We have just completed the second weekend workshop based around the decorating technique of sgraffito.

We had the same teaching team here as last week. We had so many enrolments in that first workshop, that we were able to book out the next weekend as well.

The workshop was led by Warren Hogden who has been using this technique very effectively, and so beautifully and expressively for some time. He was accompanied by Janine who also decorates her work using this technique. We had Len Smith here who assisted those who who wanted to concentrate on throwing rather than slab work. My role was the teachers assistant or TA. I kneading the clay, made up balls of clay ready for throwing, I also made, dried and slipped the dozen 150mm. sq. tiles in advance for the first experimental project of the day, and I also made a dozen 250mm sq. press-moulded dishes for the participants to try out their designs on, on the larger and slightly curved edges. Each of the students made a couple of flat ware dishes early on, so that they would be stiffened and ready for decorating on the 2nd day. 

The first day was quite busy with so much to get done, but on the second day, the workshop took on very quiet atmosphere with everyone deeply engaged in their creative ideas and scratching decoration. For this workshop, we interpret the term sgraffito to mean applying a dark slip over a pale clay and then scratching back through the dark layer to reveal the contrasting paler body underneath. I made up a batch of our standard white stoneware clay body for these workshops, and we really got through a lot of clay with the clay box almost empty by the end of the 2nd weekend. I’ll have to get off my lazy butt and make another 3 batches of clay to get it ageing ready for next series of workshops, early next year. I make up 3 x 125kg batches of clay through the dough mixer and vacuum pug mills and mix in the recycled throwing slip from the last batch. This makes up to around 400kgs of plastic clay and takes me all day to weigh, mix and pug once through the mill, then half a day the next day to re-pug, blend, bag and store back in the clay box.

Sgraffito means scratch in Italian. It is a very old Italian technique of decorating a wall using two layers of contrasting plaster, then scratching back though the top layer to reveal the contrasting colour beneath. Used to create bas-relief sculptured surface on Wealthy peoples grand palazzi. It is used by potters to create a flat, 2D graphic decorative design as decoration on pots and tiles.

I looked it up in the Oxford Dictionary, It tells me that it was first used in English in 1730 as ‘sgrafit’ to describe black and white painting. Then in 1862 as ‘sgraffiato’ which meant to scratch. By 1900 it was used in North Devon potteries to describe incised wares.

Everybody did a lot of scratching over the weekend, decorating at least one tile and 2 slab dishes. Janine also demonstrated two layer a two layer decorating, using 2 different slips on over the other, allowing a 3 tone image. Warren demo’d using terra sigillata with sgraffito and a combination of the two slips, black and terra sigillata together with a scratched through design. All in all, a lot to take in in one go!

Everyone contributed to a sumptuous lunch each day with so much lovely food appearing on the long table in the gallery each lunch time. A big thank you to everyone who came along and made it all happen and for it to be such a rewarding experience for us all.

There is so much to learn, We only just scratched the surface!