Ceramic artist, author, and illustrator Simone Krug Springsguth, who runs her studio “Rauchblau” in Callenberg near Chemnitz, will lead this year’s ceramics workshop.
She studied product design and visual design at the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau. In 1995, she discovered ceramics. To her, clay is like “story dust” because it holds so many stories within it. She combines her works with found objects.
Her “Vessels of Memory” are exhibited both in Germany and abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom.
This year’s workshop is titled
The Poetry of Memory
Anyone who has fallen in love with the thrill of “discovering” knows that some finds are something
Carrying something special within you—a story.
My ceramics workshop focuses on incorporating these found objects into ceramic pieces, thereby providing a special platform for these personal stories.
Whether they are fragments of memories from one’s own life or rusty pieces of metal, old handles, tools, or driftwood from the beach—clay clay is a material that invites us to seek out that lightness which plastically integrates these artifacts, thereby carrying the memory forward, yet at the same time creating a new story that is waiting to be told.
The goal is to use free-form modeling techniques to create shapes that harmonize with the specific artifact or metal structure, or that create a cohesive combination through distinctive textures and surfaces.
We will focus on the topics of form design and the deliberate use of surfaces, as a careful approach in these areas is essential for achieving a harmonious result (including in future projects). The topic of color combinations will also be touched upon in the context of surface design.
Coarsely chamotte-laden clay bodies are used.
At the same time, you will receive guidance on how to mix clay in specific ways to vary colors and textures right from the start. In addition, various engobes and color pigments will be used, and their application will be explained during the course.
Welded metal structures (bases with metal legs) are available at the workshop, along with a selection of various found objects.