Renowned Ceramics Artist
Martha Grover
Undulating Functional Forms
A Thrown & Altered Porcelain Demonstration
Saturday & Sunday March 01-02, 2025
8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Punta Gorda Woman’s Club
118 Sullivan Street
Punta Gorda, Florida
Discover the idiosyncrasies of working with porcelain on and off the wheel as Martha Grover demonstrates how to make her signature undulating functional forms. Martha will share her special throwing and altering techniques that exploit this elegant and sensuous material’s best qualities. Working with a variety of bottomless wheel-thrown forms and slabs in both the soft and leather-hard stages, Martha will demonstrate various altering techniques and additions of slabs, handles, and spouts to create an assortment of functional forms. Forms will include cups, bowls, vases, pitchers, lidded forms, and baskets. Martha will also talk about her sources of inspiration, philosophy of making, and studio practices.
Location
Workshop will take place at the Punta Gorda Woman's Club, 118 Sullivan Street Punta Gorda, FL 33950. This historic building is located in beautiful downtown Punta Gorda, and is within walking distance of local hotels, restaurants, and the waterfront. The Woman’s Club is less than four miles from the Punta Gorda airport, serviced by Allegiant Airlines. Participants can also fly into Fort Myers Airport, which is less than an hour drive to Punta Gorda.
Room Share – For those interested in a room share, please contact Chris Colle (Chris.SWFLPottersGuild@gmail.com) and she will match you up with another participant.
Schedule
Saturday and Sunday, March 01 and 02, 2025
Continental Breakfast 8:30 a.m.
Demonstration 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
- Included each day:
Continental Breakfast
Lunch
Beverages (soda, water, coffee)
Breaktime Snacks
If you have any dietary restrictions, please contact Chris Colle: Chris.SWFLPottersGuild@gmail.com
Cost
The cost of this Saturday and Sunday workshop is $200.00 for Guild members and $235.00 for non-members. Enrollment is limited to 50 participants.
Refund Policy
Please purchase conscientiously. If you need to cancel your reservation, a full refund, minus 20% processing fee, will be returned to you. Refunds are available until February 14th. After February 14th, this event is non-refundable.
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Martha Grover is known for wheel-thrown and altered and/or slab-built porcelain tableware and other functional pottery. Grover’s decorative technique includes the use of pastel to white glazes that typically feature iron-rich spatters in key areas of her undulated vessel work. Work is fired in an electric kiln.
Grover’s work is highly altered in the wet stage. Her altering process uses ribs, water, and sponges in the reshaping process for curves in vessel walls. Signature forms include stand-alone and wall mounted perfume bottles, vases, tulipieres, boxes, and baskets.
Artist Statement
I seek to enhance the experience of interacting with functional objects. I work toward creating a sense of elegance for the user while in contact with each porcelain piece. Reminiscent of orchids, flowing dresses, and the body, the work has a sense of familiarity and preciousness.
Direct curves are taken from the female figure, as well as the fluidity of a dancer moving weightlessly across the floor. The space between elements is electrified with anticipation and tension. I think of the fluid visual movement around a piece, as a choreographer would move dancers across a stage. Transmitting desire - there is a sense of revealing and concealing, a layering of details that serves to catch our attention immediately and then the details draw us in, to make a closer inspection.
In our lives, we often move past the objects surrounding us at a very quick pace. My work generates a moment to pause. My goal is to create an undeniable presence, one that acts as an invitation to explore the work thoroughly, taking time to know all of its many facets. Only through sustained interaction we can truly know and appreciate someone or something.
Artist Bio
Martha Grover is a functional potter, living in Bethel Maine, creating thrown and altered porcelain pieces. She attended Bennington College, where she received her undergraduate degree in Architecture. After a fifth year in ceramics at Syracuse University, Martha went on to receive her MFA in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. After graduate school, she was awarded multiple residencies and fellowships including the Fogelberg Fellowship at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Sage Scholarship and Taunt Fellowship at the Archie Bray Foundation , and a yearlong residency at Red Lodge Clay Center. Her work can be found at many galleries across the country. Her work has been published in Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, Pottery Making Illustrated, 500 Pitchers, 500 Platters and Chargers, and 500 Vases. It was the cover feature of Ceramic Monthly’s May 2010 issue.
