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Cattail Weaving Intensive

with Renee Baumann

Next session: July 17th to 19th, 2026

$415 More Info

All levels welcome

This three-day workshop offers an immersive introduction to cattail weaving, you will be exposed to some of the various methods of working with this versatile native plant, then apply them to a larger project. Working in a supportive studio environment, you’ll receive hands-on instruction and individual support as you work on a project of your choice. Suitable for complete beginners as well as experienced makers interested in working more deeply with cattails. All materials provided.

Renee Baumann is a Catskills-based designer, chef, and nature enthusiast with a passion for wild plants and fungi. Trained as an architect and a chef, she brings a creative, interdisciplinary flair to everything she does—whether she’s weaving baskets from local plants, illustrating mushrooms in watercolor, or whipping up delicious meals from foraged ingredients. Renee teaches workshops and techniques working with local fibers, with an emphasis on creating three-dimensional forms from bioregional components. Her work varies from traditional basketry using cattail and willow to sculptural felt and spinning foraged fibers. Renee teaches workshops on identifying and cooking with plants and fungi growing in the Catskills.

Fee: $415 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $45 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Writing as Collage

with Ric Royer

Next session: June 12th to 14th, 2026

$395 More Info

All levels welcome

This exciting writing workshop will use collage methods to open new avenues of thinking and create fresh material. Participants will explore writing through the tactile and conceptual process of cutting, pasting, and assembling disparate elements to construct textual collages that serve as prompts for their writing. This method generates unique juxtapositions (sometimes via chance operation) and helps writers reflect on their own stories from multiple perspectives. The techniques explored in this workshop are often associated with non-traditional forms of writing like cut ups and chance operations and can easily be used to unlock new directions in any form of writing, prose or poetry, traditional or experimental. Writing As Collage is a writing workshop but is open to artists of all disciplines.

Ric Royer is a writer of performance and a performer of writing. His latest book, Niagara Falls, NY was published by Pig Roast Publishing in 2023. You can listen to him every second Thursday of the month on WGXC Wave Farm Radio with his music collaborator G Lucas Crane. Their show, Suddering Words, is an improvised mashup of various radio show formats, noise and sound poetry, resulting in unlistenable chaos.

Fee: $395 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $25 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Everybody Must Get Stonewared … Again

with Doug Peltzman

Next session: July 24th to 28th, 2026

$660 More Info

Some throwing experience needed

“I love making functional pottery for daily use, every aspect of the process is an opportunity to dig deep. I believe pots can be a powerful conduit for human connection, convey a sense of comfort, curiosity, and play. My choice of clay and glaze are hyper-intentional. The arrangement of slip/glaze, idiosyncratic marks, leaf motifs, horizon lines, circles, and grids represent my interest in seeing the world through a filtered lens, allowing my taste and experiences to bleed into my work. This approach helps to shift perceptions about what pottery can be; a profoundly soulful way to build relationships through a simple pot”. The workshop will include demonstrations, discussions, and a Cone 10 reduction firing.

Doug Peltzman was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. Having a voracious appetite for risk, being a skateboarder and artist, Peltzman has been making pots since 2003 and painting and drawing his entire life. After graduating with his MFA from Penn State, he established a pottery studio in Shokan, NY. He has taught workshops throughout the country, was a founding member of Objective Clay (2012-2021), and is one of the principal creators of the successful Hudson Valley Pottery Tour. Doug is a dedicated husband, full-time studio potter, and father of three superbly talented and cheerful children.

Fee: $660 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee: $70 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Put a Lid on It

with David MacDonald

Next session: August 21st to 25th, 2026

$650 More Info

Some throwing experience appreciated

This wheel-throwing workshop offers a focus on exploring and experimenting with different "lidding systems" used in pottery making. Taught by one of the country’s most renowned potters, this exciting course will offer students detailed instruction and hands-on experience with an array of different approaches to making lids for pots and, alternatively, pots for lids. Come expand your skills ten-fold through this concentration on tools, techniques, and aesthetics. There will be lively discussions, demonstrations, and lots of individual attention.

David MacDonald received his MFA from the University of Michigan in 1971; and joined the faculty of the School of Art at Syracuse University, retiring in 2008. His creative work is mostly inspired by his investigation of his African heritage. His work has been featured in several ceramic textbooks and magazines. He has also been featured in several nationally televised programs.

Fee: $650 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee: $60 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

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Weekly Wheel-Throwing Pottery (Wednesdays)

with Meredith Kunhardt

Next session: July 1st to August 19th, 2026

$385 More Info

Skill level: Beginner - Advanced

There are endless reasons why making pottery on the wheel has become so popular. The process puts us in touch with our ‘elemental selves.’ Creating forms with our hands and minds serves our desire to invent and realize our imaginations. The ‘farm to table’s movement has made us more aware of the relationships between locally grown foods and handmade wares. At Sugar Maples we celebrate this relationship by offering this dynamic and meaningful course. Students learn how to prepare clay, make pots, glaze, and fire. Also, because we have a beautiful organic farm right here on campus, you can fill those bowls you make with fresh veggies!

