.` Come on in, we have Spring practice times every day until June 3 !
| Spring Practice Hours starting March 12 | ||
| Monday | 12:30 – 3:30 pm | 6:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Tuesday | 12:30 – 3:30 pm | 5:30 – 7:00 pm |
| Wednesday | 12:30 – 3:30 pm | 5:30 – 7:00 pm |
| Thursday | 12:00 – 3:00 pm | |
| Friday | 8:30 – 11:30 am | |
| Saturday | 12:00 – 3:00 pm | |
| Sunday | 9:30 am – 12:30 pm | |
Anita Griffith’s Intermediate & Advanced Ceramics group (Thursday Morning’s 9 – 12) is developing plaster molds for slip casting and press molding. Nancy Legow, shown at right refining her cast of a porcelain horseshoe crab, is planning to adapt the shell into a wall sconce shade. Porcelain is translucent (the thinner, the better) and scatters light into a beautifully soft, white glow. This makes it an exciting material for artistic wall treatments, and the crab shell is a perfect theme for any coastal New England home.
Anita mixed porcelain casting slip for the class, and helps everyone develop individual plaster molds. The mold for the shell is roughly 16″ L x 10″ W x 4″ H. It’s shown here standing on end with one of the crabshells drying. Slip is poured into the mold while horizontal and allowed to thicken for about 40 minutes, producing about a 1/8 inch thick wall. The piece eventually shrinks, falls away from the mold, dries, and is fired to cone 10 using our normal firing process.
Other classmembers are handpressing stoneware into their molds. For example, Susan Rogal is forming pieces that resemble
the upper halves of the human brain.
It all makes for a very interesting session !
Marine Form II;
The New Haven Paint & Clay Club, one of New England’s oldest arts organizations, held its 111th annual juried exhibition during the month of March at John Slade Ely House. Among the 118 exhibits were two of CAW potter Margaret Ulecka-Wilson’s unique undersea interpretations. Pictured here (click to enlarge) is Marine Form II, which you may have seen at the studio during its creation, or upon coming out of the kiln.
The club awarded Marine Form II the 2012 Jafferis Prize after considering nearly 500 entries from artists all over New York and New England. Margaret received her award from club president, 
Dolores Gall, during a short ceremony on the historic main staircase.
Mashups at The Aldridge Museum; Ridgefield, Ct ; January 29 to June 17, 2012
If you like the wall of random pottery shards in the studio potter area, you may be interested in the work of Barrão, a clay artist known for whimsical assemblies like the one shown here. The artist begins by scouting everywhere from flea markets to dumpsters for potential pieces to fuse together. Then every element is freed from its previous function, and joined with other found parts to form a new collective identity. Barrão’s sculptures thus transform everyday items of the past into unexpected new objects with both presence and mystery—and a history yet to be written.
See Mashups at the Aldrich, January 29 (Reception) to June 17, 2012. Click here for more info.
The Case Memorial Library (Orange) regularly features local artists for month long shows in their 2nd floor exhibition room. The “Art in the Library” committee would be happy to include a display of pottery made at CAW. In order to get onto the 2013 exhibition schedule, artists need to bring three samples of their work to the library between 4 and 7 pm on Thursday June 7, 2012. The jurying process is held on the next day, and pickup is on the following Saturday morning, 10-12 am. The fee for applying is $10.00. The committee schedules juried candidates, and notifies the artists by mail. For more information, click here.
Recent "Art in the Library" Exhibit, Orange
Students and visitors are invited to take a look at our Pottery Display Case, which continuously exhibits studio potter ware made here at the school. It’s located to the right in the main hallway, just past the front office. Each six weeks or so, the display is updated. Many of the displays are “theme-related”. Past exhibits have featured shapes (cylinders, bowls, etc.) a glaze or color (tenmoku, white, blue), a technique (off the wheel, alternative firings) or a central idea (“flower displays”, “in the garden”, “for the birds”, “kiln gods”). At holiday time, the theme is “potpourri” or anything goes.
These displays give the community a chance to see recent work from the pottery as our studio potters explore, play, push, and expand in different directions. Often, pieces in the exhibit are offered for sale, and can be purchased from the office staff.
Pull down the Studio Potter menu to view the current display, or click here on Display Case.
Our 15th annual “bowl-a-thon” fundraiser took place Sunday, November 20th. ………… (Click on photo to enlarge)
Visitors look over the bowl table
Visitors selected handcrafted cups and bowls from a wide collection of ware made at the school by studio potters, faculty, and students specifically for this event. Their donations go to the New Haven Community Soup Kitchen, a non-profit agency that provides free, nutritious meals to anyone in need.
Admiring the bowls and enjoying a bowl of soup
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Then, each attendee enjoyed a bowl of soup donated by one of New Haven’s favorites: Anna Liffeys, Clairs, or Lilly’s Gourmet; and a Bruegger’s bagel. The weather was wonderful, the soup was hot, and the atmosphere was beyond compare!
Thanks everyone for attending !
