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At Scale: Coil-Built Ceramic Sculpture

with Ebitenyefa Baralaye

Next session: June 27th to July 1st, 2025

$600 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

Coil-building is a foundational ceramic hand-building process with principles used to make things that encompass pottery, sculpture, and even architecture. The techniques taught will lean heavily on understanding materiality (clay), the sensitivity of touch, and ideas of structure. In this workshop, students will engage all three of these elements; learning how to coil-build an array of forms, volumes, and structures as ceramic sculpture. In this amazing workshop, issues of intention, scale, and exploration of form will be shared.

Ebitenyefa Baralaye is a Detroit-based ceramicist, sculptor, designer, and educator. His work explores cultural, spiritual, and material translations of objects, text, bodies, and symbols interpreted through a diaspora lens and abstracted around the aesthetics of craft and design. He studied at Rhode Island School of Design and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Baralaye has exhibited at David Klein Gallery, Friedman Benda Gallery, and the Korea Ceramic Foundation, among others. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

Course Fee: $500 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Pouring Vessels with a Pinch of Soda: Mechanics & Inspiration

with Tyler Gulden

Next session: June 13th to 17th, 2025

$615 More Info

Some experience is useful

From the whimsical to the austere, pouring vessels have an outsized place in the pantheon of pottery forms. Using wheel throwing and handbuilding, this intensive workshop will include demonstrations and hands-on work to address creating spouts and handles for all varieties of pottery forms.  Tyler will demonstrate sectional-throwing to increase scale, tips for creating new solutions to age-old questions of how to finish pieces with the additional complexity of appendages, and ways to prepare work for a high-temperature soda firing. Discussions about pottery design, craftsmanship, function, and inspiration will bring new ideas to the table. A soda firing is planned.

Tyler Gulden is a potter from mid-coast Maine. He received a BFA from Alfred University, a MFA from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and has been a studio potter for over 25 years. His pursuits in ceramics have included production pottery experience, residencies at Peters Valley Craft Center and Genessee Pottery, and positions as a studio technician at UMass Dartmouth and studio assistant to Chris Gustin. A passionate advocate for the crafts, Tyler has shared his knowledge and passion as a maker during twelve years as an administrator at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, through many workshops and teaching positions, as well as roles as a member artist and President of the Maine Crafts Association.

Course Fee: $500 + $75 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Big Burn: General Mayhem

with Bruce Dehnert and Steve Cook

Next session: September 12th to 16th, 2025

$760 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner - Advanced

If you love to fire and achieve heaps of different surface effects, or are short on atmospheric firing experience, this intensive workshop is for you. Come participate in a variety of firings and see how each approach can inform your ideas and work. Participants will fire soda, wood, gas reduction, raku, and the always colorful pit. Emphasis is placed on glaze/surface preparation and firing techniques. This popular workshop is an exciting, information and results driven experience with demonstrations, lectures, and hands-on participation. You bring the bisque-ware, and we will fuel your ideas with heat, atmosphere, and enjoyment.

Bruce Dehnert has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and MFA from Alfred University. He has taught at Hunter College and Parsons School of Art and Design, The School of Art [New Zealand], the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, UMASS Dartmouth, and workshops in New Zealand, China, Japan, Canada, and India. His awards include three Fletcher Challenge International Ceramics Awards, a New Jersey Artist Fellowship, the Settlor Prize in Sculpture, and a Carnegie Premier Award for Works on Paper. His work is held in numerous collections including The Crocker Museum, the Yixing Museum of Ceramic Art, The New Dowse Museum, and The White House [Washington, DC]. Dehnert has written articles for journals including, Studio Potter, Ceramics Monthly, and Ceramics: Art and Perception and co-authored Simon Leach’s Pottery Handbook for Abrams. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and is Head of Ceramics at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts.

