Lauren Sandler – Constructing Narrative Vessels

Hi there! My name is Lauren Sandler.

For my workshop I will demonstrate how I conceptualize, plan, and build one of my stacked vessels. The process will include throwing and handbuilding the main parts of the form, making the smaller objects that are attached and hang from the form, as well as the final stacking and composition of the object.

I will also talk about the ideas and research behind my work. That will include:
My thinking around clay as a pervasive cultural material filled with layered content and meaning; clay as a means to explore larger cultural, social, economic, and political content; as well as the use of the vessel as a means to challenge ideas of material and larger contexts of objects and goods.

We will go through the following steps: Conceptualizing pieces
Gathering objects and images of inspiration or interest
Sketching forms and planning the building of the piece
Throwing and handbuilding main parts of the stacked object
Handbuilding a variety of small objects that are attached and hung from the main object
Composing the final piece with hung elements

You will understand the making of a multi piece stacked vessel physically and conceptually layered with many objects to create a narrative of your choosing.

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

Clay
Pen and paper
Handbuilding tools of your choosing
Objects that inspire you, are evocative, or meaningful. If you don’t have the objects in your possession, images will do.

When you buy this workshop, you get:

• Watch my Online Workshop
  • The workshop will be around 1 – 2 hours 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

My current series investigates historic and contemporary narratives of power and perspective through the familiarity of the vessel, assembled as stacked parts, embedded with an accumulation of cultural objects. The recognition of the vessel form serves as an entry point to challenge the presumptive neutrality of material, and asks the viewer to step closer to understand layers of context. These pieces consider the extraction and production of tea, sugar, coffee, salt, and other systems to examine economies of control that constitute migration, occupation, commodification, and labor. With discursive content, the objects signify the monumental and mundane, function and adornment, domestic and sacred across time and place.

Lauren Sandler is a ceramic artist and educator who exhibits nationally, and gives talks, workshops, and publishes work regarding contemporary and historic issues in ceramics. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from Penn State University, and undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and Ceramics from Ithaca College and SUNY New Paltz. She is Assistant Professor and Program Head of Ceramics at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, and served on the Board of The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts as Director at Large from 2019-2022.

www.instagram.com/laurensandlerstudio/