Tim See – Mug Surface Design

Do you ever get scared glazing your ceramics?

Worried how they are going to turn out?
I know many people who get anxious glazing their work…
You can spend hours and hours making a piece that you love…
only for the glaze to mess up and completely ruin it.

Hi, I’m Tim See, and I want to teach you everything about surface design – without using glazes!

In this workshop, I will show you:

• carving,
• stamping,
• underglaze
• slip trailing
• lustre

I use a Wood-Fired kiln, and I aim for a grungy look. If that’s not your thing however, all of these techniques can be used to make your own style of ceramics, with your own types of clay, in your own type of kilns.

After this workshop, you will be able to stop gambling with glazes, and be confident about how your work will look like when it comes out of the kiln.

You Get My Workshop:
Instant access to watch my workshop and Q&A.

You get my Equipment List PDF

Watch my Q&A
Watch my Q&A where I answered questions about my process.

You Get Lifetime Access to the Replays
The workshop Q&A will be 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.

About Tim See

I am a ceramic artist born in Syracuse, New York in 1979. I have lived in the Greater Syracuse area, commonly known as Central New York, all of my life. I began working in clay while an art student at Onondaga Community College and completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics with Honors at Syracuse University in 2004.

My work has been shown at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C, the Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY, the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, and, at Baltimore Clayworks in Maryland – as well as many other galleries and shows. The work has been recognized with awards every year since 2003.

I have taught beginning, intermediate and advanced pottery to adults in a community-based ceramics studio at Clayscapes Pottery, Inc. since 2006. I also have taught children and teens at the elementary, middle and high school levels in workshops, as a visiting artist, and, in year-long after school programs. I have really enjoyed traveling throughout the northeast engaging potters in half-day, full-day and multi-day workshops tailored to their unique goals.

As a founding member of the Independent Potters Association, I work collaboratively with fellow artists to organize and implement several charitable events each year as well as group exhibitions. I help organize group shows, an art trail and a high school ceramics competition annually as well.

Social media have provided me many platforms to communicate with more than 11,000 potters nationally and internationally. Since 2007, I have produced 126 educational videos on pottery that have been viewed almost 2 million times and attracted more that 46,000 subscribers.

My wife Brenda Pierce and I live in Bridgeport, NY with our cat Viggo.

Wood firing requires an approach to surface decoration that is different from other firing methods in which glazes are used extensively. After testing numerous techniques I am most enthusiastic about storytelling through illustration. I primarily use porcelain clay bodies and illustrate with black underglaze on a white canvas of porcelain slip.

I paint scenes of The Buckethead Story, an original parable of an apocalyptic future. This world is animated by good and bad robots called Bucketheads. The good robots work to save the few living things left. In the world of The Buckethead Story the only living things left are bunnies, turtles, carrots, a vine, a couple types of flowers, and an insect called a weta. Wetas are known for their ability to stay alive when frozen and to animate when thawed.

As the story evolved on successive pots, parameters developed. There is no electricity, no geographic location, no time frame except “future.” My pots do not tell a whole story or even a major event of the story. Each pot depicts a moment. The story is told on hundreds of pieces of work. They are not intended as sets and they become scattered through sales to different customers spread far and wide.

The pots intrigue people and spark dialogue. What caused the apocalypse that lead to the extinction of humans? How did bunnies survive? What is the power source for the Bucketheads? What role do recurring balloons play in the story? What do the bunnies represent? What makes a Buckethead good or bad? Sometimes I know the answer and other times I am as curious as they are to find out. A fun part of this two-way engagement is how their questions fuel my imagination and thus the story. I sometimes take commissions to illustrate a moment in the story they envision.

An earlier line that was also story-driven, Dragon Wells Steam Works, included functional vessels such as teapots, cream and sugar sets, lamps, storage jars, and oil cans. Illustrations were prominent in many pots in the series, particularly on vases. The central character, F. Emeril Carter, a machinist trapped in a collapsed room under the Dragon Wells factory in New York City, created the pieces for his use – as well as to stay sane.

Web: http://www.timseeceramics.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timseeclay