Blog for TeachinArt online art school

Coloring and weaving of wool in the Rockies

10/5/2019

Catto Center at Toklat in the Rocky mountains

Toklat, meaning “headwaters,” was built as a wilderness lodge and family home by Stuart Mace and his wife Isabel in 1948. Located near the headwaters of Castle Creek near Aspen in the Rocky Mountains, this serves now as a gathering place for cultural and ecological discourse.

With the help of Jessica Hobby Catto and her husband Henry, ACES (Aspen Center for Environmental Studies) bought Toklat in 2004 to preserve Stuart’s legacy.

Elena Gonzalez Ruiz, a native of Oaxaca in Mexico, and her family have been part of the Catto Center at Toklat even before it became an ACES' site.

She has been a long-standing Artist-in-Residence at the Center, traveling back to the Castle Creek valley each summer. Elena contributes to ACES’ mission by providing educational opportunities related to traditional and environmentally-responsible textile production.

According to Elena, they have about 7,000 people in her village with about 4,000 weavers. Most of the coloring and dyeing ingredients like the indigo plant are grown by her people. They count the minutes that the yarn is kept in the coloring bucket to get the colors needed for the individual carpets, handbags and other wool projects.

Links:
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt
Demonstrations (Tips shared by teachers of TeachinArt)
Preview e-courses (take a quick peek into our online workshops)
Art Instructors (Meet our online art instructors)

Tags:
#weaving #coloringwool #naturalcoloring #aspen #coloradoartists #Rockymountains #cattocenter #ACES

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Wood firing kilns and processes

9/30/2019

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David in his wood fire kiln

Many potters dream about having their own wood fired kiln, but what exactly goes on behind the scenes. We asked David Voorhees, one of our online teachers who has his own wood fire kiln in North Carolina to answer some of the most common questions about wood firing.

How long does it take to fire the kiln?
How long does it take to pack and unpack the kiln?
How much wood do you use?
How long do you normally fire the kiln?

Every wood-fired kiln is different as they are all site built and of varying dimensions. Firing lengths can vary for effect as well with many potters reaching cone 10 or 2300F then holding it there for a day or more to accumulate melting wood ash. My kiln is pretty straight forward with a rise to cone 10, then spraying a few pounds of soda ash solution followed by slowly shutting it down as the last of the firebox wood gets consumed. My kiln holds about 250 pots and takes 26-28 hours to fire and 3 days to cool down. I usually have 3 to 6 potters join me with a few pots and some firing duties. Since it also a car kiln it is easy to load taking only two to three hours to load and get started. Unloading takes less than an hour. I try to fire 4 times a year using about 1 1/2 cords of sawmill scrap wood for each firing. Wood preparation is a big job requiring helpers. Plentiful seasoned and dry wood is a must. Wood firing is an amazing community building effort and quite different from much studio pottery work time alone in a studio. To help with that aspect I have incorporated a pizza oven into the kiln design. When the firing is done, we make and eat pizzas! Hard work but very rewarding.

Before the firing

After the firing

The trolley just after pulling it out. Note the twist bottle leaning with the brown topped jar; these two fused together during the firing. The jar was on the trolley near the center post with drip, the twist bottle was on the bag wall and they got too close, fusing up. To extricate them without losing other pots I had to reach in through a 6" gap, using my iPhone to "see" what was going on. I then removed smaller pots through the gap and made room to move larger pots off of the top kiln shelf so I could lift up the fused pair onto the shelf where they now sit. Fortunately, the only pot lost was the twist bottle which gave up a chunk when pulled from the jar. A small price for an important lesson with car kilns: leave lots of clearance!

David presents a 6 weeks online workshop at TeachinArt (porcelain tips for wheel pottery).

He shows potters how to push the limits of porcelain and demonstrates the easy way to get the best out of wheel throwing.

Interesting books about wood firing.

The art of firing by Nils Lou
Wood-fired stoneware and porcelain by Jack Troy
The kiln book by Frederick L. Olsen (here you find diagrams and instruction on how to build different anagama kilns)

David in the TeachinArt studio during the recording of his online workshop

Links:
E-courses at TeachinArt
Our Art Instructors
Preview e-courses
Demonstrations and tips

Tags:
#woodfiring #naturalfiring #teachingpottery #learnpottery #nortcarolinapotters

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How to make your own plaster bat for the pottery wheel

9/30/2019

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Antoinette Badenhorst and David Voorhees, both professional potters and teachers at TeachinArt show how to make plaster wheel bats for the pottery wheel. This demonstration was presented during the recording of David's e-course Porcelain Tips For Wheel Pottery at the studio of Antoinette in Saltillo Mississippi.

