Skill Building Workshop: Sgraffito for the Narrative Surface w/Kathy King

This workshop focuses on using the technique of sgraffito – the act of covering a clay surface with a contrasting slip or underglaze and carving through that surface to reveal the color of the clay beneath. King will demonstrate the different carving tools and how she uses them to create a variety of marks and the best state of the clay to use them. King will also demonstrate the methods she uses to transfer drawn images onto the three-dimensional surface.

To King, sgraffito is more than just a technique, it is a way for her to express a personal narrative in both hand-built and thrown work and to approach a degree of storytelling. King’s subject matter often times involves ideas of sexuality, relationships and gender but each participant can build their own vocabulary of images to express their own unique ideas after watching the instructor. What image might you want to contemplate having your morning coffee or see hanging on a wall in your home?

In addition to sharing tips that King picked up in over the 20 years she’s been using the technique of sgraffito, King will also address glazing the work. King uses a translucent glaze that will allow her to see all the work she’s done in the carving stage and if she wants color, she tints that glaze with colorants to create a wide range of translucent colors that will not obscure the imagery beneath – which is very important!

Refunds are not allowed after the workshop begins. Refunds requested during the week prior to the start of the class will be honored at 50%. Refunds requested prior to this will be honored minus Eventbrite fees. If you would like to request a refund, email [email protected].

Kathy King is currently an active studio artist in the Boston area and is an Instructor and the Director of the Ceramics Program and Visual Arts Initiatives at the Office for the Arts at Harvard. Prior to moving back to the Boston area in 2008, she was an Associate Professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She has held positions as a Visiting Faculty member at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI and University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, MA. Her undergraduate work included the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA and she received her BA in Studio Art with a major in Ceramics from Connecticut College, New London, CT in 1990. She received her MFA from University of Florida in Gainesville, FL in 1998. She has given workshops and lectures at over eighty-five colleges, schools, and art centers throughout the USA.

The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts has featured King as an Emerging Artist in 1999, a Demonstrating Artist in 2002, a co-juror with Mark Burns for the 2012 National Student Juried Show and been a lecturer and panelist on multiple occasions. In 2018, she was awarded a Brother Thomas Fellowship by the Boston Foundation, Boston, MA and was a nominee in 2021. She was awarded a Craft Schools US Residency to the Shigaraki Ceramics Cultural Center and other residencies include Archie Bray Foundation in MT and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in ME.

Her work can also be found in numerous publications and periodicals including Ceramics: Art and Perception, Studio Potter, Clay Times, Art Papers and Ceramics Monthly. She has served on the Board of Directors of Studio Potter and is the host of the podcast “For Flux Sake". She currently serves on the Collections Committee for the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA. Learn more on King’s website.

Host or Publisher American Museum of Ceramic Art