Vitrification workshop with Max Lamb, Fred Herbst and Corning Museum of Glass will introduce wood as a third ‘fundamental’ material in the creation of ceramic and glass objects, extending its value beyond simply use as a fuel.
* Wood as a tool – for rolling, pressing, embossing, or sketching into the wet clay.
* Wood as a mould – for glass blowing and clay moulding.
* Wood as an object – to compliment the glass and clay objects, for example a ceramic cup and a wooden saucer, a ceramic bowl and a wooden spoon, a glass vessel with a wooden lid, a wooden pestle and a ceramic mortar, etc.
 
In September, 2009, a unique type of wood-fired kiln was constructed and fired at the Domaine de Boisbuchet. This kiln uses carbon-neutral waste wood fuel to simultaneously fire ceramics and melt glass for glassblowing. The design references traditional wood-fired techniques and, at the same time, provides a contemporary sustainable approach to high temperature ceramics and glass production.

In this course, students work with instructors to utilize local clay materials and inspiration from the Domaine de Boisbuchet to create ceramic objects. Students will also design glass pieces to be created during the kiln firing. The group will experience the intersection of ceramics and glassblowing by helping to load the kiln and by working in shifts to continually stoke the kiln over the course of two days. The firing uses locally sourced wood fuel to reach temperatures in excess of 1,300 degrees C. Participants gain insight into the processes of firing ceramics and glass, while working both with ancient and cutting-edge techniques.

Max Lamb (UK) was born in St Austell, Cornwall in 1980 – an upbringing that gave him a zest for nature, outdoor activities and creativity. Inspiration grows from his desire to explore and re-contextualise both traditional and unconventional materials, exploiting their inherent qualities, and to reconsider the function of all objects. He aims to design products that are fun, inspired and inspiring, and stimulate positive interaction between product and user. Interaction develops product meaning and meaning improves product longevity. He tries to design products that possess a visual simplicity capable of communicating the obvious. Recently his work has as much been about communication of my explorations as it has been about the exploration itself.
There is something he has grown to understand about the relationship between objects and people. The quality and he guess longevity of such relationships depend almost entirely upon a person’s engagement with and understanding of the object. This of course depends on the quality and integrity of the object, but this is why he choose the processes and materials he does, and manipulate them in the way he does. The communication process lets people into a secret and hopefully captivates them.

Fred Herbst (US) is currently a Professor of Art, teaching Ceramics, 3-Dimensional Design, and Art History, at Corning Community College in Corning, New York, USA. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. Since 2000, Fred’s wood-fired stoneware and porcelain objects have been shown in more than 60 exhibitions across the USA and has had his work published in a number of books and magazines. He has built two wood-fired kilns for the Ceramics program at Corning Community College. The first was an “anagama” type kiln based on ancient Japanese wood-fired kilns. The second kiln was developed in collaboration with Steve Gibbs and Lewis Olson from the Corning Museum of Glass and is used to fire ceramics and melt and blow glass simultaneously. Fred’s personal website is
www.maxlamb.org
www.cmog.org
www.fredherbst.com


PRIMA MATERIA
Dates: 20 - 26 July 2014
Tutor(s): FORMAFANTASMA
Prices: From € 835 to € 1125 (incl. tuition, materials, food, accommodation)
 
 
In the past years sustainability has become one of the most central issues in design. But whereas designers initially faced environmental urgencies with a more didactic attitude, sustainability is now becoming an almost unconscious desire within the rediscovery and analyse of nature and our relationship with it.
While inherited knowledge and traditional or local techniques are reconsidered, nature and the organisation of its systems become again a great source of inspiration. Even on an aesthetic level, crafted and organic details constitute a new trend and colours, for example, are used more and more in pallets of bird’s plumage or leaves.?New systems of visualising natural phenomena are leading to textures and patterns on textiles proposing a new idea of mimesis that is influenced by biology. On a material level the search for naturalness is translated into new polymers obtained from cereals, starch, orange skin and even chicken feathers.
 
If this can lead to speculate a new form of industrial revolution, where the idea of the man-made ambiguously moves towards the nature-made and objects will be lab-grown similar to plants or organs, we could think of a more dystopian scenario in the same time. Nature will be turned into designed products, perfect and efficient in order to serve as food, biofuel and a source of bio materials. Farmers could become a new, powerful lobby – and bio diversity would get lost.
Considering this framework, our workshop encourages the participants to develop concepts and small models or prototypes with “the real” as their source. Boisbuchet’s landscape will be literally harvested in our search of colours, materials, textures and inspiration for new production processes.
Andrea Trimarchi (1983) and Simone Farresin (1980) are  Studio Formafantasma – two Italian designers based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.?The collaboration between the two started during their BA in communication design, illustrating books and magazines. Their interest in product design developed on the IM masters course at Design Academy Eindhoven, where they graduated in July 2009 with a thesis based on traditional Sicilian folk craft.?Formafantasma’s work explores such issues as the role of design in folk craft, the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to sustainability and the significance of objects as cultural conduits.?They identify their role as the bridge between craft, industry, object and user and seek to stimulate a more critical and conceptual design dialogue through their work.?In march 2011 Studio Formafantasma has been nominated by Alice Rawsthorn, design critic of the International Herald Tribune and New York Times and Paola Antonelli, design curator of the MOMA in NY, as the 1 of the 20 most promising young design studio.
Homepage : www.formafantasma.com
Visit their latest collection De Natura Fossilium
 
GRAVITY
Dates: 20 – 26 July 2014
Tutor(s): Sebastian Bergne
Prices: From € 835 to € 1125 (incl. tuition, materials, food, accommodation)
 
Gravitation, or gravity, is the natural phenomenon by which all physical bodies attract each other.?This workshop will explore the effects and implications of gravity on our created and natural environment. Through this exploration, participants will be directed toward creating objects, structures or environments that express, utilise or react to gravity as an idea or actual physical force.
 
British Industrial designer Sebastian Bergne is renown for making everyday objects special with his essential and human approach to design.?Sebastian’s versatility allows him and his team to work in different ways. As an external Industrial design facility to international brands, as a designer and supplier of bespoke objects for restaurants, retailers and individuals or even as producer of his growing collection of personal editions.
Having graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1990, he founded his studio in the same year. His achievements have since been widely recognised with international design awards, frequent publication, exhibitions and inclusion in museum collections such as The Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Design Museum (London). His wealth of experience makes him sought after as a curator, lecturer and commentator on design.

C.I.R.E.C.A.
Domaine de Boisbuchet
F-16500 Lessac
+33 (0)5-45896700
info@boisbuchet.org
www.boisbuchet.org
http://www.boisbuchet.org