Next workshop 2005
MASTERS’ CLASS:
(*limited enrollment-slide required with application)
Advanced Kosai Ware:Exploring sculptural aspects and variations on application of the Kosai techniques.
The
distinctive application of precious metals combined with the Vapor glazing technique
discovered by Biz Littell is the most innovative and unique glaze and firing
process developed in our ceramic era. Biz Littell has perfected this process
with over thirty years experience in its refinement. The luxuriant results and
opulent colors of Kosai ware are unparalleled.
Biz Littell
is an internationally renowned artist, educator, and consultant whose works
have been collected on a world wide scale by individuals, corporations, and
museums. In addition to his accomplished career as an artist, Biz is also a
master teacher who is known for his animated enthusiasm. He has the uncanny
ability to quickly enable his students to take their own visions and stretch
them into artistic excellence. As a Professor of art, his career has spanned
teaching at Alfred University where he received his MFA and the Rhode Island
School of Design.
Biz is included
in the Who’s Who in American Art, The International Biography Centre in
Cambridge, England, The Best of Westword, and along with James Michener, is
honored in the Centennial Hall of Fame at the University of Northern Colorado.
He has authored The Potter’s Handbook: A Ceramic Reference Book, as well
as Notes from Biz Littell, a compendium of his accumulated ceramic knowledge.
His expansive knowledge and expertise has led to consultations for the United
Nations Affiliate in the Netherlands, Antilles, and Aruba as well as product
development for Mile Hi Ceramics and Grumbacher.
Kosai
Ware
Thirty years ago, Biz Littell, through his knowledge and fascination with glass,
discovered a way to capture the phenomenon known as Newton’s rings which
in nature creates the beautiful arch and colors we treasure in rainbows. With
this unique process which he discovered while a graduate student at Alfred University,
he is able to recreate this effect at will in the special ware which has now
come to be known as Kosai ware, literally translated from the Japanese as “hue
of light.” The effect, unlike raku, is archival and lends itself to modest
control for subtle variations. The unique applications of the technique are
as endless as there are firing modalities.
In an age
of mechanization and cyberspace where we sometimes lose sight of the true vibrancy
of our lives, our spirits, and even the natural world, Kosai ware serves to
remind us of the spectacular colors that indeed do naturally exist in our universe
and on earth....colors emphasized by understanding form, surface, and even “imperfections”
which ultimately becomes artistic expression.
Of his
work, Biz Littell says: “My work in clay for the past thirty-five years
is an accumulation of unique and experiential knowledge gathered from my expertise
in the technical and design aspects of being a glass as well as ceramic artist.
It is to the combination of the knowledge of these two mediums that I attribute
my personal sensitivity to form. Although I use the “vessel” as
a means of expression, I consider my work to be sculptural rather than functional
in concept....My art work is a reflection of the technical world in which we
live. Beneath the surface of the reflections and colors of our daily life, is
the familiar form in which we find the comfort and simplicity of life.”
Click
here for an application.
See
Biz ’s Photo Gallery.
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