Schaffner Atelier
My pottery studio is located in the open countryside on the Chianti hills a few kilometers from the town of San Casciano in Val di Pesa, where I was born. The nature in which the studio is immersed, its charm and its countless sounds make it an ideal space to create, in peace, harmony, tranquility, concentrating and connecting hands, heart and mind. This studio is the space where I create my ceramics but also the school for pottery courses, a fully equipped space that you can use alone in Open Studio mode and a chance to just fire your homemade works.
Open Studio
Work independently in my Atelier without my supervision. A peaceful and super-equipped space where you can create your own pieces using professional equipment including wheels, modeling tools and many glazes of my own invention.
REQUIREMENT: Previous experience or at least one month of course in this studio.
HOURS: Tuesday morning 9:00-13:00h
PRICE:
- single entrance (1 entrance of 4h): 40 euros
- monthly subscription (4 entrances of 4h each): 100 euros
- quarterly subscription (12 entrances of 4h each): 285 euros
Prices do not include clay and firing which, if desired, can be provided by the atelier.
Conditions:
Single entrance can be purchased at will according to availability.
As regards the monthly and quarterly subscriptions, entrances must be used in that specific month/quarter, for example, if you subscribe on the Tuesday morning of November, entrances will correspond to 4 consecutive Tuesday mornings of November only. If you are unable to come to an Open Studio, upon informing me, you will be able to make up the entrance during the month/quarter depending on the availability. It will not be possible to make up entrances in the following month/quarter unless you also purchase the subscription for the following month/quarter.
Firing Services
You can fire your pieces made at home using the kilns of my studio choosing between electric or gas kiln according to your preferences.
ELECTRIC KILN
BISQUE (980 ° C)
Full kiln (64 liters): 20 euros
Half kiln (32 liters): 10 euros
HIGH TEMPERATURE (1181 ° C - Cone 4)
Full kiln (64 liters): 25 euros
Half kiln (32 liters): 15 euros
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GAS KILN (LPG)
BISQUE (980 ° C)
Full kiln (200 liters): 100 euros
Half kiln (100 liters): 65 euros
HIGH TEMPERATURE (1280 ° C - Cone 10)
Full kiln (200 liters): 150 euros
Half kiln (100 liters): 90 euros
My glazes
The glazes of my studio are not from industry, but developed by me. I formulate them starting directly from raw materials (oxides). The final result is a balance between chemistry and art, because depending on many variables, from the proportions between elements, to the temperature, the atmosphere, the firing speed, passing through the impurities and the types of clay.
In short, some of my glazes have many hours of research and study, countless tests and above all a lot of time and patience. But when I finally reach the desired glaze, it is a huge satisfaction!
Recently I have also started research with local products such as different types of ash and earth.
All this makes my works unique!
Curiosity: “the eyes deceive”. The glazes color before and after firing differs completely, for example a glaze that is pink before firing, once fired can turn into blue, green or other colors that have nothing to do with the initial color.
Here we recycle!
In this pottery studio, everything is recycled from clay to glazes!
As far as possible I try not to throw anything away, not just for an economic issue (sometimes recycling is more expensive than simply throwing something away), but above all for the environment.
Until clay is fired, it can be reused indefinitely. It is sufficient to break it and rehydrate it.
During the glazing process, a small part of glaze is often lost. Just think of cleaning the tools or the excess of glaze used. These residues, even if minimal, are collected until they reach a sufficient quantity and from them a new glaze is created which has the characteristic of being unique and unrepeatable because the proportions between the elements cannot be reconstructed.
