Tone von Krogh Ceramics Tutorial
Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Posted by Torrill
Recently I had the pleasure of having a one to one tutorial with ceramic artist Tone von Krogh. Born and raised in Norway, Tone spent some time trying several types of media before turning her hand to ceramics. She then took a university course in Oslo where she was discouraged from learning the potters wheel as the tutor felt that it would take too long for the students to master properly. The course focused too heavily on a career in commercial ceramics and so a transfer to Manchester was the move she needed to experiment more freely and develop her skills as a creative.
Today she still lives in the area carving a successful creative career to provide for her partner and young family. She will soon be taking part in the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, the preparation for which happens all year round as she develops new ideas to keep her work fresh. She is also currently working on an interesting collaboration with an illustrator, the results of which I am certainly looking forward to seeing.
You can see Tone and her fantastic work at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair from the 20th to the 23rd of October in Spinningfields, and in the meantime head over to Facebook and like her page for news of what she’s up to.
Tone is also offering Indie Quarter readers a special discounted taster session of £5.00 if you visit her at stand No 021 in room 1 at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair and quote “Indie taster”. A normal 2 hour ceramic group lesson in her studio costs £14.00 including materials and firings.
Here’s how I got on when I gave the wheel a go:
Firstly we prepared the clay for the wheel in a process called ‘wedging’. This involved rolling it out to try and remove air bubbles and align the fibres in a circular pattern.
Next we slam the clay onto middle of the wheel (quite satisfying) and centre it by holding your elbow against your hip and gently pushing it with your hand. Below you can see Tone has started to create a hollow in the clay so that we can start shaping the pot.
Once the clay is hollowed, taking care not to make it too thin at the base, we then draw the sides of the clay upwards and then give it some shape. Here is my attempt, although I’m not sure what shape I’ve gone for on this one!
Once it is finished we then add plenty of water to the wheel and draw a wire underneath the pot to separate it.
Voila! The finished pot.
Tags: ceramics lesson, Indie Quarter, pottery wheel, Tone von Krogh, Tone von Krogh ceramics
