International Ceramics Festival
The 12th International Ceramics Festival returns to Aberystwyth for the weekend of 3-5 July
This is a biennial ceramics jamboree bringing together professional and amateur potters, enthusiasts and collectors from around the world. There are workshops, trade stands and lectures, but the real-crowd pullers are the demonstrations and kiln firings. The starry cast of demonstrators include Jack Doherty who will be showing how to make both thrown and slab pieces in porcelain, Austrian Regina Heinz who will talk audiences through her technique which emphasises the softness and tactile qualities of clay, and Jeff Shapiro who will reveal how he makes his thick platters from recycled clay. Other potters doing their stuff include American Don Reitz and Japanese Shozo Michikawa, as well as three makers from Jingdezhen in China, Zhou Hua Yang, Zhou Hua Long and Ning Fa You, who will show off their traditional ceramic techniques.
The kiln firings are perhaps the most dramatic part of the festival and this year Tom Barnett combines performance art and ceramics to build his (fire) capsule, centred on the firing of a hollow clay form. And Danish ceramist Nina Hole promises equally dramatic stuff as she will be making (and firing) one of her enormous clay sculptures which act as their own kiln.
www.internationalceramicsfestival.org
