All levels welcome

This course is designed to encourage students to lean into the history of ceramics and to explore ways to utilize historical forms as inspiration for new work. During this innovative workshop the throwing class, with instructor Suze Lindsay, will be collaborating with the hand-building class, taught by Margaret Bohls. Suze and Margaret will share their own deep pools of historical inspiration through brief and entertaining lectures to kindle purpose and intention. Students are invited to bring images of historical works that inspire them. Working on wheels and tabletops, we will explore strategies and techniques for creating functional pots. Conversations and demonstrations will help students create dynamic forms and explore approaches to surface using texture, carving, and a variety of slip decoration techniques. There will be a bisque firing.

Suze Lindsay is a studio potter in North Carolina. Her formal training started as a CORE fellow at Penland School of Craft, followed by earning an MFA from LSU. After completing 3 years in Penland’s artist-in-residence program, she established Fork Mountain Pottery with partner and fellow potter, Kent McLaughlin. She has presented workshops and lectures nationally and internationally. Suze strives to make pots that are good companions for daily use. “I make pots that entice the user to take pleasure in everyday activities, inviting participation, promoting hospitality.”

Fee: $655 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee: $65 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

This class will concentrate on combining hand building techniques to construct sculptural pottery forms. Enjoying working with clay will be our central focus in making forms in innovative ways. We will do a glazing intermission in the center day of the course where I will demonstrate my glazing technique and participants will have a chance to try their hand glazing on tiles that we will make at the very onset. Students will be introduced to classic “feeling” forms as well as going farther into more sculptural vessel forms that take into consideration abstraction and tension. Relationships to space, volume, and activated form will be emphasized.

Donna Polseno is a studio ceramic artist living in the mountains of Virginia, as well as in Liguria, Italy. She has maintained two parallel careers in decorative/functional pottery as well as sculpture, which has an emphasis on the figure and “still life”. She is the recipient of two NEA Fellowships. Her work has been shown in various museums and galleries both nationally and internationally. The most recent comprehensive exhibition of her pottery and sculpture was at the Huntington Museum, WV. Donna has taught at many schools including Haystack, Anderson Ranch, Penland School, and La Meridiana in Italy. Donna has been a visiting artist/teacher twice at Jingdezhen University in China. She taught part time for many years at Hollins University, where she created the annual symposium “Women Working With Clay” which she continues to help organize as the Founding Director.

Fee: $655 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee: $65 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40

All levels welcome

For as long as ceramists have engaged in wood-firing, its age-old customs and practices have been examined and evolved. Together we will fire “Julia,” our new Train Kiln, to high temperature and then cool the kiln in reduction in search of iron red surfaces. Students will arrive with bisque wares made with stoneware or iron rich clay-bodies. We will use applied slips and raw clays to maximize deep surface effects. This dynamic workshop will feature demonstrations and discussions about kiln design and firing processes that maximize aesthetic options when using wood as both fuel and partner in the creative process. This is a unique opportunity to study with one of the principal innovators of “reduction cooling”.

Daniel Murphy is a studio artist and professor teaching ceramics at Utah State University. Murphy began using local clays and then built and successfully fired his first wood kiln while pursuing his undergraduate degree. He has built and fired kilns all over the world and continues to discover something new each time he does so. Murphy has a passion for sharing what he has learned from these experiences.

Fee: $760 (Course Fee: $600 + Lab Fee: $120 [includes one bag of stoneware clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

With generous support from AMACO, join glaze designer Cory Brown for a hands-on workshop exploring AMACO’s amazing range of cone 5–6 glazes. From fan favorites like Potters Choice to exciting new lines, Cosmos and Phase, this is a unique opportunity to experiment, learn, and play with color and surface.  For the first half of Day One, Brown will give an overview of AMACO’s glaze families through a guided presentation and demos on reading glaze labels, layering effects, and application. Students will glaze their bisque-fired tiles using a wide selection of AMACO samples—many of which will remain in the studio for continued exploration on Day Two. Cory will teach during the morning of Day One, and Studio Techs will assist students and conduct the second firing on Day Two. All levels are welcome.

Cory Brown is a ceramic artist based in New York City. Committed to his career in ceramics from an early age, Cory refined his craft through artist residencies, ceramics tech roles, and a formative teaching opportunity in India. After earning an MFA from Alfred University, Cory has worked full-time developing new glazes for AMACO. He maintains a healthy art-making practice focused on experimental ceramics. His recent work with glaze foam explores a collaboration with the unpredictable nature of ceramic phenomena, embracing beautiful chaos.

Fee: $235 (Course Fee: $170 + Lab Fee: $25 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)