Beginning to Intermediate Handbuilding Skills
Adult Multi-Week Class for Beginner and Intermediate Students
Tuesdays 2-5p | June 23- July 20
Create unique functional stoneware serving pieces by completing 3 fun projects that will cover a wide range of transferable skills and create beautiful mugs, tumblers and bowls.
Course Description:
The focus of this course will be about refining construction ( be it slab, coil or pinch), understanding the structural integrity of your hand built pieces, how to securely attach your embellishments and how to refine your surfaces with decoration ( handles, patterns, stamps, burnishing, carving and glazing).
Skills and Techniques you will learn:
-Refined Construction: Start by learning tips to choose the right clay, tools and materials for your project. Use slab, coil and pinch techniques to construct the shape you desire. Learning tips on choosing the right clay, tools and materials for your project
-Structural Understanding and Functional Design: Consideration of the shrinkage of your forms and how to avoid cracks. Exploring the usability of a piece by creating handles, feet and more!
-Surface Finishes: Expanding knowledge of glaze and underglaze, how to apply it for food safety and choosing the appropriate glaze for your clay body.
-Surface Decoration: Using techniques such as carving, sgraffito, and applying stamps or textures.
All materials and tools are provided.
$350
MEET Erin
Originally hailing from northern Vermont, Erin’s pottery journey started in 1994 when she took her very first hand building class in college. A life-long student, she has since explored so much about the medium of ceramics and is always amazed by how much more there is yet to discover. After a rewarding career supporting research at UC Berkeley, she moved to Bend, OR in 2020 and was thrilled to have the chance to return to doing pottery once more. Over the past several years, she has devoted much of her pottery practice to the world of hand building, and is delighted to share what she has learned.