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)

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)

All levels welcome

Drop into the unique context of kiln atmospheres! Pack up your bisque wares and we’ll dive into how clay-bodies, glazes, forms and the intentions of the maker interact with firings in soda, wood, raku, and pit kilns. Double-over-head demonstrations, lectures, and hands-on participation for five exciting days. This rad and rare experience places the magic of kiln atmospheres and cooperation within the chill beauty of the Catskills. Totally remember to breathe.

Bruce Dehnert received his BA in English at the University of Montana and MFA in Ceramics at Alfred University. Beginning his career as a production potter in Macon, Georgia, Dehnert has taught at universities in New York City, Massachusetts, New Zealand, and on the Island of Borneo. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and currently is Head of Ceramics at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts.

Steve Cook, a rock steady superintendent of vivid foreign immersives, received his MFA in Film from CalArts. A beloved teacher at Francis Parker School in San Diego, he oversaw a rambunctious ceramics department, foreign travel program, and the School’s Gun Club. Besides being a potter and sculptor, for many years Cook served as a martial arts consultant to numerous Hollywood and indie films.

Fee: $770 (Course Fee: $600 + Lab Fee: $130 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Some throwing experience needed

In this workshop we’ll cultivate slow throwing, Jess’s boundary-pushing techniques for building large scale volumes on the wheel. We’ll throw, coil, and continue throwing, moving back and forth within the space between the wheel, handwork, and altered forms to grow the scale of our vessels and diverse approaches to our work. By abandoning traditional boundaries between throwing and hand building, function and sculpture, decoration and necessity, we’ll embrace the territories between and beyond categories and what we believe is possible.

Jess Thompson is an artist, teacher, and mother. She co-directs Cider Creek Collective, a ceramic arts residency near Mendocino, CA, with her husband, potter Nick Schwartz. They focus on building connections to the land through natural local materials, wood firing, and strong community. Jess’s upbringing in a family of midwestern industrial ceramicists and two decades among back-to-the-landers in Northern California have fostered belief in the radical integrity of handwork and carrying old skills forward amidst a technocratic world order.

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

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.

Margaret Bohls makes pottery and vessel forms that are inspired and informed by a study of historical ceramics and other decorative arts. She has an abiding interest in the vernacular language of utilitarian forms, with an emphasis on the ways in which process and material can communicate abstract ideas. Bohls has been teaching ceramics at the college level for 30 years. Her teaching interests include the history of ceramics and clay and glaze formulation.

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