Fee: $385 (Course Fee: $275 + Lab Fee: $70 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Japanese Knotweed Craft: Biodesign, Stewardship & Ecosocial Practice

with Timothy Furstnau

Next session: August 15th to 17th, 2026

$415 More Info

All levels welcome

This workshop focuses on creative uses for itadori, aka “Japanese knotweed,” including dyes, marquetry, bio leather, and bio composites. Working with the Sugar Maples campus landscape, participants will get hands-on experience in biomaterials techniques. The Streambank research project focuses on non-chemical management methods and uses of the plant’s dried biomass to support ongoing ecological restoration. We will learn best practices for ecological stewardship that draw from both traditional and emerging fields. Agroecology, bio design, regenerative agriculture, biocultural restoration, alternative ecologies, and critical ethnobotany will be explored.

Timothy Furstnau is an artist, designer, and curator based in the Catskills of New York. He is co-founder of the studio FICTILIS, Museum of Capitalism, Writ Large festival of screen-based text art, and Hudson’s Toolshed Exchange tool lending library. Furstnau teaches circular economy and studio courses in the Integrated Design program at Parsons School of Design and leads workshops on art and ecology, biomaterials, and land stewardship at the residency project Deurendis.

Fee: $415 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $45 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Sculptural Felting

with Mallory Zontag

Next session: August 28th to 30th, 2026

$450 More Info

All levels welcome

Explore sculpting with wool felt during this workshop. Using the ancient technique of wet felting, you will learn how to sculpt wool into a multitude of natural and three-dimensional forms such as bowls and vessels, branches and coral, barnacles, undulating layers and more! Day one will be an introduction to wet felting, learning the history and the process while focusing on learning multiple techniques and creating a collection of samples. Day two we will work on felting bowls, hollow forms and how to apply thetechniques from day one to those forms. Day three will see you using all your newfound skills and techniques to design and create your own unique felt sculpture.

Mallory Zondag is an award-winning artist and artist educator living in New York. Exhibited internationally in solo and group shows, her work focuses on the natural world and how it relates to the physical body and human experience. She explores deeply personal and connective universal stories through the meditative and hands-on practices of wet felting, weaving, sculpting, and stitching, seeking to bring the ephemeral into physical being. The growth and decay of the natural world, the duality of discomfort and attraction we feel towards it, and humanity's place within this dichotomy informs her sculptures.

Fee: $450 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $80 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

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2D Studio: Independent Study (Wednesdays)

with Instructor TBD

Next session: July 1st to August 19th, 2026

$335 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner – Advanced

This course takes place in our beautiful, well-lit, dedicated 2D studio, designed specifically to inspire focus and creativity. This 8-week course is for artists of all levels. Each week, you will work on individual projects, moving from initial vision and foundational skills to material exploration and style refinement. Under guidance, you will navigate technical problem-solving, finalize a cohesive body of work, and participate in a final studio showcase. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, this supportive environment is designed to expand your vocabulary, polish your skills, and (re)discover your unique style.

Fee: $335 (Course Fee: $275 + Lab Fee: $20 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Thrown and Altered: And Then Some

with Ray Brown

Next session: August 7th to 11th, 2026

$660 More Info

Some throwing experience needed

Students will learn how to throw, alter and assemble pottery out of round. Objectives include being more comfortable altering forms, a further understanding of utility, and an iterative process of developing shapes. Emphasis will be given to asymmetry, stamping, and dynamic attachments. Students will learn how to alter pots at different stages, from wet to bone dry, as well as creating compositions and unified surface. Students should have a basic knowledge of throwing, as well as a willingness to experiment with their work.

Ray Brown was born in Houston, Texas, and earned a BFA with Honors from the University of Mississippi under Matt Long. He earned his MFA in studio art with emphasis in ceramics at West Virginia University. While at WVU, Brown studied with Shoji Satake, Boomer Moore, Jen Allen, and Jeff Moser. He is currently an Instructor and Studio Technician at the University of Mississippi.

Fee: $660 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee: $70 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Five Days with Adjectives

with John & Andrea Gill

Next session: July 3rd to 7th, 2026

$710 More Info

All levels welcome

Nothing could be better for the ways you think about your art than spending the 250th anniversary of the 4th of July with these two renowned and remarkable artists. This workshop will mark a moment in your life as an artist because as teaching artists Andrea and John exemplify ways of bringing contemporary and historical weight to concepts, problem solving, and unique perspectives. Working with a blend of focused spontaneity and predetermination, both artists exude unique gifts for communicating what that process looks like. No one leaves the studio without their trajectory in thinking and creating altered. Learn unique hand-building techniques, surface development, decoration, painting, and most importantly how to gather your ideas and new skills around one purpose: YOUR VOICE.

The Gills are both leaders in American ceramics because of their groundbreaking work and abilities to teach, guide, and support others in their own creative quests. Using focused spontaneity and predetermination, both artists exude unique gifts for communicating what a creative process can look like. There will be demonstrations, discussions, hands-on exercises, and heaps of individual attention.

Fee: $710 (Course Fee: $600 + Lab Fee: $70 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)