Ceramics Handbuilding & Foundations 101

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Ceramics Handbuilding & Foundations 101 teaches the three main types of clay handbuildng: pinch pots, coil building, and slab building. Additionally, the instructor teaches various ceramics techniques and skills during each session to help beginner & intermediate ceramicists advance their skills. November Session Dates: November 4, 11, 18, and December 2 With 12 hours of instruction, including glazing, you will go home with several uniquely finished pieces. Students also recieve two hours of open studio time to further practice your skills learned in class. Though geared towards beginners, experienced throwers will also gain skills they can use with thrown pieces. November 4 — Week One: Pinch pots. This most basic skill is the foundation of hand building. We will spend the whole evening practicing and refining our shapes to build our skills. You will learn to listen to the clay to shape small vessels and other unique shapes. We will also learn to add pieces together to build hollow forms, pull handles, and explore a surface decoration technique called sgraffito. Skills gained: pinching, slip and score, hollow sculpting, surface decoration, sprig molds, sgraffito November 11 — Week Two: Coil Building. Perhaps the oldest way of clay-making, we will learn the technique of rolling coils and building big! Coil building is great for making large bowls, planters, and even sculptural forms. We will also spend more time exploring surface decoration as we smooth, scrape, and carve our pieces. Skills gained: coil building, building big, hollow sculpting, extruding, surface decoration November 18 — Week Three: Slab Building. Building with flat pieces of clay opens up a world of possibility! We will learn many techniques using slabs. We will also explore adding texture to our slabs as we build with them. Skills gained: soft slab, stiff slab, hump and slump molds, formers, basic lids, patterns, texture December 2 — Week Four: Glazing. There are as many ways to decorate a pot as there are potters. We will explore a variety of techniques using our amazing community glaze room to finish off all your beautiful creations. Skills gained: wax resist, dipping glazes, brushing glazes, underglaze techniques Late entry & single-session pricing available. Reach out to callie@cocoop.org to book.