Mima Boskov from South Africa plaster bats

Mima Boskov is a South African potter who completed the Understanding Porcelain e-course of Antoinette Badenhorst at Teachinart.
She learned in the online workshop how to make a plaster bat for her pottery wheel and then she decided to create her own version of the plaster bat. That is why TeachinArt is a platform for Artists who teach Artists. Mima is a typical example of one of the success stories of online teaching.

Here is Mima's explanation in her own words.

I took up pottery a few years ago, in an attempt to discover my Creative Self, liberate the Inner Child, find the Artist Within - ah, you've heard it all before: mid-life crisis and how to solve it...

I've been wedging, throwing, despairing, buying books, Googling and reading articles with genuine passion ever since.

I'm still waiting for the Artist, but I've revealed a determined Artisan Within, and sure have hatched an Inner Gyro Gearloose (for the younger among us, that's the whacky inventor from Donald Duck cartoons). The hatchling grew out of my frustration with relatively poor choice of pottery tools in South Africa: no Mudtools, no Griffin Grip, no Strongarm centering tool, no plaster bat mold systems... So many tempting goodies that one can glimpse on internet pages, but can't source locally. Ordering online involves shipping and import duties, and the price becomes extravagant.

There is an Afrikaans saying in my country: "'n Boer maak 'n plan".

It literally means "the farmer makes a plan", but is used when lateral thinking helps one find a novel and ingenious way of surmounting an obstacle.

I realized that being the Boer with 'n plan and making my own pottery tools gives me almost as much pleasure and sense of achievement as making pots.

We needed plaster bats for the Understanding Porcelain course. I had been trying to develop a plaster bat system for my wheel for a while, and a detail from Antoinette's drawing made everything click together.

Mima Boskov is a South African potter who completed the Understanding Porcelain e-course of Antoinette Badenhorst at Teachinart.
She learned in the online workshop how to make a plaster bat for her pottery wheel and then she decided to create her own version of the plaster bat. That is why TeachinArt is a platform for Artists who teach Artists. Mima is a typical example of one of the success stories of online teaching.

Here is Mima's explanation in her own words.

I took up pottery a few years ago, in an attempt to discover my Creative Self, liberate the Inner Child, find the Artist Within - ah, you've heard it all before: mid-life crisis and how to solve it...

I've been wedging, throwing, despairing, buying books, Googling and reading articles with genuine passion ever since.

I'm still waiting for the Artist, but I've revealed a determined Artisan Within, and sure have hatched an Inner Gyro Gearloose (for the younger among us, that's the whacky inventor from Donald Duck cartoons). The hatchling grew out of my frustration with relatively poor choice of pottery tools in South Africa: no Mudtools, no Griffin Grip, no Strongarm centering tool, no plaster bat mold systems... So many tempting goodies that one can glimpse on internet pages, but can't source locally. Ordering online involves shipping and import duties, and the price becomes extravagant.

There is an Afrikaans saying in my country: 'n Boer maak 'n plan.

It literally means "the farmer makes a plan", but is used when lateral thinking helps one find a novel and ingenious way of surmounting an obstacle.

I realized that being the Boer with 'n plan and making my own pottery tools gives me almost as much pleasure and sense of achievement as making pots.

We needed plaster bats for the Understanding Porcelain course. I had been trying to develop a plaster bat system for my wheel for a while, and a detail from Antoinette's drawing made everything click together.

Rubber grommet

For my plaster bats, I used two pieces of dowel (10 mm diameter dowel - matching the diameter of wheel pins - cut to 15 mm length), and a lucky find from a hardware store, electrical department, called "rubber grommet". I have no clue what is it actually meant to be used for, but I browse hardware stores with enthusiasm that normal females reserve for shoe shops, always on a lookout for useful parts for my various projects.

Dowels with the rubber grommet

Before assembling it, I attached a clay coil to the edge of plastic bat, and built it into a thin wall (that came from Antoinette's drawing). Sunlight dishwashing liquid is a good mold release

I inserted wooden dowels in the plastic bat holes, and put grommets on them. For my 25 cm plastic bat, I used 500 ml of water, and as much plaster as water would hold, and poured it on the bat.

After half an hour, the clay wall can be taken off, and the plaster smoothed out with a metal ruler. The sides can be tidied up with a Sureform blade and green scouring pad.

