Anne Gordon Vega began working with clay in high school and continued
at MDCC. After studying with Adrianne Hetherington at CLM, Anne
has become a professional tile designer and a juried artist.
Tile Inlayed Bench with Anne Gordon-Vega
With your ideas and Anne's expert guidance you will create a one of a kind tile piece that will be professionally laid in a concrete bench. Over a six week period you will design and layout your image onto tile. Anne will instruct you on how to apply glaze by "bottling" it onto your tile for a very unique finish.
Hand-Carved Tile Class
This class requires no prior expierence in clay.
In this class I will teach students how to create colorful, hand-carved tiles for use in small murals, picture or mirror frames, small table tops or anything else the student would like to tile.
Our first session will be used to decide on a project and design, and to roll out the clay for the tiles on a slab roller. Please bring any photos, catalogs or magazines with ideas for a design with you. I have several books with ideas available to the students also. You are asked to bring any clay tools you may have, but if you don't have any, I will be happy to lend out mine.
Session 2 & 3 will be spent transposing our design to the slabs of clay and continuing on to hand-carve and texturize the tiles to create our own unique pieces. Clay work will be completed by the end of class three so that the tiles may be bisque fired between weeks 3 and 4.
Sessions # 4, 5 & 6 are used to glaze the tiles with trasparent, colorful, low fire glazes. If you have any small, soft paint brushes, please bring them with you to these last 3 classes. Upon completion of the glazing process, I will fire the tiles in the kiln, which is the final step in creating your own masterpiece.
All materials needed to complete the tiles will be provided for you in this class. Please join us for some fun conversation and beautiful creativity.
Raku Class
No previous expierence is required for this class.
In this class I will take you through the exciting process of raku firing clay. Raku is an ancient Japanese techinque of firing clay and was developed for use in the historic "Tea Ceremony". We Americans have kicked it up a notch, and fire sculpture, tiles and pots using this techinique in very fun, but unconventional ways.
Beginning in week one and continuing for the next 2 sessions, you will learn various techniques in hand-building, sculpture, tile making, pinch pots, coil pots or even extrusion to create your pieces in clay. I like for my students to create what they choose... and am happy to help them achieve their goal. Please bring any ideas with you, but don't fret if you can't come up with something. I will be happy to give you a specific project if you aren't sure of what you'd like to do.
Sessions 4, 5, & 6 are when we begin glazing and raku firing our pieces. Using proper safety equipment, we will fire the pieces in a gas kiln to approx. 1700 degrees where they are immediatley removed to a container filled with combustible materials. This is where the magic takes place.... fire, heat and smoke play their part in creating crackling and flashing in the metallic glazes we've used. It's always exciting and surprising to open the containers to see the results of our work. One of my favourite phrases concerning raku is "instant gratification", as we have our completed pieces right then to take home the day we fire. Please come join us for some adrenaline rushing excitment and fun with raku.
With your ideas and Anne's expert guidance you will create a one of a kind tile piece that will be professionally laid in a concrete bench. Over a six week period you will design and layout your image onto tile. Anne will instruct you on how to apply glaze by "bottling" it onto your tile for a very unique finish. 
No previous expierence is required for this class.
Sessions 4, 5, & 6 are when we begin glazing and raku firing our pieces. Using proper safety equipment, we will fire the pieces in a gas kiln to approx. 1700 degrees where they are immediatley removed to a container filled with combustible materials. This is where the magic takes place.... fire, heat and smoke play their part in creating crackling and flashing in the metallic glazes we've used. It's always exciting and surprising to open the containers to see the results of our work. One of my favourite phrases concerning raku is "instant gratification", as we have our completed pieces right then to take home the day we fire. Please come join us for some adrenaline rushing excitment and fun with raku.