Site navigation

Surface Printing on Ceramics with Mella Shaw

Dates and Times
Saturday 2 & 9 September 10am – 4pm
Saturday 30 September 10am –12pm    

Price £200 (£180)

This course introduces a unique approach to printing colour and pattern onto ceramics using a particular slip/cloth technique. You will print your own designs/surfaces onto slabs of clay then use these decorated slabs to hand-build sculptural forms. The workshop is playful and experimental allowing you to develop your own language in clay and form. 

Clear

Description

This course will take place over two Saturdays with a follow up 2-hour drop in on a following Saturday two weeks later. The course will be a combination of demonstration and instruction.  

 During the sessions you will learn:  

  • Ceramic printing using coloured slip technique and you will be encouraged to experiment in surface design to generate 1 – 2 sheets of printed slabs of clay. 
  • How to hand-build with clay slabs to construct forms using your printed slabs. The works made can be functional or purely sculptural.  

There will be a delay of 2 weeks while the work is bisque fired then a follow up 2-hour workshop to glaze the work before it is glaze-fired. After the final firing the works will be ready to collect.  

Mella Shaw uses clay to make thought-provoking objects and site-specific installations centred around re-occurring themes of balance, tipping-points, fragility and loss. Her approach has its roots in activism – making publicly-engaged environmental work addressing specific issues in the global climate crisis.  

Mella has a background in Anthropology and Museum Curation and Display which underpins her varied ceramics practice. Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2013, Mella exhibited nationally and internationally, having pieces in various public and private collections. She is a visiting lecturer on the BA Ceramic Design course at Central St Martins, London.