Fascination Clay
Pedagogical possibilities with clay - with funding aspects for inclusion
PUBLICATION
Karin Flurer-Brünger, Verlag modernes lernen, German Textbook
ORDER HERE!
https://www.verlag-modernes-lernen.de/buecher/shop-detail/article/1280
Creative, free, full of relish, inventiveness in demand - the malleability of clay as a material has allowed ideas to bubble up and the most diverse things to emerge in all human cultures for thousands of years - be it vessels for everyday and ritual use, all kinds of things for building houses, drums, flutes and many games and figures.
Soft clay in our hands captures us, lures out our creative energy and motivates us to act - this is especially true for children. Shaping clay in their hands, punching holes, tapping and squirting is a great joy for children. Here children with disabilities are no different from others. Creativity and play are part of childhood. It has long been known that "comprehension" is the basis for cognitive development and that children who use their hands very intensively develop their language even earlier and in a more differentiated way.
Clay offers a wide range of possibilities for activity, for effecting, changing, shaping and discarding again, with or without a goal and purpose. Children can have a wide variety of elementary experiences with construction, statics, physics and chemistry. Solutions are developed with great motivation.
In this book, the master ceramist and longstanding lecturer in ceramics at the University of Koblenz-Landau explains and shows, in addition to professional instructions on basic experiences with clay, the various design techniques for working with clay in clear step-by-step instructions. Many examples of teaching are described with supportive aspects in order to be able to do justice to the diverse abilities of the children.
.jpg)
Art Nouveau Ceramics in
Southwestern Germany
in "Art Nouveau in the Palatinate"
PUBLICATION
Christoph Zuschlag and Gisela Moeller, Michael Imhof Verlag
ORDER HERE!
Exhibition Strieffler House of Arts in Landau
February 12 – April 2, 2017
Little is known about the fact that Art Nouveau made its way into all areas of art in southwestern Germany, including the Palatinate. With the imposing festival hall designed by Hermann Goerke, Landau is a major work of art nouveau architecture in the region and one of the most important examples of this type of building in south-west Germany. But Art Nouveau also left its mark outside the center of Landau. This volume makes clear for the first time the impressive variety of Art Nouveau manifested in the region in architecture, interior design, decorative arts, painting and exhibitions.
Ceramics from the Charcoal Kiln
Photography & Ceramics
PUBLICATION
Karin Flurer-Bruenger and Jochen Foeller
ORDER HERE!
Karin – looking over the shoulder of a ceramist
…. The "beauty of simple things" (Soetsu Yanagi 1889-1961) was her guiding principle, conveyed by a master potter (Gerhard Seiler), who exemplifies craftsmanship as a positive, identity-forming activity.
Craft techniques are also the basis for her conveying the fascination of working with clay when she teaches future art teachers at the University of Koblenz-Landau. The expert examination of the material is not a contradiction to the joy of playful doing, the mindfulness of the process is often more important than a result.
Openness to new things is the common thread in Karin's work
...the deviation from the expected result can be enriching and groundbreaking. Karin is fascinated by fire! Her kiln firings in recent years and her experimentation with related smoke firing techniques - raku firing, wood burning, paper firing, field firing, black firing, pit firing and fire sculptures - meanwhile show Karin the way to the principles and techniques that have made the results presented here possible. This also includes, by chance, the almost uncontrollable atmosphere in the charcoal kiln – exposing ceramic surfaces so that the interaction of oxides in the clay, oxygen deprivation, carbon and heat can create dazzling plays of color and luster. The partially polished or deliberately rough surfaces, marked by the smoke, acquire a degree of naturalness and sensual charisma that glazed ceramics can only achieve with difficulty.
What happens in the charcoal kiln?
Since 1977 it has been a tradition in Erfweiler (in the Palatinate Forest) to place a kiln with 30 to 40 cbm dry beech wood, completely cover it with earth and burn it once a year. The ten-day fire produces charcoal of a quality required for iron smelting in earlier centuries. The charcoal burners watched it day and night the whole time and compacted it again and again with an expert hand...
