Exploring Surface: A Printed Form Workshop with Rachelle Miller
Tue-Sat, July 13-17 | 9am-4pm
Tuition: $790
Concept
A pot's surface is more than a finishing touch. It can shape how we read its form, texture, and character. In this workshop, hand building and surface exploration work together. Create forms with different contours and planes, then consider how each shape can serve as a canvas for pattern, image, and mark. Explore a range of approaches, including monoprinting with colored slip, stencils, sgraffito, water etching, silkscreen printing, newsprint blocks, and Mishima. Each technique offers a distinct way to transfer or create on image on clay. Some emphasize crisp, repeated patterns; others invite layered marks, carved lines, or subtle contrasts between clay and color.
Experience
The workshop progresses alongside the changing consistency of clay. Begin with fresh, wet clay straight from the bag, when it is especially responsive to forming and building. As the week continues and the work firms, move toward techniques suited to dryer stages. This sequence makes the clay's changing condition part of the process, helping participants notice when a surface is ready for a particular kind of mark or treatment. By connecting form, timing, and surface, this workshop encourages experimentation rather than a single prescribed result. Leave with a broader understanding of how to choose a method, adapt it to a form, and let the clay's stage of dryness guide the next step.
Instructor
Rachelle Miller is a ceramics artist and instructor based in Madison, WI. Currently, she teaches ceramics at Madison College and exhibits her work in galleries, museums, and art fairs across the Midwest. Rachelle's pieces, made using hand-building and wheel-throwing techniques, are both functional and sculptural. Inspired by the Mid-Century movement, she uses bold colors and geometric patterns, incorporating printmaking techniques for layering of texture and design. Her work is visually striking and invites closer examination.
Skill Level
Artists of all skill levels and working in any medium are welcome, including painting, drawing, printmaking, fibers, ceramics, or mixed media. Whether you’re exploring color for the first time or looking to refine years of experience, this workshop offers fresh insights to strengthen your understanding of color and expand your creative possibilities.