Passionate about pottery? Take it up a notch. Hone in on your wheel skills in this six week workshop.
Inquire via email if you have any questions.
Everyone will go home with about 6 -10 pieces of one-of-a-kind, functional, food safe, microwave & dishwasher safe pottery!*
Class size is kept small ( a maximum of 5 people) to ensure that each person gets the opportunity for 1:1 support from Maddison. This workshop is hosted at my home pottery studio. Full address and details will be provided upon registration.
We will cover all of the fundamentals for wheel throwing, starting with mastering the art of centering clay (and ourselves!) and scaffolding our skills week after week. Everyone will go home with a wide array of wheel pieces: plates, bowls, cups, wall art, vases, and more. We will be spending our final workshop to explore the endless possibilities with different surface decoration and glazing techniques!
During our pottery wheel sessions we will cover...
Wheel Lesson One
- Weighing + Wedging Demonstration
- Recycling Clay Explained
- Wheel Throwing Demonstration - learning how to throw a cylinder & add shape
- Time practicing on the wheel - with hands on guidance from Maddison
Wheel Lesson Two
- Pottery Trimming Demonstration - we will learn how to trim feet into our pots from the previous week, carve our initials to mark our work, and play with carving techniques to add texture to our work.
- Explaining Carving, Underglaze, Attaching Handles, Etc. - we will spend some time examining examples of different techniques, and then applying these techniques to our own projects.
- Free Time - trim, carve, attach handles, and decorate your work as you please. Continue to practice throwing at the wheel.
Wheel Lesson 3
On lesson 3, we're going to start building on what we've learned - this time, throwing pieces that are a bit bigger. We will focus on learning how to "collar" vases, spouts, etc.
Continue to practice throwing on the pottery wheel - anything you create on your subsequent sessions will be trimmed and marked with your name at the start of your next session.
Wheel Lesson 4
On session 4, we will spend time marking and trimming work from last week, and then we will learn about "dontus" - throwing hollow forms to create wall art, parts of sculptures, flower vases, etc. We will also cover plates in this session.
Wheel Lesson 5
On our second to last session, we will use a combination of hand-building and wheel throwing techniques to assemble our projects from session 4. The rest of session 5 is free time to put what you've learned to practice.
Any work created on session 5 will be trimmed and marked with your name by Maddison, so that it can be ready to go into the kiln for the first firing - before session 6.
Session 6
During our final workshop we will cover... glazing.
You will notice on session six that all of your projects have transformed in the "bisque" firing - the first firing transforms your projects from dry and delicate to solid and porous - ready to absorb the glaze we apply.
- Preparing bisque for glaze
- What is glaze? Why do we use it?
- What is wax resist? Why do we use it?
- Combining glazes for special effects
- Hand Brushing VS Dipping Glazes
After Session 6 - your glazed work will be fired in the kiln once more to transform the glaze and clay to maturity. Once finished, your work will be labelled and set aside for you to pick up from the Pick Up Cabinet outside of my studio.
Maddison is committed to helping students understand the process so that they can rapidly gain confidence with the fundamentals of wheel throwing to help avoid many common mistakes that beginners make. Each person will receive pointers, and demonstrations to correct common mistakes; but it's also important to remember that making mistakes is how we learn, it's all part of the process, and regardless of the outcome; it's about committing to practice!
You will be notified via e-mail when your pottery workshop projects are ready to be picked up! Prompt pick up is appreciated! Local drop off can often be accommodated if necessary.
