Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

This class will explore the world of plaster mold making! We will cover every step of the mold making process from start to finish. To begin, the class will discuss prototype selection and development. Utilizing found objects or sculpted clay forms, students will explore a myriad of mold making methods including draft molds and multiple part molds for complex objects. To finish out the week, the class will learn the process of slipcasting and how to make multiples at home. Mold making is a series of problem solving opportunities and this class will be catered to the students' individual goals - the more complex the better!

Jackie Head discovered her love of slipcasting porcelain tile forms and mold making while studying abroad in Jingdezhen, China in the summer of 2014. This experience heavily influenced the work she would go on to make while obtaining her BFA in Ceramics from Indiana University and MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Jackie has completed residencies at The Archie Bray Foundation, the Cité Internationale des Arts, and the Morean Center for Clay. She currently resides in her hometown, Indianapolis, where she maintains a private studio.

Course Fee: $500 + $90 + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

A one day workshop covering all you could want to learn about color, and then a little bit more. No matter where your interests in color lie, this workshop will be an in-depth exploration of this essential element of the creative arts. The workshop will cover what color is and how we use it. Its glorious history and function will be the subject of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on workshopping. While this is a painting focused workshop, the underlying principles color are transferable to other mediums. Come join the fun in this place of bountiful summer color.

Daniel Lloyd-Miller is a painter concerned with place and working from observation. He carefully chooses places to paint in order to harmonize and better understand them. This act of delving into and absorbing a particular place promotes an intensity of experience. He's currently exploring motifs of ‘visibility’ in addition to acute life-paintings of people on the train and other vignettes. Originally from Vermont, Daniel received his BFA degree from Mass Art, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked in Japan and France and has exhibited in multiple solo and group shows. Currently, Lloyd-Miller teaches painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Course Fee: $100 + $30 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

This workshop will cover everything you want to know about painting outdoors, and more! This two day workshop will bring participants outside with their paint of choice, geared up, and ready to work. We'll cover finding subjects, tracking light, and all the considerations you need to keep in mind when bringing your studio outside. This popular workshop is a unique opportunity to learn ways of delving more deeply into the complexities of garden and nature to create vibrant memories of summertime once the December snows arrive.

Daniel Lloyd-Miller is a painter concerned with place and working from observation. He carefully chooses places to paint in order to harmonize with and better understand them. This act of delving into and absorbing a special place promotes an intensity of experience. He's currently exploring motifs of ‘visibility’ in addition to acute life-paintings of people on the train and other vignettes. Originally from Vermont, Daniel received his BFA degree from Mass Art, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked in Japan and France and has exhibited in multiple solo and group shows. Currently, Lloyd-Miller teaches painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Course Fee: $200 + $50 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

The use of locally sourced, or “Wild Clays,” is hugely popular. Unlike commercially produced clays, wild clays can be highly variable and often possess properties that are uncommon, offering significant challenges to the production of studio art. This workshop will systematically demonstrate, step by step, how to characterize and incorporate wild clay into processes that can be duplicated in the studio. This workshop will address the unique properties of wild clay, blending with other raw materials to improve behavior, addressing problems, and frank discussions regarding whether the clay is worth trying to tame. For the first time in a workshop, students will be invited to bring samples of wild clay and have them scientifically analyzed so their local clay can be integrated into a Unity Formula. How exciting is THAT?! Don’t worry if you can’t find clay. This workshop has you covered. Come join us in the Catskills at the eastern terminus of the Ceramics Corridor!

Dr. William Carty retired in 2020 from Alfred University after 27 years as a Ceramic Engineering professor focusing on ceramic processing, traditional ceramics, clay bodies and glazes. He is now a consultant to the ceramic industry, lives in New Hampshire, and still teaches “Ceramic Science for the Artist” in the summer. He is a world-recognized ceramic expert and conducts research and advises graduate students at Alfred University. Dr. Carty is noted for his exceptional, and much appreciated, work providing links between artists and materials science.

Course Fee: $500 + $105 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

For Ages 5-14

Protons, Paws and Paint

Are you a kid, and do you like to explore the world of atoms and animals? Well then, Protons, Paws, and Paint is your summer jam! Explorers will use their imaginations to create paintings, drawings, sculptures, and games inspired by the microscopic world of protons and the wonderful world of animals. Each day will include free play in the outdoors and in the imagination, art exploration, and creative connections in the gorgeous environment of the Catskill Mountains. Come make cool stuff and play in the sunshine with new and old friends.   