In another half hour, plaster can be taken off the plastic bat, using a thin spatula. After removing the dowels, the rubber grommets stay safely embedded in the underside of the bat, so the whole thing can be attached to the wheel head pins, and reused many times without damaging the plaster. A thin rubber mat on the wheel head helps secure the bat

Links:
E-courses at TeachinArt
Art instructors at TeachinArt
Preview e-course
Demonstrations & tips

Tags:
#potterywheel #wheelthrowing #wheelbats #teachinart #teachingpottery #ceramicschool #teachingpottery

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Tips for cutting wood segments

9/28/2019

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Bob Rundquist is a woodworking artist from Saltillo in Mississippi who presents an online workshop (Introduction to segmenting) where he demonstrates how to do closed segmenting. This segmenting class is for beginners, but seasoned woodworkers may get several handy tips from this virtual class.

The golden rule of woodworking: "Measure twice, cut once".

Cutting wood for lovely wood segmented projects is not just about measuring, but safety for the woodworker as well. The smaller the segments, the more dangerous to cut. When you work with precious wood and/or colorful expensive wood, then you do not want to waste any of the wood. That brings the question of what to use for cutting the wood.

The table saw can be your biggest friend if you know how to get zero clearance when cutting segments. Accidents do happen, but you can minimize the possibilities if you follow the advice of Bob Rundquist in this video.
When you work with any power tools, be on the alert the whole time. Accidents happen easily when you do not pay attention.

Links:
E-courses at TeachinArt
Tips and demonstrations
Introduction to segmenting

Tags:
#cuttingwood #woodsegments #segmenting #woodworkers #woodworking #woodworkingtips #safecutting

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Understand pottery glazing

9/28/2019

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Antoinette Badenhorst explains with kitchen ingredients what happens in the pottery kiln with the ceramic glazes that potters use on their ceramic items. Colors that you normally see on the pot before it is fired is not necessarily the color that you will see when the pot is fired.

Links:
Demonstrations, tips & techniques for ceramic artists
E-courses at TeachinArt
Glazing made easy e-course with Antoinette
Shino glazing with Connie Christensen
Our Art Instructors

Tags:
#potteryglazes #ceramicglazes #glazingpottery #understandglazes #ceramicschool #teachinArt

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TeachinArt is an online school of art

9/23/2019

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Koos & Antoinette, founders of TeachinArt online school of art

What is TeachinArt?

TeachinArt is an online school of art that was founded by Koos and Antoinette Badenhorst in 2015 in Saltillo Mississippi. Teachin is the way the Mississippians pronounce teaching and was a good starting point for a online school that originated in the South, but is also pronounced as teach-in-art.

In 2015, the couple were teaching only Antoinette's porcelain e-courses from their website PorcelainByAntoinette. Antoinette's international students requested a greater variety of online workshops and suggested adding multiple professional artists to the school.

What triggered the creation of the school?

In 2013 Koos and Antoinette moved back from Chicago to Saltillo Mississippi, the first place they called home after moving to the United States in 1999. They looked at each other one day while still in Chicago, asking themselves what is the most important thing that Americans may need. They came to the conclusion that 3-dimentional (critical) thinking is in a serious decline. In a world in which Walmart and Home Depot with ready made products rule, it becomes harder to think creatively. They decided to explore online teaching of the arts.

When they started with the idea of creating an online class, they did not know where to begin and did not know if it may work; clay is such a tactile activity.

What is the objective of teaching an online school?

The couple wanted a platform where students can learn at their own place and their own time from a computer of their choice, while having direct access to the instructor for expert answers to student questions. They wanted to offer non-credit classes, with the content and substance of a college curriculum.

Antoinette's first e-class was Understanding Porcelain. This e-learning idea was very successful and they followed up with more pottery classes, some of which are not related to porcelain. Soon they received requests from their international art students for more specific workshops.
They realized then that there is big demand for professional online training where students can afford the teaching and do it from the comfort of their own place. No travel costs, no expensive workshop fees, being close at home and they can do it on their own time without sacrificing any of their existing project at home. They were on their way to an Online School of Art. With Antoinette as the only instructor, they had wide open opportunities to bring in more instructors.

David Voorhees from North Carolina joined the team with his 40 years of ceramics and teaching experience and in February of 2016 his workshop Porcelain tips for wheel pottery was recorded in Antoinette's porcelain studio in Saltillo Mississippi. David brought an interesting new challenge to the porcelain potters and shared with them different projects that really challenged their skills.

The re-known Marcia Selsor who taught art at the Montana State University as well as the University of Texas became part of the teaching team when her Alternative Firing workshop was recorded in June 2016 in Antoinette's studio.

Marcia shows students how to make their own raku kiln and use it then to do obvara, raku, ceramic and foil sagger firings.

