates. You will need some clay or playdoh. Create (shape) some fantasy plant forms. Give them lots of wiggly "arms." Design some insect or animal "creatures." Have they come from another planet? Glue your "creatures" to a wood panel (or heavy cardboard) to create a "world," like Christopher Adams did. Give your "world" a name...and a story.

Meet Adam Welch, Greenwich House Pottery Director.

Adam Welch, Director

Greenwich House Pottery

16 Jones Street

New York, NY
Tel: 212 242 4106

You will find the Greenwich House catalogue at:

http://www.greenwichhouse.org

If you have young children, you will enjoy this post about the parent-child class at Greenwich House Pottery:
http://artbusnyc.blogspot.com/2012/06/studio-visit-greenwich-house-pottery.html