Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

If you love to fire and love lots of different effects, or if you’re short on atmospheric firing experience, this intensive workshop is your ticket. You will participate in different types of firing, achieving results in a short time. We’ll fire soda, wood, gas reduction, raku, and pit! Emphasis is placed on glaze/surface preparation and firing techniques through demonstrations, lectures, and hands-on participation. You bring the bisque-ware, and we deliver the heat and the joy of this Catskill community.

With a MFA from Alfred University, Bruce Dehnert has tried numerous times to conquer the World. Instead, he has had to be satisfied with authoring Simon Leach; A Pottery Handbook, being a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, having works in numerous museums and private collections, winning 3 Fletcher Challenge International Ceramics awards. Bruce is the Director of the Ceramics Program at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts, Catskill Mountain Foundation.

Steve Cook pursues an aesthetic life’s “sweet spot” of beauty, experience, value and meaning from his current home in San Diego. Steve earned a BA in Sculpture (figure and installation) from Penn State, studying abroad in Taipei at Fu Ren University and National Taiwan University. He earned a MFA in Film (essayistic experimental documentary filmic installation) from Cal Arts. Steve has worked and taught in a wide variety of media and for surprisingly diverse industries, in the US, Asia and Africa, for the past 40 years, earning both awards and condemnation.

Learn more: brucedehnert.blogspot.com

Fee: $620 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Using clay to create pottery, sculpture, architectural and other forms, reaches back as far in time as 28,000 years ago when the first paleolithic Venus figurines were sculpted. From the magnificent, Native American pots to modern day tilework, sculptures, and functional vessels, hand-building processes have played an important role in artists’ abilities to express their imaginations and cultures through this most malleable medium. During this exciting course, students will learn a variety of processes, tools, and approaches to realizing form. There will be demonstrations of pinch, coil, and slab techniques, firings, and ample time to pursue individual work in our beautiful, friendly studio.

Learn more: instagram.com/maureengarciaclay

Fee: $285 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

There are many reasons that making pottery on the wheel has become so popular. Making pots gets us more in touch with our elemental ‘selves’. Fashioning pots with our hands, and minds, serves our desire to create and realize our imaginations. The farm to table movement has made us more aware of the relationship between locally grown foods and handmade wares. We aim to celebrate this relationship by offering an introductory course to making pots. Students will learn how to prepare clay and, using the potter’s wheel, create tableware shapes. There will be demonstrations, individual attention, discussions about ceramic’s rich history, glazing, and firing. We can’t guarantee your pots will make an appearance at your next feast, but it’s worth a try!

Learn more: 28aclay.com

Fee: $285 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Locally prospected clays, known as “wild clays,” have been utilized for pottery-making for thousands of years. Join us in this workshop as we explore wild clay’s potential as a clay body, slip, or glaze material. This workshop will provide an opportunity to discover the possibilities of materials found in your own surroundings. Let's craft together and enjoy this creative process of transforming the Catskills' wild clay into creative objects. Intermediate to advanced skills in wheel-throwing or hand building are appreciated. Test firings are planned.

Takuro and Hitomi Shibata are Japanese ceramic artists who formerly resided in Shigaraki, Japan, and are currently based in Seagrove, North Carolina. Takuro holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Applied Chemistry from Doshisha University and is the director of STARworks Ceramics. Hitomi holds degrees in ceramic art from Okayama University, Japan. She received a Rotary International scholarship, which brought her to the US, where she studied at UMass-Dartmouth. Their first book, Wild Clay, was published in October 2022.

Learn more: studiotouya.com/hitomi-shibata

Fee: $700 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

Using soft clay slabs, templates and several hand-building construction techniques, students will create a variety of functional pottery forms including mugs, pouring pots, vases, and platters. Students will also make their own clay stamps and rollers for making texture, surface patterns and designs on their pots. Emphasis will be on learning good craftsmanship and constructing functional forms. This workshop is designed for beginning level students, and teachers who want to expand their making skills and knowledge. There will be a bisque firing. Glazes and application will be demonstrated and discussed.

Bill Griffith is an artist, educator and former Arrowmont School arts administrator, living in Sevierville, Tennessee. His functional and sculptural ceramics continue to be exhibited and published in national juried and invitational exhibitions. He has taught many workshops, including at Arrowmont, Penland, Peters Valley, and Idyllwild. Bill is a recipient of a Tennessee Arts Commission individual Artist Fellowship and was awarded NCECA’s coveted National Outstanding Achievement Award for his contributions to the ceramics field. His ceramic art is included in the collections of the Tennessee State Museum, Asheville Art Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Tokoname Cultural Museum, Japan.

Learn more: billgriffithclay.com

Fee: $550 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Explore the transformative power of soda ash in a four-day workshop covering glaze application, kiln stacking, and firing techniques. Achieve rich colors and unique surface textures through this atmospheric firing process. Learn to balance science and art as you choreograph your work for stunning results. Bring bisque-fired stoneware or porcelain pieces, and experiment with glazes, flashing slips, and test tiles. Unload your transformed creations on the final day. There will be wheel-throwing and altering demonstrations, and time for making with lots of individual attention. All skill levels welcome!

Chris Archer is an award-winning New Hampshire artist and educator. His work is in the collections of prestigious museums like the San Angelo Museum of Art and Tokyo Geidai, and he's published in esteemed publications like Studio Potter Magazine. Archer is an Associate Professor at New England College and is a frequent guest lecturer and workshop presenter. Archer earned his BFA from Alfred University and a MFA from Maine College of Art. His work is included in Lark Books.

Learn more: chrisarcherartist.com

Fee: $450 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Whether you’re a recent arrival to the glaze and clay calculation world, or you’ve previously studied this fascinating science, this workshop will exponentially expand your knowledge of glaze and clay-body development. Students will explore color behavior in glazes, that they invent, in both oxidation AND reduction atmospheres. Glaze and clay body formulation, the role of metal oxides and stains, the introduction of opacifiers, and causes of defects will be taught step by step. Testing “wild clays” will be welcome in our explorations. Students are encouraged to bring in their curiosities and challenges for discussion with this renowned, and fun, instructor.

Dr. William M. Carty is Professor Emeritus of Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, and his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Washington. Dr. Carty and his research group have conducted research in aspects of traditional ceramics and advanced ceramics. The author of over 80 papers, he is slowly coming to understand (and can speak eloquently, but perhaps ad nausea, about) the benefits of applying the scientific method to solve art creation problems.

Learn more: ceramics.org/person/william-m-carty/

Fee: $560 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner To Intermediate

If you are looking to improve your skills in throwing great pots with porcelain, this workshop is for you. Come study in our sunny studio with one of the most gifted teachers of the craft while focusing on making better pots. Through demonstrations, practice, and discussions, students will explore the anatomy of pots, and concentrate on aspects of their craft that deserve improvement. From feet to bellies, lids, glazing and beyond, more successful pots are guaranteed. Students will take home to their studios a greater knowledge of their own approach and ‘voice’, as well as greenware, bisqueware, and high fired celadons from our gas reduction kiln!

Francine Epstein is a ceramicist and educator based in Chester, New Jersey. For over 20 years, she has nurtured a thriving community of artists through her teaching studio. Her passion for the medium extends beyond the studio walls, where she cultivates an encouraging teaching practice. Francine has supported aspiring artists of all ages, sharing her knowledge and inspiring students to embrace responsible creative practices and appreciate the role of Art in society. Epstein is a “gem,” according to anyone who has been fortunate to cross paths with her.

Fee: $560 (includes first bag of clay) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee