Lucianne Lassalle Clay Modelling Workshops

New workshop In July!

Study the Model in Clay
Workshop with Lucianne Lassalle
17th, 18th, 19th, July
10.00 - 4.00

Cost : £150 for Tutoring, life model and lunch
Modelling stands & tools provided
Clay £10 a bag (you can bring your own if you wish)

At: Wallaceton Village Hall
Wallaceton, Dunscore Dumfries

To book please send a cheque to Lassalle Art & Design Ltd.
Laurieston house pottery, Wallaceton, Dunscore, Dumfries DG2 0TG

To be sure of a place book ASAP!
There are a couple of spaces still available for the August 19th - 23rd class contact me for details 01387 820472

The workshops will be focused, creative and intensive, for students to gain a good working understanding of the human form, Looking at basic structure and proportion, we will work directly in clay, making clay sketches from the model and then working on a longer pose for more in depth study. There will be flexibility for students who wish to move from direct representational interpretation to creating their own expressive or abstracted interpretation of the human form.

Please check my website for future courses www.luciannelassalle.co.uk/workshops.htm

Lucianne was exhibiting at Studio 29 on the Blue route

From Studio 22 on the blue route

Post Spring fling report from Kathleen Woods, painter at Studio 22 on the Blue route....


I had the best Spring Fling ever.

Approx 350 visitors came up Shinnel Glen over the three days and it was lovely being able to discuss the work with them. They were all lovely people and knowing that they were there especially to see the Open Studios was a great thrill. Happily the sun shone on Sunday and Monday so the garden was well used too. My daughter Diane helped make the teas and coffees and didn’t stop baking for two days so that was also a huge success.

I had been working hard with a big help from a friend to get the garden more than tidied up for the weekend and put the finishing touches to it on the Friday. I absolutely love it and after being here for four years it now feels like home.

All in all it really gave me the incentive to keep doing what I love. Painting.

From Studio 21. . .

Sculptor Jennifer Watt from Studio 21 on the Blue Route sent these lovely images from the weekend to the Spring Fling blog.

Doesn't this sum up the feeling at the end of the Spring Fling weekend! Thanks Jennifer.

Jason Shackleton Studio 29

On thursday this week I was able to spend the day with Jason Shackleton, studio 29 on the Blue Route at his pottery in Laurieston for a glaze firing of his kiln. I spent about eighteen months working as an apprentice to Jason and have since been making my own pots from my own studio. The time I spent with Jason was invaluable and I still have an enormous amount to learn from him hence I was back there this week. This kiln is huge and holds a good eighteen months worth of Jason's highly decorated slipware and majolica pottery and takes him around three days to pack before the firing. It was built at a time when the pottery was employing a couple of other potters and at that time it was being fired between four and six times a year. This particular kiln was first fired on 13th May 1984 making it just 25 years since that initial firing.
Around three tons of wood are used over the 14 hour firing the flames from the wood licking over the pots in the chamber to give them their characteristic wood fired finish.


An eight foot long firebox on the kiln means that wood which arrives in eight foot long bundles need not be cut making one less job, saving lots of time and meaning that the wood doesn't need to be handled as many times during the process. The photo above is quite early on in the firing with the two lower fire boxes being gradually built up with a deep bed of embers before the top door is opened and wood is fed into the top section too.

Visitors over the Spring Fling weekend will be able to feast their eyes on Jason's fabulous display of pots and tile panels in the two display areas within the pottery as well as being able to enjoy Lucianne Lassalle's sculptures and the kiln shed and the orchard - remember to allow plenty of time to be able to take it all in.

The subject matters that Jason works with on his predominately functional pots have included the atomic bombs, space, an ongoing interest with predators and sea creatures which stems from spending time in the Bahamas as a child. He likes to take a simple idea and see how far he can run with it in a random direction saying that unless you can work in a progressive manner you get tired and then you get tired pots and it will show.

For example wouldn't supermarkets love it if fish grew in oblongs so that they would be ready to stack one of the results is in the photo above. Or the Boomerang Squid of course then you don't have to go out to try to catch them as they come straight back to you.

So a five day wait now for the kiln to cool and then the unloading can begin. All being well, the firing seemed to go very smoothly and according to schedule so fingers crossed it's a good one, the results will be there in their newly finished glory for all to see at the Spring Fling weekend. Pop along and see for yourself.

By Hannah McAndrew, Studio 50 Red Route.

Sculpture Workshops

Lucianne Lassalle - Studio 29 on the Blue Route - Born in Paris, she has traveled widely working and exhibiting in Canada, USA, Europe, London, and the South East and South West. Recently she moved to Dumfries Scotland and will be exhibiting for the first time at Spring Fling (sharing studio space with the potter Jason Shackleton).

As well as being a full time sculptor, she runs 6 weekend workshops a year working from the model in clay. These are informal classes studying a life model, each student working at their own pace, class sizes between 8 and 12 students. Workshops are suitable for all students from absolute beginner to the more experienced.

Lucianne is also running a residential workshop in Tuscany 18th - 27th June 2009......

A Residential Sculpture Workshop and a Taste of Beautiful Tuscany, Italy!!
At 'La Meridiana' an International Ceramic Centre and 15th century farmhouse in the Tuscan hills. Clay studios, kilns and equipment, good food, wine and company
"The workshops will be focused, creative and intensive, for students to gain a good working understanding of the human form. We will work in clay directly, making clay sketches from the model and then working on a longer pose for more in depth study. There will be flexibility for students who wish to move from direct representational interpretation to creating their own expressive or abstracted interpretation of the human form."

Please contact Lucianne for more details or see her website under Workshops and Courses (linked via her name above)