To close a very good year, Connie Christensen from Colorado came to the recording studio in October 2016 and presented her Faceted Teapots class that opened for registration in early 2017.

During the past 2 years they offered almost 400 classes to 250 international students.

How are classes presented to the students?

The classes are presented as videos that are supplemented with reviews, sketches and images. Questions from students are answered by the teachers and shared with all the students. Each week of an e-course represents about one day of a traditional hands-on workshop. They recommend students to follow all the steps and projects of the instructions and to create the projects in the convenience of their own workplace at their own pace. Students can choose to do the projects or just follow the demonstrations.

During the recordings of the classes, instructors and videographer pay special attention to details. Students can see hand positions and actions close-up and from all angles. TeachinArt online classes differ from YouTube videos and DVD’s because students have direct access to the teachers for the duration of the workshop. Students can ask questions about any part of the videos, in the same way they would in a regular workshop.

Students may present images of their work or share personal problems regarding the work for commentary to the instructor. All students have the opportunity to mingle with other students while the class is running and have access to the group for as long as they choose.

Antoinette said "We are still in our infant shoes, with so much to learn, but this way of distant learning benefit students who work full time or who cannot attend a traditional workshop for some or other reason."

There is a gap of education between college trained artists and hobby artists. Therefor TeachinArt pay painless attention to creating quality courses for students who are interested in expanding their knowledge and expertise in the visual arts, without having to work through an extensive college curriculum.

With the first 2 years behind, 2017 is the first year that the school started overlapping classes in an effort to offer continuity in the programs. If everything works out according to the plan, they will produce between 6-10 new classes this year and hope to start adding jewelers, painting artists, sculptors and other fine arts and crafts in the near future.

Links:
E-courses at TeachinArt
Art teachers at the online school
Preview the e-courses

Tags:
#teachinart #marciaselsor #Antoinettebadenhorst #davidvoorhees #conniechristensen #teachingpottery #ceramicartists #USApotters #Mississippiartists

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Throwing, carving and altering porcelain

9/5/2019

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One of TeachinArt online teachers, Antoinette Badenhorst presented a hands-on workshop at the Pottery Studio in Bryanston South Africa where she demonstrated the carving and altering process of porcelain.

She calls porcelain the "Diva of clay" and tells her students that they have to understand the character of the clay to really push it to it's limits.

Wheel thrown porcelain bowl, carved and altered, and then spray painted with Antoinette's own glazes.

Here are some of the characteristics of porcelain.

When fired correctly, porcelain has a glass like or marble appearance.
Porcelain has a weak green strength and should therefore be handled with the utmost care before the firing process.
Porcelain becomes very pyro-plastic (soft because of the heat) at a high temperature. Any thinner parts will collapse when pulled down by the weight of the heavier or thicker parts. It will easily warp or slump during firing. Potters will often times create ways to support a porcelain piece during the firing process to prevent deformation or make sure that the construction is very evenly done and well designed.

Links:
Understanding porcelain e-course with Antoinette Badenhorst
Porcelain handbuilding online workshop with Antoinette Badenhorst
E-courses (online classes) at TeachinArt
Demonstrations, tips and techniques
Preview e-courses

Tags:
#teachinart #wheelthrowing #teachingartist #carvingporcelain #alteringporcelain #porcelainplatter #divaofclay #ceramicschool #clayshares

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How to prevent S-cracks in pottery

8/16/2019

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Most potters at some stage in their career have struggled with s-Cracks in the bottom of their pots, and have asked the question what did I do wrong or how did this happen. Antoinette Badenhorst shows her pottery students one of the biggest culprits for this clay problem.

Antoinette is an online instructor at TeachinArt and presents the Understanding Porcelain online class. She presented hands-on porcelain classes in South Africa, Canada, and several of countries is Europe, as well throughout the United states of America.

Potters can prevent most of the S-cracks in their work if they follow her advice and tips.

Links:
Understanding porcelain online class with Antoinette Badenhorst
Porcelain handbuilding with Antoinette Badenhorst
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt
Preview e-courses at the online art school
Demonstrations, tips and techniques

Tags:
#potterycracks #fixingcracks# #teachingpottery #teachinart #clayfaults #faultsandremedies #porcelain #onlineschool #ceramicschool #clayshares

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Raku and mixed media with Claire Beck from Australia

8/6/2019

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Claire Beck lives and work in the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland region of Queensland in Australia, about 10 kilometers from the coast as the crow flies. She completed two of the online workshops at TeachinArt, Alternative firing with Marcia Selsor in September 2016, and Porcelain Handbuilding with Antoinette Badenhorst in July 2015

Rabbit Proof Fence - raku with sodium silicate and barbed wire. 2017

I have been doing ceramics for about 8 years – both sculpture and wheel/hand built pots under the initial tutelage of the wonderful Midge Johannsen at the Sculptors’ Society Gold Coast but now I teach from my own home studio and am Treasurer of the Society. I developed an early interest in raku after having done a workshop with the Gold Coast Potters Association of which I am also a member. Since then I have built and owned 3 raku kilns and do at least two or three firings each month. I did the Alternative Firing online course of Marcia Selsor and found it very useful since I also intend doing regular wood firings later this year.

