Carbon Ceramics with Alice Morey: A two-part workshop series
On Saturday 13 June and 4 July, E-WERK will host a free two-part carbon ceramics workshop with artist Alice Morey. The workshops center around the biochar produced by our power station and explore how this material can be used for ceramics. Through collective making and material experimentation, participants will learn about the properties of biochar while creating their own ceramic works.
Workshop 1 - Carbon Action
Saturday 13 June, 11:00–14:00
The first workshop is divided into two parts. In the first part, participants will work hands-on with clay, creating simple objects while experimenting with mixtures of clay and EW biochar. They will produce a series of small test pieces and gather textures and imprints from the surrounding garden and building. This phase is approached as an open, exploratory process inspired by Alice’s artistic practice.
In the second part, Alice will introduce biochar as a material through a guided explanation and presentation of her material tests. Participants will then be guided through the preparation of glaze recipes, including washing and processing the biochar so it can be used for glaze-making.
Workshop 2 - Carbon Fire
Saturday 4 July, 11:00–14:00
In the second workshop, participants will use the biochar-based glaze recipes developed during the first session to finish their ceramic pieces. Together, participants will take part in a collaborative raku firing session — a hands-on ceramic firing technique where pieces are heated in a gas kiln and removed while still hot to cool in the open air, producing unpredictable and unique surface effects.
Participants will be actively involved throughout the entire process, taking on different roles step by step: loading the raku kiln, removing pieces while hot, combusting them in wood chips, cooling, and finally washing the fired objects. At the end of the workshop, everyone will be able to take home their finished ceramic works.
Practical information
The workshops are free, accessible to all, and no prior experience is required. Both sessions will be conducted in English. Registration is required and spots will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis. Both workshops can be attended individually, but participants will only be able to glaze and complete the ceramic pieces made during the first session by attending the second as well.
E-WERK’s biochar
At E-WERK Luckenwalde, Kunststrom (“Art Power”) is produced through a wood gas pyrolysis process that generates renewable energy out of waste wood. One of the byproducts of this process is biochar, a carbon-rich material with a wide range of creative and practical applications.
Through workshops, artistic research, and collaborative experimentation, E-WERK aims to expand the awareness of the potential of biochar and encourage its use by artists, makers, gardeners, and local communities as a material for reuse, cultivation, and creative production.
Alice Morey (she/her) is a London-born artist who lives and works in Berlin. Working primarily as a painter, her practice expands into performance, textiles, glass, ceramics, and installation. Through layered processes of making, she engages with hidden and often unseen forms of labour, using self-produced and locally sourced materials such as pigments, ash, clay, and mineral residues to explore how time and memory become inscribed in surfaces. Morey is the founder of the alternative art residency CountdownGrabowsee at Heilstätte Grabowsee (est. 2012) and has led workshops at institutions in London at Camden Arts Centre, The Drawing Room & Saatchi Gallery, as well as working with Landesjugendring e.V & Berlin Mondiale in Berlin. She is also an active member of the community cooking and ceramics collective Bündnis Feuer & Flamme e.V, where she engages with shared practices of making, resourcefulness, and care. Since 2025, she has been a studio artist at E-Werk Luckenwalde, and has been researching alternative glazing methods using E-WERK’s byproduct biochar and other plant-based materials.
The carbon ceramics workshops by Alice Morey are part of the Creative Carbon Project, supported by Fonds Soziokultur, funded through the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.
