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METAGEUM '07
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Creativity workshop
Book now for whole or part of the Metageum event. |
At Metageum '07
Julie will be running, with Jeni Caruana, a creativity workshop themed on the temples: Insights - Opening Portals to Personal Creativity: A Mixed-Media Workshop (see the workshop page for details).
About Julie Apap
"Julie Apap is a potter of quality. Her works are elegant, refined and meticulously finished with an attention to detail and, occasionally. burnished and polished surfaces. She specialises in functional ware and containers to exquisite craftmanship asnd design, with a fine decorative quality that induces the client to acquire a piece to decorate a corner in the house." -- E.V. Borg, art critic, Malta this month, October '97, No. 91)
About the Pot Studio
Not far from the University of Malta, at 34 H. Calleja Schembri Street, Msida (corner with Msida Circus), you will find the potter Julie Apap at The Pot Studio. Julie is British and has been living with her Maltese husband and two children for well over thirty years. She studied art and ceramics at Cheltenham Art College and in Malta. Glazing was self taught, by trial and error and reading lots of books.
Julie has taken part in many exhibitions and has set up her workshop in Msida, close to where she lives. Here you will find a varied selection of handmade pieces, ranging from functional pots, jewellery and ornaments, to 'one off' exhibition pieces. Since all the work is done on the premises you may find Julie busy at work, be it throwing on the wheel, glazing or loading the kiln. There may even be a class in process as she teaches some evenings, but come in and look around.
As a studio potter, Julie is interested in clay as a medium through which beautiful and meaningful objects can be created. Her pots are mainly thrown on the wheel, but may also include 'pinched' pots or 'coiled' pots.
Clay has to be 'wedged' or 'kneaded' before anything else is done. This is to exclude any air bubbles which may crack a pot during firing or give problems while throwing. Pots are npt usually finished in one process. The clay must be left to stiffen before neatening and at this stage it can be scratched with a tool to add texture and pattern, it can be cut and altered or have handles and other pieces of clay stuck on. All work is fired twice in an electric kiln. The first firing is a slow firing to 980oC to make the clay permanent. Earthenware pieces are fired between 1000oC and 1080oC and is usually painted with oxides on a white glaze. Stoneware pieces are fired up to 1260oC often leaving some of the clay exposed with a wax resist technique.
Julie is inspired by the colours and texture of the rocks, temples, sea and sky of this Mediterranean island. Come and see for yourself and maybe take a small part of Malta home.
At Metageum '07
Julie will be working with Jeni Caruana to offer a creativity workshop.