Black Betty raku kiln

My current raku kiln is called Black Betty for obvious reasons. I usually fire to around 1,050 C. The first firing into which I put the more fragile pieces usually takes around 40 mins but from the second firing onwards the time reduces until its down to around 20 mins. I reduce for about 20 mins then spray a fine water mist over the pieces to cool them. To maintain lustre I spray pieces with automotive clear satin finish. I’ve had pieces outside for a couple of years which still show lustre using this spray. I have a small electric kiln in which I fire greenware.

I have entered a number of ceramic competitions and exhibitions and have taken part in several two and three people shows locally. Last year I won the Tony Palmer Sculpture Award for my piece Hark the Herald Angels.

I like to mix and combine materials. I started weaving natural fibres onto raku. From there I moved to combining natural timber with raku and now I use found metal objects with raku. I find raku goes with everything! I am very fortunate in that I have a wonderful partner who is happy to weld or wood turn as required.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing (naked raku and wire). Winner of the Tony Palmer Award at the Sculptors’ Society Gold Coast in 2018)

Our Lady of Perpetual Bliss - raku and found objects

Alongside - raku with found metal objects

When we bought out block of land (about 2 acres) in 2008 we loved it so much that we used to say “when we live here we’ll truly be living in bliss” and after a while when we started building our friends would ask “how’s Bliss coming along” and so our house, Bliss, was named.

Can you see why we call it Bliss?

Inside Bliss - I'm running out of room!!

My artistic endeavours really only started when I retired in 2010 with life drawing classes. From there I moved to printing where I won the Caldera Award in Murwillumbah NSW (New South Wales) for my piece Rainforest Cathedral.

Trophy Wife - ceramic with natural fibres

I teach a popular monthly class for the CWA (the Country Women’s Association) and after Easter I will start a regular weekly raku group at the Society’s teaching studio nearby.

I have held a couple of raku workshops up here at Bliss for the Society which have been popular. Everyone seems to love raku!

I guess the thing I love most about it is the immediacy of the art along with the (often) unexpected results you can get. I am not noted for my patience LOL.

The happy CWA Raku@Bliss group hard at it in the studio

I think my future probably lies in teaching. Funnily enough I used to teach computing as I came to the world of raku via decades working in the IT industry at various teaching colleges and Universities both as a teacher and as an IT Manager. Before that I worked in advertising and publishing and ran a gallery in a small tourist town in North Queensland.
Strange what paths our lives lead us on.

Links:
E-courses (online workshops) at TeachinArt online school of art
Demonstrations, tips and techniques (Tips shared by teachers of TeachinArt)
Preview e-courses (take a quick peek into our online workshops)
Art Instructors (Meet our online art instructors)
Alternative firing online course with Marcia Selsor (how to do obvara, raku, saggar firing)
Porcelain handbuilding online class with Antoinette Badenhorst (Learn how to get translucent porcelain hand made items)

Tags:
#mixedmedia #teachinartstudent #teachinart #rakufiring #raku #Australianpotter #alternativefiring

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Forward>>

Coloring and weaving of wool in the Rockies

Catto Center at Toklat in the Rocky mountains

Wood firing kilns and processes

How to make your own plaster bat for the pottery wheel

Mima Boskov from South Africa plaster bats

Tips for cutting wood segments

Understand pottery glazing

TeachinArt is an online school of art

What is TeachinArt?

What triggered the creation of the school?

What is the objective of teaching an online school?

How are classes presented to the students?

Throwing, carving and altering porcelain

How to prevent S-cracks in pottery

Raku and mixed media with Claire Beck from Australia

Author

Categories

Archives

Links to other pages

Workshops by categories

​Catto Center at Toklat in the Rocky mountains

Mima Boskov from South Africa plaster bats

What is TeachinArt?

​What triggered the creation of the school?

What is the objective of teaching an online school?

​How are classes presented to the students?

Author

Categories

Archives

Links to other pages

Workshops by categories

Catto Center at Toklat in the Rocky mountains

What triggered the creation of the school?

How are classes presented to the students?