Creative Thursdays – Studio sessions at home

Participants will work with clay, making small objects for an evocative still life focusing on things that spark memory or emotion. Techniques will include solid sculpting and hollow-form methods, along with tips for rendering textures and details. There will also be a discussion of how to finish the works with acrylic paint and mediums.

Materials

• Air-dry clay in any colour (e.g., Das, Crayola, or similar)

  • Avoid polymer clays (Fimo® or Sculpey®) as well as kits of brightly coloured modelling material sometimes described as foam clay. These materials behave differently to air-dry clay, and will make the instructions more difficult to follow.

• Objects to use as inspiration — either natural or manmade. These will not necessarily be reproduced, but will instead be used to spark ideas.

Sculpting Tools

• Items already on hand: fork, popsicle sticks, skewers, X-Acto® knife, rolling pin, etc.

• Sponge

• Small container for water

• Small plastic bag (produce bag size) to cover work to keep it from drying out too quickly

  • When using items from home, ensure that they can be fully washed if they will later come into contact with food.

Work Surface:

• A plastic placemat or tablecloth, for easy clean-up. A scrap of wooden board may be helpful, if easily available.

• Acrylic paints and soft-bristle paintbrushes of various sizes; gloss or matte medium, as desired or available. Adhesives may be helpful when assembling the final still life following the workshop.

Born in Montreal, Martina Lantin received her Master of Fine Art from NSCAD University. She has participated in multiple residencies internationally, including the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in the United States, the Zentrum für Keramik in Germany, and the Liling Ceramic Museum in China. Dedicated to the power of the functional form, Martina mines the history of ornament and pattern to explore the mutation and boundaries of functional ceramics through vessels and installations. Martina is an Associate Professor at the Alberta University of the Arts.

Participants in this workshop will explore pottery techniques such as slab-building, coiling and modelling, as they make a small clay sculpture. 

Materials

• Air-dry clay

• Newsprint

• Sponge

• Small plate filled with water

Optional:

• Rolling pin

• Clay tools, or spoon and fork

• Exacto^® or butter knife

Émilie Grace Lavoie is a New Brunswick-born artist, curator and member of Collectif 3E. She has a diploma in fashion design (2011) from Collège LaSalle, a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Université de Moncton (2016), as well as a Master of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2018). Her art practice explores the relationships between materials, objects, and the complex environments and ecosystems in which they are found.