Debra Broz – How to Make Hybrid Animals Using Ceramics Restoration Techniques

Hi, my name is Debra Broz, and in this workshop, I will show you how to create hybrid animals from pre-existing ceramic figurines, and how to blend the different parts seamlessly by using ceramics restoration techniques. The workshop will cover how to cut already-fired ceramics, which materials are best for filling in gaps, and sculpting additional parts, and how to match the colors and finishes of different ceramic bodies using acrylic paints and mediums.

When you buy this workshop, you get:

• Watch my Online Workshop
  • The workshop will be around 1 hour long.
• Bonus Q&A
  • Join my bonus Q&A where I answered questions about my process face-to-face
• Lifetime Access to the Replays
  • The workshop and the Q&A are recorded, and you will have lifetime access to it. You can watch it online, or download it to your device to watch offline at any time

After this workshop, you could be making amazing work like this:

In this workshop we will cover the following:

1. Selecting your ceramic figurines
2. Cutting your figurines
3. Attaching cut pieces together, filling gaps, and sanding
4. Mixing and matching acrylics to recreate glaze colors

At the end of this workshop you will have the materials knowledge you need to seamlessly alter ceramics using non-ceramic materials.

Required Materials & Equipment List

• Ceramic figurines in a related scale/finish
• Rotary cutting tool (Dremel or similar)
• Carbide cutting wheel and mandrel for rotary tool
• Carbide sanding bits for rotary tool
• Apoxie Sculpt (white or natural) or Magic Sculp 2 part sculpting compound
• 2-part quick set (5 min) epoxy
• Sandpaper (range from 150-1000)
• Matte medium (Liquitex or similar)
• Fluid acrylic paint (Golden or similar) – range of colors
• Matte or Gloss tile sealer

Preferred but not absolutely necessary

• Paasche H model airbrush (or similar single-action airbrush)
• Ultra-matte medium (Liquitex or similar)
• High-flow acrylic paint (Golden or similar) – range of colors

Debra Broz collects and deconstructs secondhand ceramic kitsch figurines, then combines them into reimagined versions of their former selves. Using ceramics restoration techniques, she effaces history by creating seamless reconstructions that are part humor, part mad science, and part tender sentimentality for the rural midwest where she grew up. In her newest work, she creates domestic installations that combine her reconstructed figurines with sculpture made from disassembled secondhand stuffed toys and discarded furniture.

Broz was born in 1981 in Springdale, Arkansas, and was raised in rural central Missouri. She received her BFA with honors from Maryville University – St. Louis in 2003. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Austin, Texas where she trained as a ceramics restorer and began using ceramic figurines in her art practice. Broz moved to Los Angeles in 2014, and then to Seattle, Washington in 2022. Broz shows with Track 16 Gallery in Los Angeles and Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, and has had exhibits at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Austin Museum of Art, and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Her work has been featured in print in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and Frankie magazines; in a number of online publications; and in two international surveys of contemporary ceramics.

Website: http://www.debrabroz.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zebrazorb/