Fee: $240 + $35 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE!!!

Please submit all scholarship materials PRIOR TO REGISTRATION.

Scholarships are available to students enrolled full-time in Greene County schools

To apply please provide:

• A statement requesting scholarship

• A copy of most recent report card or school evaluation

• A recommendation letter from teacher

Scholarship Request must be received by June 17, 2025

Tuition with scholarship: $65 + $35 Registration Fee = $100

Materials should be submitted to Hillary Morse: morseh@catskillmtn.org

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

The Catskills are alive with nature. Learn to embroider and sculpt those complex buzzy, harbingers of summer. And while we might not want to admit this, bugs are among our most important cousins on this planet. As you know, they do a lot for us. Now let’s do something for them! Students will learn to create wings embroidered on fabric and wire and then sculpt them into an insect body to create a three-dimensional sculpture of the beautiful, sometimes annoying, invertebrate. Students will be taught basic and complex embroidery techniques. There will be fun discussions and demonstrations on how to analyze the subject matter and then create a strategy for sculpting the object. This workshop is perfect for those who want to learn embroidery and for those who want to sculpt.

Deborah Simon’s art focuses on humanity’s discordant relationship with animals. Drawing from her work in veterinary clinics and the Bronx Zoo Exhibition Department, her art examines how people consider, use, and disregard animals. Her sculptures and paintings of animals have been exhibited around the world, most recently a solo show, “Embroidered Morphologies” at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, Illinois, and in “Lagomorph: Rabbits and Hares in Contemporary Craft” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. “White Rabbit”, a solo window installation was featured at AHA Fine Art in New York City. She has received numerous fellowships including the Chulitna Lodge Creative Summer Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Saint Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab, Sculpture Space, Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program and the Cultural Space Subsidy Program. She has received grants from the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and NYSCA. Following studies at the Repin Institute of Art in Leningrad, USSR, Simon received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts.

Course Fee: $300 + $40 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Learn to transform lusciously soft wool felt into three-dimensional forms. Over three days we will explore various contemporary techniques for creating three dimensional shapes, including wet felting on a resist as well as needle felting. While you might assume that your imagination is the limit, you will enjoy being in a supportive and experimental environment where anything is possible. You will create several small projects as well as at least one garment or vessel. This workshop is a first for Sugar Maples, and we are excited to host you and our incredibly talented Instructor for three days of discussions, demonstrations, and in-depth making of objects pertinent to you.

Renee Baumann is a Catskills-based designer, chef, and nature enthusiast with a passion for wild plants and fungi. Trained as an architect and a chef, she brings a creative, interdisciplinary flair to everything she does—whether she’s crafting baskets from local plants, illustrating mushrooms in watercolor, or whipping up delicious meals from foraged ingredients. Renee teaches workshops and techniques working with local fibers, with an emphasis on creating three dimensional forms from bioregional components. Her work varies from traditional basketry to sculptural felt and spinning foraged fibers. Renee teaches workshops on identifying, cooking with, and even weaving with plants and fungi growing in the Catskills.

Course Fee: $300 + $40 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Some experience is useful

Come join Aysha for a three-day intensive workshop that will emphasize her unique approach to imagined space, scale, and the poetic properties of wheel-thrown and altered clay. Suggestions of terrain, body in motion, and flora will be explored through discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises. Specific features of pots such as rims, feet, lids, volumes and form will be covered during this unique workshop opportunity. Students will be introduced to dynamic techniques for altering freshly thrown forms, expanding on their own conversations with porcelain.

Aysha Peltz received both her BFA and MFA degrees from Alfred University. A gifted teacher, she has led workshops all around the country including at Arrowmont, Alfred University, Haystack, Harvard University, and Kansas City Art Institute. Peltz has lectured at the Shelburne Craft School, Huntingdon Museum of Art, and at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in China. A prolific artist, she has exhibited throughout the United States in both group and solo exhibitions. Aysha’s work is in many collections including AMOCA, the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, and the Huntingdon Museum of Art. Peltz’ awards include the Walter Gropius Master Award, and Emerging Artist Award from NCECA. Currently Aysha holds a faculty appointment at Bennington College in Vermont.

Course Fee: $300 + $50 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee