Ceramics: Glazing Masterclass - Understanding Glazes for Ceramic Artists

This intensive masterclass covers everything you need to know to make your own glazes. Starting from the ground up, we’ll learn about raw materials, glaze chemistry and understanding glaze formulas. With expert guidance, technical information and practical examples, participants will learn about earth materials and how to process them, and mix them to mix and test glazes, understand colour and surface quality, We'll also learn different glazing application methods and how heat, temperature and firing affect glaze outcomes.

The workshop will cover:

• understanding raw materials
• making and mixing glazes
• glaze chemistry and formulas
• the glaze spectrum: slips, engobes, underglazes, glazes
• surface, shine and opacity
• colour in glazes
• firing: atmosphere, heat, temperature, and firing effects on glazes,
• glaze testing techniques: test-tiles, line and triaxial blends
• glaze application and layering
• troubleshooting: glaze flaws and fixes
• health and safety.

This is a hands-on studio workshop, where discussion and ideas-sharing are encouraged, and participants are invited to bring samples of previous glaze work for problem-solving. *

Outcomes: Participants will leave the course understanding glaze theory and materials, with the knowledge to begin making glazes in their own studios. Test-tiles glazed during the workshop will be fired after the workshop and available for collection at a later date, or can be taken home at the end of the workshop unfired.

Health and Safety: All participants will need: FFP3 disposable particulate respirator or P3 particulate filters for half-face mask, an apron and safety glasses.

This is a masterclass, so participants need to have a good understanding & experience in ceramic processes. It is not suitable for beginners, however we welcome ceramicists who may not have experience making their own glazes yet.

*Please note: This is a workshop all about understanding glazes and making them from scratch so there will be no time for glazing your own finished work on the workshop, but you are welcome to book into the studio, after the workshop, to work on your own pieces and glaze them with your new understanding of glazes. Hire of the space is €10 per day plus materials and firing costs.

Accommodation: We have private rooms available for €35 per night in our residential building. Please book your tickets to the workshop on Eventbrite and then email us to see if we have a room available to: info@leitrimsculpturecentre.ie.

Bio

Elaine Harrington is an artist and creative facilitator based in Mayo. Her practice is trans-disciplinary and encompasses material practice, site-specific installations, and socially engaged projects. Her work explores ecology of making in art and craft practices, using found, natural and waste materials to consider how we connect to our environment, and how communities evolve through shared activities & resource networks. Elaine is a graduate of the Ceramics Skills & Design with the Design & Crafts Council Ireland, and holds an MSc in Interactive Digital Media from Trinity College Dublin, and an MA in Ceramics, with distinction, from Cardiff School of Art & Design. She was the 2018-2020 Parity Studios Artist-in-Residence at UCD College of Science (IRL), where she explored geosciences and the transformation of earth materials in ceramics. Ongoing research investigates the mining and mineral heritage of Ireland, focusing on mine tailings, waste, and byproducts from excavation and extraction industries for use in ceramics processes, as well as native pigments and biocolour for ceramics and printmaking. Recent public art commissions include the Reimagining Enniscorthy public art & community decarbonisation project 2022-23 - a collaborative, place-based response to the climate crisis. Currently, she is project lead on the Wilderland public art and community ecology project 2023-25 in Mayo, supported by the Creative Climate Action Fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme.
https://www.instagram.com/elharringtonceramics/