What We Learned Visiting the 2022 Flower City Pottery Invitational
There's more than one way to experience ceramics and clay in Rochester, NY if you are part of the Wheel & Slab Pottery Club.
This past weekend, October 22nd, and 23rd, a group of club members went on a field trip to Rochester’s annual celebration of ceramic arts at the Flower City Arts center. Our visit included eating donuts, purchasing pots, debating pet names, filling in worksheets, and watching educational workshops.
Artist Wes Brown constructing a jar with hand built and wheel thrown parts.
The invitational was started more than 5 years ago as a passion project for Richard Aerni and Matt Metz, and a collaboration with the Flower City Arts Center and local artist Peter Pincus. As the name suggests, the artists selected to participate are invited to attend based on their unique work, skillset, storytelling ability and experiences.
This year marked the 5th show, and once again featured potters from all over the country. A multitude of different processes, textures, glazes, and forms were on display for the public, and our group to “ooh” and “ahh” over. And once again, the artists were there to share details about their work, a look at their unique processes, and inside look at what the love and dislike about making the work on display.
Learning New Techniques at Pottery Workshops
Throughout the weekend a series of workshops were put on, exploring different topics related to creating ceramic works of all types. Varying in time, each workshop not only explored a topic, but also provided the audience with an opportunity to connect with the artists, and learn more about their perspective and influences.
Ceramic Artists Hanna Niswonger demonstrates screen printing on clay
Day 1 of the invitational included an in depth look at screen printing on clay with Hanna Niswonger, and an insightful discussion and demonstration of water etching with Dallas Wooten. Everything from creating a consistent, ink-like, transferable pigment for clay yourself, to carving stamps and using shellac were shared and discussed.
Later workshops included creating slip casts handles with James Tingey, and combining wheel thrown and hand built forms with Wes Brown. Informative, fun, and motivational, the workshops were a highlight and will likely inspire exploration in our club over the coming months.
One-On-One Conversations with the Artists
Can you complete a field trip without having to do a worksheet? Well, we guess you can, but it’s not nearly as much fun. Fun, and focused on creating conversation, our group visited each artist's table ready to create conversation with a worksheet filled with sometimes fun, but mostly educationally focused questions.
From the artists we learned favorite colors, we talked about processes, we discussed what glaze ingredient made the best pet name (yes, really!) and we learned what artists like which type of donut. Fun fact, Kristen Kieffer enjoys a Chocolate Chocolate Glazed Donut. So not only does she make exceptional work, she has great taste in donuts!
Hanging Out with Friends
We’ll remember our visit to the invitational for years to come, yes, because we bought many beautiful pots, pots we’ll use every day. But we’ll also look back on our visit and remember that this was an event we experienced with friends, members of the club who shared a passion for clay, and all it can become.
Making friends can be tough, but our pottery club makes it easy, and the community we love makes it fun with events like the invitational. If you want to learn about pottery, you love artwork, or you want to make pottery in Rochester, NY, we encourage you to take a pottery class, talk with artists, and attend next year!
