GULDAGERGAARD STUDIOS

This one is for my fellow ceramics people! There are some nerdy shots of ceramic equipment that may only be of interest to those working in clay, but I'd like to share where I've been spending all my waking hours lately.  The facilities at Guldagergaard are an absolute dream, and can accommodate any ceramic project imaginable.  It is a place to get serious amounts of work done, but also to experiment with new techniques, clays and glazing materials.  The group of artists that I've been sharing the house and studio with have all been so incredibly generous in sharing their knowledge and experiences.

In 2012 the studios went under a major renovation and was reopened in February 2013.  The main floor hosts up to 12 artists who each have their own workspace including a shared plaster room at one end, slip casting room at the other, and electric kiln and glaze laboratory in the middle.  There are 10 sinks (all with clay traps), 4 wedging tables, a drying and damp cabinet, slab roller, extruder, slip pump, industrial clay mixer, jigger jolly machine, plaster wheel, clay lathe, 8 electric kilns of various sizes, and  spray booth.  There is ventilation installed in all shared working areas, a very neatly organized kiln furniture unit, and an efficient system to deal with reclaim and trashed fired ceramics.  

One of my favourite features to this studio is the system for cleaning the floor.  Once a week we spray it down with a hose and squeegy the water to the floor drains.  It's a super easy and effective way to pick up and eliminate dust or clay build up.  It's extremely satisfying.

Below are a couple images of my desk and work area.  I've been throwing elements on the wheel and joining them with hand coiled elements to create larger, open forms with contrasting texture (you'll see one finished guy drying out on my desk ready to get fired).  I'll be firing these works in the atmospheric kilns, letting natural materials like wood ash, soda and fire create the glazes and surface decoration.  I will post, in more detail, examples of works that are fired in atmospheric kilns and I've yet to document the outdoor kiln park which is a very exciting place.

Upstairs is a beautiful, open space and auditorium to facilitate workshops, lectures, and to lay out large scale projects.  Two staircases walled with wood fired bricks are the dominate aesthetic feature on the second floor.  With atmospheric techniques and firing being a large aspect of the centres identity, 6000 bricks were smoke fired in barrels on site (unfortunately I neglected to capture this, but you can see it here).  You'll also find equipment for silkscreening, a 3-D ceramic printer, a decal printer and many works from the Guldagergaard collection.  Sometimes yoga happens here too.

Above is work-in-progress by Danish resident Sten Lykke Madsen.  Below is an outbuilding dedicated to projects other than ceramics.  It's filled with all kinds of tools and equipment for jobs like building shipping crates to fixing a bicycle.  I can't say I'm looking forward to building shipping crates, but I do hope that there will be enough successful work coming out of the kilns to merit the building of a crate.  We'll see.