Exploring Local Materials for Pottery (Copy)
with Hamish Jackson
Course Schedule:
3rd Saturdays // 3-5pm EST
Course Description:
This course is for anyone with an interest in using local materials. It’s appropriate for anyone from beginner potters to working professionals – students will just need to be curious and willing to learn. If you would like to do the homework assignments, you will need to have access to a kiln.
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?
The two-hour sessions will be roughly structured as follows: The first half of the session will begin with a lecture/presentation on a topic, followed by time for discussion. The second half will be focused on students' work and tests. Everyone will be encouraged to share and discuss what they are working on.
Registration opens October 19th at 10am Central Time
The course will explore (amongst other topics):
Geology for potters (knowing your materials)
Collecting materials (ethics, laws, methods)
Processing materials (from clay to rocks to wood ash to anything else you can think of) and making helpful tools
What is clay? (clay body formulation)
What is a glaze? (glaze formulation, eutectics, alumina/silica ratios, etc.)
Glaze testing (melt tests, line blends, triaxial blends and the grid method)
Firing (schedules, methods)
Problems (glaze flaws, clay flaws)
The course will also include:
Mentorship and advice about your work and tests (these will be ongoing through the year)
Guest lectures (at least two, given by professional potters who use local materials in their work … I have several in mind who I’m also very excited to learn from)
Reflection on your progress and plans for the future
What else?
The course will be structured around the topics above, but I am also flexible and open to adapting this if the group wants to dive deep into one particular area. The first half of the year-long course will be more information-heavy, laying the groundwork, and the second half of the year will focus more on students' personal work and tests. I will also be setting some homework tasks. These will be individualised, based on students’ interests and abilities.
I am very passionate about using local materials so am thrilled to be teaching this course. It should be a really fun year of exploration. Can’t wait to meet you and get started!
About Hamish
Halfway through his undergraduate literature degree, Hamish realized he wanted to become a potter. He started out at Winchcombe Pottery in England, then completed a four-year apprenticeship with Mark Hewitt in North Carolina, followed by an MFA at Utah State University.
Hamish is a studio potter, exhibiting and teaching across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and New Zealand. He focuses on using local materials in his work. Hamish seeks to make pots that people love to use and connect them to the landscapes where his materials come from.
Hamish is currently loving being back in the UK, managing the adult classes at the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall alongside his own potting out of Trencrom Hill.