Steve Cook pursues an aesthetic life’s “sweet spot” of beauty, experience, value and meaning from his current home in San Diego. Steve earned a BA in Sculpture (figure and installation) from Penn State, studying abroad in Taipei at Fu Ren University and National Taiwan University. He earned an MFA in Film (essayistic experimental documentary filmic installation) from CalArts. Steve has worked and taught in a wide variety of media and for surprisingly diverse industries in the US, Asia and Africa, for the past 40 years, earning both awards and condemnation.

Course Fee: $600 + $120 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Waiting list available
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Twining Baskets with Waxed Linen Thread

with Cael Chappell

Next session: August 8th to 11th, 2025

$490 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Join us for a four-day basket weaving workshop with award winning weaver Cael Chappell! This hands-on experience will take you on a creative journey, where you'll learn the art of twined basketry using waxed linen thread. Each day will be filled with in-depth instruction to create unique, personalized baskets. Cael's expertise and passion will guide you through the process, from planning your project to completing beautiful baskets. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned weaver, this workshop promises to be an enriching experience.

Cael Chappell has been working with basket weavers in Africa since 1991. In 2017 he started weaving his own baskets. Because of his deep understanding of basketry, he quickly developed his own unique style of whimsical weaving. His baskets exhibit personality and life which engages viewers. His work has been featured in many exhibitions and publications. Cael enjoys teaching and is writing a book on twining baskets with waxed linen thread. He has presented many lectures to weaving guilds and groups across the country.

Course Fee: $400 + $50 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Color Theory Primer

with Daniel Lloyd-Miller

Next session: July 5th, 2025

$170 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

A one day workshop covering all you could want to learn about color, and then a little bit more. No matter where your interests in color lie, this workshop will be an in-depth exploration of this essential element of the creative arts. The workshop will cover what color is and how we use it. Its glorious history and function will be the subject of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on workshopping. While this is a painting focused workshop, the underlying principles color are transferable to other mediums. Come join the fun in this place of bountiful summer color.

Daniel Lloyd-Miller is a painter concerned with place and working from observation. He carefully chooses places to paint in order to harmonize and better understand them. This act of delving into and absorbing a particular place promotes an intensity of experience. He's currently exploring motifs of ‘visibility’ in addition to acute life-paintings of people on the train and other vignettes. Originally from Vermont, Daniel received his BFA degree from Mass Art, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked in Japan and France and has exhibited in multiple solo and group shows. Currently, Lloyd-Miller teaches painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Course Fee: $100 + $30 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Explorations in Natural Paints, Dyes & Pigments

with Patricia Miranda

Next session: August 15th to 18th, 2025

$490 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

This workshop is an exploration of color using natural dyes and pigments. Participants will create color from raw materials such as cochineal, malachite, clay, oak gall, and black walnuts, for use in a diverse group of water-based binders, from gum arabic to distemper to egg tempera. We will explore the potentials of color, and how materials carry content through history, context, physical and aesthetic properties. Considerations of the environmental impact of materials will offer a framework for maintaining a sustainable safe painting practice. Participants will create a set of handmade watercolor paints, a color swatch book, and exploratory paintings on paper, textile, and panel.

Patricia Miranda is an artist, curator, educator, and founder of “The Lace Archive,” “The Crit Lab,” and “MAPSpace.” Grants include the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Arts Westchester, Anonymous Was a Woman Relief Grant, and a NEA grant working with homeless youth. Solo exhibitions include Olin Fine Art Center, 3S Artspace, Jane Street Art Center, and group exhibitions Spartanburg Art Museum, Dunedin Fine Art Center; Lyman Allyn Museum. Recent reviews include Art New England and Brooklyn Rail.

Course Fee: $400 + $50 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Intro to Plaster Mold Making & Slipcasting

with Jackie Head

Next session: July 4th to 8th, 2025

$630 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

This class will explore the world of plaster mold making! We will cover every step of the mold making process from start to finish. To begin, the class will discuss prototype selection and development. Utilizing found objects or sculpted clay forms, students will explore a myriad of mold making methods including draft molds and multiple part molds for complex objects. To finish out the week, the class will learn the process of slipcasting and how to make multiples at home. Mold making is a series of problem solving opportunities and this class will be catered to the students' individual goals - the more complex the better!

