Sawing, piercing and riveting oh my! Beginning techniques and creative concepts
This course is designed to guide students through some of the beginning techniques of metalsmithing. Sawing, piercing, riveting, chasing and repousee, forging and forming are some beginning techniques, these can also create some very complex forms. Riveting will allow students to incorporate alternative materials and expand their ideas.
Diving Deep and Blasting Off: From Rocket Kilns to Rockin' Pots!
This course will serve as an online deep-dive series of lectures and round table discussions covering everything from rocket kiln design and construction to approaches in the use of soda and salt, slips and glazes and the myriad of techniques, possibilities and considerations that might guide or inform rocket and other alternative wood fire processes, to enable the achievement of your desired results.
Thinking Through Atmosphere
In this class, it is my goal to get to know each of you, and your atmospheric interests and goals. We will utilize this year-long class format to discuss all the aspects that lead into completing our wares, and how the atmosphere in our final firing can support our intentions. Just like a kiln load, the assembly of our class interests will greatly affect the outcome of dialog and discussions we have surrounding atmospheric firing. Beginners are welcome!
Sculpture in Clay: Developing Your Own Project
This course is designed to guide students through the entire process of creating ceramic sculpture — from the initial concept to the finished piece. Students will develop individual projects, choosing their studio practices while thoroughly exploring the material properties and expressive potential of clay as a sculptural medium.
Hinge it, set it, fix it, wear it, or not!
This course is ideal for those who have a foundation in jewelry making and are looking to expand their skills. We’ll dive into hinge making and the many applications of how you can incorporate a hinge, or hinge like movement into your work. Be it lidded containers, some lovely dangle earrings or a large neck piece. An open and close, a little movement, lets plan that out to get you the movement and closure you need in your work.
Slab Built Pottery: Boosting Confidence in Creating and Reproducing Unique Designs
This comprehensive course is designed for individuals seeking to refine their slab-building techniques and confidently develop unique, functional forms.
The Architecture of Surface: Glaze Development, Digital Craft, and Studio Practice
This twelve month intensive course is designed for makers seeking to learn about glaze chemistry, build better studio practices, learn about mixing, testing, and growing with your glazes while cultivating individualized surface vocabulary. Move beyond blind recipe following and understand the why so you can create with intent through active research.
Clay and Context: 20th Century Ceramic History
Do you feel like your grasp of recent ceramic history could use a tune up? Are there historical rabbit holes that you could use a nudge to enter?
This online class focuses on the history and evolution of ceramics in the 20th Century to show the innovations that made our present world possible. We’ll examine the effects of potters like Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada but also trends in the decorative arts like Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The course will be taught from within the Everson Museum of Art, which served as a launching pad for nearly every prominent ceramic artist of the 20th century.
PLAY-Surfacing Galore! Mid-range electric fired surfacing techniques
Join Didem Mert (she/they) to learn different ideas/ways of thinking about surfacing your pieces in wet, leather hard, and the bisque stages! Bring pizzazz, color, design, and POP that surface deco)!
In this course we will learn how to work backwards- understanding your sense of style and what you’d like to achieve in terms of a finished piece and how we can work backwards from that.
Crafting a Career: Vision, Voice & Visibility
Are you ready to take your creative practice to the next level—but aren’t sure where to begin? Join Deb Schwartzkopf for a year-long, monthly series designed to help you build the professional skills you need to thrive as a ceramic artist.
Through practical tools, guided exercises, and open conversation, you’ll learn how to define your voice, present your work with confidence, and move your artwork out of the studio and into the world. Each session will explore key areas of artistic development—from writing an effective artist statement and photographing your work, to dialing in a compelling website and setting achievable long-term goals.
Drawing for Artists
Join artist and life-long drawing enthusiast Claire Joyce in an exploration of materials, process, and visual thinking. The class will be playful, each meeting will adapt and change according to the needs and ideas of the students and encourage a rethinking of how drawing can be used.
Making Dynamic Molds
Have you ever wanted to step up your mold making game? Do you know how to work with plaster, but just can’t get the process as dialed in as you want? Do you have an idea for something to cast but can’t figure out how to make the mold? Have you ever wanted to make something in clay and can’t figure out how to make clay do that thing? Do you tend to think of mold making as too rigid and not flexible enough of a process? Well this is that continuum for you!
Deep Dive into Decorative Enameling Techniques
This continuum will focus on various traditional and experimental vitreous enameling techniques on metal.
The goals for the year include developing a broader and deeper knowledge base in decorative enameling techniques, perfecting and applying that understanding of those processes to achieve specific, successful results based on your ideas.
Building Large: Strategies for Scaling Up in Clay
Creating large-scale clay sculpture and pots becomes much more approachable with thoughtful planning and technique. This class will cover essential considerations to make scaling up a successful and rewarding process.
Exploring Local Materials for Pottery
In this year-long course, we will dig in (pun absolutely intended) to using all sorts of local materials for pottery. This is a huge topic with endless possibilities. Practically any rock or mineral where you live could be used in a clay body or glaze recipe. We will be testing materials in different ways to try and discover the best of them. How can we use what is around us? How can we tweak what we have to produce results we love?