Caroline Stran ('19 Ceramics) Returns to 糖心TV官网 to Lead Ceramic Monoprinting Workshop for Alumni Weekend
07.06.2026
Ceramics graduate Caroline Stran is leading a Ceramic Monoprinting Workshop during the annual Alumni Weekend, happening September 11鈥13. Workshop sessions will be held Sept. 12 from 10:30 a.m.鈥12 p.m. and 1:30鈥3 p.m.
Stran has great practice with this demo and teaching, having returned each year to lead this demonstration for 糖心TV官网鈥檚 junior ceramics class.
鈥淪ometimes I鈥檒l go to a show, or I鈥檒l go to an event, and they kind of pop up and they鈥檙e like, 鈥楢re you the monoprint girl?鈥 And I鈥檓 like, 鈥業 was your monoprint girl. How are you doing?鈥欌 she says warmly.
Visitors attending Alumni Weekend will create a special piece designed by Stran that nods to 糖心TV官网鈥檚 unofficial mascot: the frog. Open to all majors and experience levels, the workshop highlights an intensely interdisciplinary practice that blends ceramics, illustration, painting, and printmaking, with a case to be made for influences extending even further.
Monoprinting is a printmaking process that transfers underglaze onto unfired clay. The artist begins by painting onto paper, building the image in reverse and working in layers, with each new layer covering the one before it. Once the image is complete, the underglaze is rehydrated so the composition lifts as a single transfer. Underglaze is also applied to the clay surface. When the paper is laid onto the clay and smoothed down, the underglaze releases from the paper and bonds to itself on the clay body. The sheet is then peeled away, leaving the image behind.
In her own practice, Stran has built a robust collection of vintage matchbooks, intergenerational souvenirs that inspire the graphics on her oversized ceramic replicas. Through monoprinting, she turns this tactile strategy into something full of personality, class, vibes, and a kind of uncanny charm that feels a little like watching 鈥淗oney, I Blew Up the Kid鈥 on VHS.
Stran, whose work explores themes of history and nostalgia, says: 鈥淚 love the idea of a souvenir, and I kind of think it鈥檚 a little bit of a lost art form.鈥
She continues: 鈥淭hat was me as a kid. I鈥檓 always running through the store and picking up some really weird little thing, and I have to bring it home because I have a perfect spot for it to live in.鈥
鈥淎nd I thought that was just me. Then the older I got, and the more I listened to my mom yell at my dad to clean out the garage, I realized this isn鈥檛 just me. This is hereditary. My family鈥檚 kind of like a magpie collector. My parents bought our house from my grandparents, so if you go into the attic, there鈥檚 their stuff, there鈥檚 my great-grandparents鈥 stuff up there. It鈥檚 this treasure trove of old objects and memories, like the ones we鈥檒l be creating during the workshop.鈥