Experimental Urchin Glaze Workshop with Leila Al-Hemali 

Sunday, May 19, 12 - 3 pm
Mendocino Art Center

This 3-hour workshop will focus on making glaze using urchin tests and spines instead of commercially mined calcium carbonate. It is simultaneously a deep dive into calcium carbonate’s role in glaze chemistry and in ocean chemistry. As a potter, it is a chance to connect the story of your work to the story of kelp forest loss happening below the shore break in the Pacific Ocean. Leila will teach three different techniques she used to incorporate the kelp environment into her glazes during her ceramics residency at Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology. The workshop includes 3 small bisqued cylinders to glaze with the experimental glazes made during the workshop, and, for an additional fee, firing in a wood/soda kiln at the MAC. You are welcome to bring your own bisque-ware to glaze, being mindful of size.

Register online at the Mendocino Art Center

About Leila

Leila came to ceramics in 2019 with a background in environmental sciences. When she took her first ceramics class, she had no idea of clay’s ability to seep into one’s every pore, and become a true obsession. She grew up in Florida and, as an avid diver, considered the California kelp forests a bucket-list dive. When she learned about the staggering rate of kelp forest loss, Leila had the idea to try to use the urchin bodies as a replacement for commercially mined calcium carbonate. And, to her surprise, it worked! 

Leila daylights as a software engineer, working for a small company building interactive wildfire simulations in Santa Fe, New Mexico, often dreaming of the wide, gracious expanse of the Pacific Ocean from her home office. 

Mendocino Art Center
45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street
Mendocino, CA 95460