ANDREW MARTIN WORKSHOP -Pat Taddy- The technical maternal that Andrew Martin parted with dur- ing his workshop on the first weekend in March would fill a small notebook. Another would be needed to cover his personal journey with clay, his thoughts and observations on functional ceramics and his decorative strategies and influences. Being somewhat process oriented myself, | was most interested in the process and content of his workshop and left for lunch on the second day when that session degenerated into an earnest forum on the distinc- tions between function and utility. Others who found themselves engaged by the debate could be approached for an account of it, Not that | have any intention of being critical of Andrew for leading workshop participants into the discussion; it |s an illustration of how diverse the con- tent of this rewarding workshop was. Every phase of his creative process was dealt with in the limited available time. He built a mould after introducing us to the aesthetic sensibilities and logic that determined the design, showed us some of the details and features of his moulds, poured flocks of castings, assembled and finished most of them, decorated a few, and still found time for a slide lecture. Throughout this he mused aloud about pots and their rela- tionship to their users, and ambled amicably through anec- dotes prompted by random thoughts or observations. His workshop was densely packed and thoughtfully arranged and he seemed engaged with his work and audience throughout. While it is true that slip-casting does offer the possibility of quickly formed multiples, that isn't primarily what attracted Andrew to the process, He finds that, on average, he needs to spend as much or more time completing a piece than a maker building assembled, thrown forms would need for a comparable object. The potential for building forms that would be unlikely to result from any other pro- cess, the satisfying balance and feel of objects with an even wall thickness and precise lid fit were among the qualities that drew him to the process during his graduate Studies at Alfred. His work has none of the sterile, indus- trially anonymous, toilet-like feel that characterizes some commercial slip-cast ware, nor does it evoke white, earth- enware, Irish Setter teapots that sit unused on fireplace mantles and rattle their precariously ill fitting lids when someone treads by at a pace faster than a furtive shuffle. It feels substantial, in spite of a best china visual delicacy that sets it well apart from the more informal and sturdy work that emerges when most of us mangle clay into forms that are intended to fulfill utilitarian roles. It Is not sufpnsing that he has embraced slip-casting; the workshop revealed him to be an inventive and unconventional clay worker, one whose approach to the potting side of his work is precise and controlled. The following is an exampie of his strategy for solid cast- ing plates or bowls with footrings that emerged after he spent a three month residency at the Kohler factory. The hollow footring has an appealing visual bulk without the weight of a solid footring while plates from this mould all have identical weight and thickness. -Legend- : plaster = ais ona = elay C) >= air A. After the bowl or plate model has been made of clay, it is sel, inverted on a batt. Andrew often uses building pa- per (the black tarry kind) stapled to a round batt as a moukd form. Section 1. is poured first, than section 2. The bow! model is then removed. The two conical plugs that form cavities through which the mould will later be filled are left in place. B. The two section assembly, after being allowed to dry, is then inverted and filled with casting sip. After a bowl with the desired wall thickness has been formed, the mould is drained. The depressions in the footring are then filled with clay and ribbed smooth, and a resist is applied fo the exposed plaster.