In this two hour workshop, you will make and decorate a lotion bottle made of stoneware clay. The first hour will be focused on making the actual bottle and decorating it with applique. The second hour will be spent glazing it. You can make a bottle similar to the one pictured, or come up with your very own design – maybe sea oriented, or even sports related. The bottle will then be left to dry for a week before being fired in a kiln. The actual bottle, with lotion pump, will be available for pick up with in 3 weeks.
This workshop will take place Tuesday, February 12, from 6 – 8 pm. If you can’t make this date and would like to schedule another time, use the contact us tab and let me know what date and time would work for you (min 4 people).
One of the best aspects of my retirement, has been sharing my love of pottery with others. The last year, I have been offering pottery lessons as well as single night ceramic workshops at my home studio. With the new year, maybe you would like to add some relaxing creativity to your schedule, and here are a couple of ideas to do that.
Prescott Community Center Pieces
One of the workshops has been through the Prescott Community Center. This workshop is a 6 week project oriented class. Each week, students work on a new project. They have made mugs, bowls, plates, and butter dishes. All of which have been beautiful and unique. The great thing about pottery, in particular hand building, is you can make a professional looking piece, with no
experience. This spring, I will be offering two more workshops through Prescott. Once Prescott has the new catalog up, I will add a link.
High School freshman mug
On my website,I am offering an 8 week, 16 hours , pottery lessons. Currently, two of my students have both challenged me in very different ways. I have one young woman who is a freshman in high school. She is an artist, and combining that with her pottery, she has produced some really wonderful pieces. She has challenged me to be more artistic in my own glazing, and take more time in the final process. I love throwing, but glazing, which can be the make or break it of pottery making, has always been the worst part. I can make a beautiful pot, only to ruin it with my glazing.
Left Handed Bowl
My other challenger is a gentleman, who is left handed. I have been teaching pottery, off and on, since college, some 30 years now. I have never had a left handed person – or if I did, I didn’t know. Only recently have pottery wheels been able to go both directions – clock wise and counter clock wise. You could buy Shimpos way back then, which went both directions, but they were very expensive. As I am learning, people who are left handed are better suited to work on a wheel that turns clockwise, rather than counter clock wise – which most of us right handed folks use. I have to think twice when trying to help, and even with that,
Fairy House made at Workshop
some times I still don’t get it right!For me, throwing, at this point, is pretty much second nature. I don’t really think about what I am doing, I just do it. Despite the challenge, and my help, he has made some really gorgeous pots.
Another workshop which has been popular is “Make a Fairy House” or ” Make a Toad House“. If your neighborhood toads and fairies are homeless, this is the workshop for you!
Zentangle Platter
Another recent workshop was with Donna Spencer, a certified Zentangle teacher, a woman I met through the gallery I used to manage. She was one of the participating artists who made some of the most beautiful intricate pen and ink designs, called Zentangle. We ran a workshop combining zentangle and clay, and the attendees, limited to just 4 folks, made some gorgeous platters.
Donna and I are offering a new workshop in March, which will combine Zentangle and Sgraffito. Sgraffito is an ancient technique used to decorate pottery where a design is scratched into the clay. The workshop is limited to four folks. During the workshop you will make the platter, learn about Zentangle, and create your own beautiful design on the platter. Instead of applying the glaze, as in the previous workshop, you will scratch away the glaze to create the design.
Oak Leaves – Zentangle and Sgraffito
Lastly, I will be offering a workshop Sunday 2/24/19. The workshop will make a lotion or soap dispenser. For more information about that workshop, click here.New Workshop – Make a Lotion Dispenser
I hope to see you soon at one of my workshops, so I can share with you my love of clay. Not only is it a creative venue, but you will also find it is very relaxing and good for the soul.
I bought myself a new tool for Christmas. After a fairly successful year selling my pottery at local farmers’ markets, and off my website, and teaching, I decided to invest in my studio and bought myself a clay extruder. It is exactly like the ones we had with play dough – only made of metal. It can extrude square tubes, hexagonal tubes, round tubes, as well as all those shapes as solids.
Extruded tube with thrown neck, could be used as lotion or soap pump, with added detail.
When I bought it, I wasn’t sure how I was going to put it to use, but, now that I have it, I can’t seem to get out of the studio. So many new projects to explore, so many new creative ideas. For decades, I have described myself as a production potter. Nice functional pottery, but differing from other potters who may spend a day on each piece. I can fill a kiln after an afternoon of throwing at the wheel. With hand building, though, I find myself moving away from production, and focusing more on the individual piece – which actually is a good thing.
One of the tricks with this extruder, though, is keeping the tube straight. It has a tendency to want to twist. There is one artist on line I have seen, who makes the twist even more exaggerated – and it looks really cool.
Here are just a few things I have made over the last few days. They still need to be bisque fired, and then glazed and refired, but each of the more detailed pieces is taking a couple of hours to make, and it seems so much more satisfying. Can’t wait to see how they look when they come out of the kiln after being glazed!
What could be more fun and more relaxing than combining clay with Zentangle! Join certified Zentangle instructor Donna Spencer, and potter Virginia Wood, to make a stoneware platter on which you will incorporate the mindful art of Zentangle and the rewards of working with clay. You will take a lump of clay, turn it into a beautiful platter, and then glaze it like a skilled artist – all with no experience necessary!
This class is going to be so much fun! I met Donna when I ran Gallery 529 in Littleton. She sold her Zentangle artwork at the gallery, which was very well received by all! I have been teaching pottery for decades to folks of all ages. It wasn’t until the other day I was doodling on one of my pots, in an attempt to glaze it in a different manner than I ever had. It occurred to me, there was a much better strategy out there and called Donna.
The class will start out with you making the platter. Then you will join Donna to learn 5 Zentangle designs which you will practice, and a 6th you can choose from a selection she will have. After you have mastered your designs, you will return to glaze your platter, using those designs!
The class will take the full 3 hours, so being on time is important.
The design pictured is just one of the many pictures Donna sold at the gallery. The platter is similar in size and shape to the one you will be glazing. We hope to have examples of what the two will look like together, in the coming weeks, though, there is so much room for individuality in this project that whatever you make will be a reflection of you.
I am so excited by this class because even the most reticent or reluctant artist to be will find success with this project!
The final platter will be about 10 inches by 6 inches, microwavable, oven proof, and dishwasher safe! It will be available for pick up within 2 weeks after the class. In addition to the platter, Donna will also leave you with a packet of supplies so that you can continue to learn and practice the thousands of Zentangle designs that are out there.
If you have a group of people who would like to do this, but the date is not good for you, Donna and I are happy to work with your schedule. Just use the contact form on the menu to let us know.
What could be more fun and more relaxing than combining clay with Zentangle! Join certified Zentangle instructor Donna Spencer, and potter Virginia Wood, to make a stoneware platter on which you will incorporate the mindful art of Zentangle and the rewards of working with clay. You will take a lump of clay, turn it into a beautiful platter, and then glaze it like a skilled artist – all with no experience necessary!
