Ceramics Class Descriptions
Check out all of these great classes in Ceramics. The schedule and signup for each class can be obtained by clicking on the Name of the Class!
Ceramics
Learn to wheel throw or handbuild basic ceramic forms. Decorating, glazing and firing techniques will be covered. Emphasis on developing a personal sense of form using sound fundamental skills. Prerequisites: For all Int-Adv classes student must be able to center and throw a simple cylinder and bowl form.
Alternative Firing Techniques (Int-Adv)
Exploration of sagger, raku, sawdust and pit firing. Decorating and forming techniques for each process will be covered, including both hand building and wheel throwing techniques. Also included is a historical reference to Native American Indian and Mexican pottery. One class session will be a full day at the beach doing a pit firing. Prerequisites: At least one quarter of ceramics.
Handbuilding with Soft Slabs (Beg/Adv)
Explore a broad variety of techniques and ideas for creating works with soft slabs of clay! Garden Vessels, dinnerware and Wall Reliefs will be among the projects in this course. A variety of surface treatments will be used. Bring your imagination and a sketchbook to the first class.
Intro Sculpture (Beg/Adv)
More fully understand the process of working with clay and constructing ceramic objects. Then move on to broader artistic concepts--abstraction, content/narrative and presentation. Techniques include surface treatments, traditional and non-traditional including encaustic finishes.
Open Studio Ceramics
Open Studio provides 30 hours per week of supervised studio time open to all enrolled ceramics and sculpture students to enhance skills learned and knowledge of the ceramics craft and to share this interest. No instruction is provided. Student must purchase clay in the studio and provide own tools. Glazes, firing and use of studio equipment are included in the fee. Clay Arts Guild membership qualifies students for discounted open studio fee and other benefits (see above). Use of the ceramics studio is strictly for non-commercial learning purposes and work produced may be sold only through authorized sales or donated to support the program.
Raku (Int/Adv)
Raku is a low-firing process. Preheated ware is put into a hot kiln with tongs, then withdrawn and usually heavily smoked. Emphasis on hand-constructed forms; students may also fire thrown pots. Lecture, slides and instruction on decorating and glazing. Note: Students must participate in the firing process and bring their own gloves and tongs (available at $70, maximum); students must be physically able to pull their own work from kiln. No clay beginners: No wheel work taught. Prerequisite: One quarter of ceramics. Enrollment limited to 18 students.
Sodium Vapor
Emphasis on ceramic work for the salt kiln, to be stacked with shelves. Kiln stacking and firing included. Enrollment limited to 20.
Surface Decoration for Thrown and Handbuilt Pottery
A range of decorating techniques will be addressed at all levels of pottery development, from the wet clay forming process using colored clays and slips and texturing with tools or chemicals, through various methods for decorating in the leather hard and bone dry stages, on to glazing bisqued pieces and finally using china paints or luster on already high fired glazed pieces.
Techniques and Design in Slip and Glaze
Learn all there is to know about decorating the surface of your ceramic forms. The full range of slip and glaze decorating techniques will be covererd, from slip trailing to inlay and stenciling. Learn the basics of design as well as explore design using historical and cultural examples. Qualifies as a required ceramics class for Open Studio enrollment.
The Human Figure: From Any Angle
Approach any aspect of the human figure in any style. Realistic heads, abstracted torsos, anatomical hands, cartoon figurines: the options are limited only by our imagination. Be exposed to multiple approaches to the human form through image presentations, building demonstrations and our own research and ideas as we explore the topics of our interests be they pose, narrative, color, anatomy, stylization, etc. No model, so our own concepts and self-supplied reference materials will inform our work. Qualifies as a required ceramics class for open studio enrollment.