Workshop Report sees __]

Forty people attended the workshop given by Andrew Wong on
Saturday, 28th January. Born in Hongkong, he moved to

Ohio in 1967, then to Vancouver in 1971 where he studied
ceramics at UBC. He now lives in the Fraser Valley and oper-
ates his own studio and showroom in Ruskin. CGurrently
teaching the ceramics program at the Fraser Valley College,
he is able to devote 3 or 4 days a week to his own pottery.

Andrew spiral wedges his clay to a cone shape, and starts
centering pushing from the top to the base of the cone.
Opening the clay with his thumbs, he gives the first pull up
by squeezing the clay between the fingers and thumb of his
left hand. The second pull is achieved in a more convention-
al manner, the third using a wooden rib on the outside. Pots
were shaped by stretching outwards and downwards with a wooden
rib on the inside of the pot. Andrew demonstrated casseroles,
flat plates, jugs, bowls, tall pots, joining two tall pots,
throwing off the hump, closed forms, and more, drawing our
attention to various points along the way:-
- small rounded bases to casseroles are less likely to crack
than wide flat ones,
- always work the base of the pots well with fingers or rib ta
help avoid cracks,
- it's much sasier to make plates using really soft clay,
- porcelain plates tend to crack. To alleviate this, when they
are leather hard, invert the plate on the wheel and work
the bottom with a rib,
- leave flat pots to sit awhile before cutting off the bat,
- put silica sand under plates when firing to stop cracking.

Andrew also demonstrated his method for opening large lumpe of
clay, of 20lbs. or more. After centering, he made a slight
Well in the top and then, standing up and supporting the clay
with his left hand, pushed his clenched fist straight down into
the centre of the clay. Andrew's pots are designed with pro-
duetion in mind and require a little or no trimming in the
leather hard stage. To achieve this, in the case of plates,
the base is trimmed before the rim is flared; and, to elimi-
nate the use of slip, handles are applied before the clay is
leather hard, in fact as soon efter throwing as the pot can

be handled.

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