Gay Smith

Working Wet

Gay Smith will demonstrate ways of altering the form and surface of freshly thrown pots. Pots made in this way can look spontaneous and animated, reflecting the process of working with wet clay. Porcelain clay will be used in the demonstration, but these techniques may be used just as well with stoneware and earthenware. Squaring, ovaling, fluting, and faceting will be shown. And finishing the pots will include trimming, cutting, and adding feet and handles. Gay will also show slides.

About Gay Smith

Gay Smith, aka Gertrude Graham Smith, is a studio potter educated at Harvard University, the Findhorn Foundation, and Penland School. She single fires porcelain ware in a soda kiln near Penland School in the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina. She held artist-in-residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana and at Penland School in Penland, NC. Her teaching credits include workshops at Penland School, the Harvard Ceramics Studio, Baltimore Clayworks, and the Findhorn Foundation in Northern Scotland. Her work is shown internationally, and can be viewed in publications including Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper, and Working with Clay by Susan Peterson.