Build-A-Bot Workshop
Visiting Artist-Ceramics | Available
In this workshop students will learn to design, build, and create their own ceramic robot sculpture. We will start our sculpture by throwing clay vessels based on our robot design, then use those pieces as the building blocks to create our sculpture. Wheel techniques such as caliper measuring and throwing off the hump will be covered. Once our thrown pieces have set up, we will employ various methods of altering these vessels to use them for constructing our robot. Though this workshop will mainly cover the throwing and building of these pieces, Michael will also be showing examples and techniques for surface treatments for options to finish our robots.
- Registration will close one month prior to the start of class.
- A material fee of $35 will be added at check out.
- Enrollment is open to participants aged 18 +
Michael Klapthor
Growing up in the 1980's really helped nurture my love of robots. It was a great time for the science fiction genre, with over-the-top tales of science gone wrong or futuristic powers bestowed on common people. I loved these stories as a kid and later came to see how they reflected our more human and social characteristics. This is how I like to look at the robots I make today - little vignettes of humanity conveyed in a rusty robot form. After all, they can't help but resemble their creators - sometimes both our assets and our flaws.
In my current series, I'm using altered forms from the potter's wheel as my main building material to construct sculptures that have a 1950's science fiction aesthetic. The rounded, even forms I can create on the wheel lend themselves easily to recreating this look, and the metal-rich clay and stains I use add rusty, worn character to each piece. The result for me is a studio full of robots and ray-guns that I hope will resonate with my audience about fun and nostalgia, but also thinking of new ways to employ traditional mediums.