Jackie Head discovered her love of slipcasting porcelain tile forms and mold making while studying abroad in Jingdezhen, China in the summer of 2014. This experience heavily influenced the work she would go on to make while obtaining her BFA in Ceramics from Indiana University and MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Jackie has completed residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, the Cité Internationale des Arts, and the Morean Center for Clay. She currently resides in her hometown, Indianapolis, where she maintains a private studio.

Course Fee: $500 + $90 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Introduction to Wood Splint Basketry

with Amy Krone

Next session: August 22nd to 24th, 2025

$590 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Turn a tree into a basket in this 3-day, beginner-friendly course, where we will learn wood splint basketry. We will begin by exploring different methods of processing various hardwood trees from the northeastern forests, with a deep dive into white oak and white ash processing while also touching on other types of hardwoods suitable for basketry. Using wood that we split together, as well as pre-split wood, we will learn the ins and outs of frame style, wood splint basketry as we weave a beautiful 10" basket together utilizing a white oak frame, and hand split white ash weavers. Some hand strength for weaving these beautiful materials is needed, but friendly assistance is assured.

Amy Krone is an artist living and working in the forests of the Catskill Mountains. Her project, Cambium Lost Arts, is one dedicated to the revival of dying or forgotten practices of traditional craft. Currently, her focus is centered on the practice of hand-split white oak basketry in the Appalachian style—a journey that began in a used bookstore. “Finding meaning in my art through these woods is a gift the land has given me.” Krone’s approach is disciplined, mindful, and exquisitely detailed.

Course Fee: $300 + $250 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Introduction to Oil Painting

with Nathan Loda

Next session: June 20th to 22nd, 2025

$400 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

This introductory course will provide students with the basic principles and techniques when working with Oil Paint. Students will be introduced to paint-handling and application techniques, color mixing, composition, and different methods for developing a representational painting. Using an exciting direct method of applying paint, and the indirect method of monochromatic underpainting prior to color application, participants will learn how to construct a dynamic image. Favorite photographs will be used to learn fundamentals of observation and alla prima landscape painting. Throughout this enjoyable workshop, emphasis will be placed on lots of individual support. All levels are welcome to come learn from this always popular Instructor.

Nathan Loda is an American realist oil painter. Nathan received an MFA from George Mason University in 2015 and a BFA in painting from Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in 2011. His work is playful yet painstakingly detailed and steeped in American history and landscape painting from observation and imagination. Loda’s current work explores the mystery and magic of landscape as homage to art history and the Hudson River School of painters. Recently, Nathan and his young family spent a semester in Italy where he taught for the University of Georgia’s Cortona Studies Abroad Program.

Course Fee: $300 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Stories Around the Table: Ceramic Surface Design on Handbuilt Pots

with Sue Tirrell

Next session: August 8th to 12th, 2025

$620 More Info

Beginner - Advanced

Explore the connection between form, narrative and surface design by drawing, painting and carving on leather-hard clay. Bring a sketchbook of your favorite source material and be ready to incorporate old and new influences to create a library of imagery that is uniquely yours. Participants will be guided in the process of distilling these ideas into dynamic, colorful surface design; giving individual stories universal appeal. This workshop is appropriate for makers of all levels. Participants should be comfortable constructing simple vessel forms or tile—hand-built and/or wheel-thrown—to be decorated in the leather-hard state using sgraffitto and painting techniques.

Sue Tirrell was born and raised in Red Lodge, Montana. Receiving an AA degree from Cottey College and BFA from Alfred University, Sue’s work draws inspiration from life-long experiences in the American West. She is passionate about folk art, vintage kitsch, and western art and culture. Tirrell has exhibited widely in the United States as well as Canada and Australia. A former Resident Artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, she has taught workshops across the US and Canada in community art centers, college classrooms, retirement homes, and one-room schoolhouses. She currently makes her home and studio on the banks of the Yellowstone River.

Course Fee: $500 + $80 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee