Urdido
Sculpting Workshop
Summer 2019

Vases each H 90 cm

What I love the most about ceramics is that it's a never-ending learning process. I really enjoy taking part in master classes or workshops and learning different techniques used by ceramicists around the world. In summer 2019 I attended Urdido sculpting workshop and learned one of the most ancient hand-building methods still used in many parts of the world, mainly by women. In just one week I was able to build two 1m high vessels. They were later fired in the wooden kiln.

With this primitive technique you can make large jars without tools and a throwing wheel. You elevate the piece by forming the ball of clay directly with your fingers into a coil and immediately pressing it into the wall. It's a complex process that requires high concentration by doing several things simultaneosly — dancing around your piece in a circle backwards, forming the coils while attaching them, shaping the vessel and taking care of the quick growth so you prevent the walls from collapsing while continuing working.

It's essential to use very soft clay with high grog percentage. For this project we were lucky to have a lot of terracotta from Mallorca and it was an additional joy to prepare our clay.

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