Visiting Artist Lynne Meade

One of the fun things about running a community studio is inviting talented Bay Area ceramic artists to share their skills with our growing community of potters. With such a wealth of talent to draw from, the list is long. This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting Oakland artist Lynne Meade for a weekend workshop.

As a longtime fan of Lynne's work-- we have been friends and colleagues for almost 20 years-- I have watched her work morph and grow into what it is today: large wheel-thrown forms that are intricately pierced to the point where the form becomes a delicate, almost lace-like structure. We couldn't wait to get Lynn into the studio and have her share her techniques with us.

An intricately pierced form by Lynne Meade

Lynne demonstrating how she lays out the design of her pierced pots.

We had a group of 10 lucky participants in the class who came from as far away as Palo Alto to join the workshop. Lynn did not disappoint. She blew our minds not only with her step-by-step, geometrical and intensive process of laying out the design that will eventually become one of her signature pieces, but we couldn't get over the hundreds of cookie cutter shapes she had in dozens of shapes and sizes so she could get exactly the design she wants.

Just a small sampling of Lynne's many shape cutters along with a finished demo piece.

Lynne shows us how she trims these delicate pieces.

We spent a happy afternoon working on the pieces we all prepared for the workshop while Lynne patiently reminded us to take the time to plan our design before starting to pierce, and make sure there was plenty of space between each piercing so the clay could continue to support the structure. There's nothing like a studio full of people trying something new with their pottery, and with 9 people on the waitlist for this workshop, we will be having her back again sooner than later.

A happy afternoon of making pottery.

Explore more of Lynne's work on her website.