Clay Arts Utah and Arizona Clay Arts have partnered for a free workshop exchange by Zoom. Emily Thorpe will be demonstrating her carving techniques with a focus on an understanding of carving porcelain. Carving porcelain is a lot of fun but does require patience and a basic understanding of the material and some planning. She will go over the types of clay and tools used to carve. She will carve the Utah native Blue Flax as a part of this demonstration, answering questions, and showing important tips and tricks to add depth to the piece.
Biography
Emily Thorpe is a Utah based ceramic artist inspired by the delicate beauty of her state’s native plant life. She studied Fine Arts at Utah Valley University and graduated with a bachelor’s in fine art in May of 2022. She currently works from her studio in Utah County and sells her work online and at festivals. As a student she learned about many ceramic artists but was most inspired by Elaine Coleman’s delicate style of carving.
Her designs are inspired by nature. Emily is driven to do this work for a few different reasons. The most important being that we as people are often so single-minded in a task, we forget to really look around us and enjoy what nature gives us. The work encourages its viewers to pause and reflect on the small things around us that add so much meaning to our world. Emily is also passionate about putting a little bit of the joy you can find in nature into her work, so that her work is both reflective and enlightening.
Emily takes special care to document and study each species before intricately carving it onto her porcelain vessels. To create each piece her work is first thrown on a potter’s wheel, and then left to dry until leather hard. Once the porcelain is ready, the design is drawn on and carved. This can take anywhere from five to twenty hours of carving the porcelain by hand. She finds carving to be a relaxing and meditative process. She feels that the extensive time it takes to carve is well worth it to make a piece of artwork that she’s passionate about and is unique.
Emily Thorpe Free Zoom Workshop
June 8, 2024 from 10:30-12:30 MDT