Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Studio Potter Linda Bowman to Demonstrate Hand-building with Porcelain at Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea

On Saturday, October 11, Studio potter Linda Bowman of Louisville will demonstrate hand building with porcelain from 10:30 – 3:30 at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

Linda Bowman studied pottery at the University of Louisville and at numerous workshops around the country. She works in porcelain, a clay body composed of white porcelain clay, feldspar and silica. These three ingredients together create a very white surface that fires very hard and the finished works are often translucent if thin and fired to temperatures of 2350º F or above.

Linda hand-builds her porcelain works by rolling out slabs of porcelain clay with a rolling pin and using them to build forms. Linda states, “I like the softness of porcelain and how it looks when the work is constructed with slabs of clay.” Linda likes to texture the smooth white porcelain with stamps or by sculpting textures and grooves into the porcelain with tools.

Linda also decorates her work by using sgraffitto, a technique of carving through a colored clay applied to the surface, down into the white porcelain below for contrasting imagery. She also creates raised surfaces by trailing a liquid version of the porcelain clay on the surface to create patterns. This technique is called ‘slip trailing’ with which one can use to create lettering, or pattern and texture on the surface of the porcelain.

Linda is also fond of Peruvian and South American ceramics and is influenced by the forms, flora and fauna found in these areas of the world. She explains: “South American cultures, and especially the Ecuadorian people, have always captured the images of animals and shapes from their day to day world in their pottery.” Linda is an animal lover as well, and her pottery often reflects animal imagery. She uses both colored slips and glazes to project these fanciful images and give contrasting colored interiors.

Works by Linda Bowman are regularly featured at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, located at 975 Walnut Meadow Road, just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from 100 counties across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site  www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet.