Skill Level: Some experience is useful

Pottery as a form of utility and expression has existed for over 10,000 years. Endless iterations have spanned all cultures, and ceramic art embellishes every household in the world. The storage of food and anything else you can think of makes its way into shapes and volumes that are defined by the maker. This workshop will offer discussions, demonstrations, and experimentations with many of the boundless ways we can interpret the concepts and practice of pottery. Cups and bowls form the foundation, the entry point, and from there onward we expand our pottery vocabulary, and hopefully with tireless hours of work and dedication we discover our voice with the material. This workshop will provide a deep dive into the expansive universe of utilitarian pottery. There will be a bisque and cone 10 reduction gas firing.

Doug Peltzman was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. Having a voracious appetite for risk, being a skateboarder and artist, Peltzman has been making pots since 2003 and has been painting and drawing his entire life. Since graduating with his MFA from Penn State in 2010, he established a pottery studio in Shokan, NY. Since that time, he has taught workshops throughout the country, is a founding member of Objective Clay, and is one of the principal creators/organizers of the hyper-successful Hudson Valley Pottery Tour. Doug is the father of three superbly talented and cheerful children, a dedicated husband, and a full-time studio potter.

Course Fee: $500 + $75 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner – Advanced

This workshop/demonstration will introduce students to an exciting way of building forms using mold making, slip casting, rearrangement of parts, and technical construction. The instructor will lead participants through various industrial techniques that are then utilized to create artistic responses and complex forms. The use of stains and colorants as additions to clays and slips will be covered through this 3-day long demonstration/workshop. This workshop will feature a collective approach to learning Johns’ vivid new ways of construing and building vessels and forms.

Kyle Johns was born and raised in Chicago. He received a BFA from Southern Illinois University and MFA from Ohio University. Johns has been an artist-in-residence at The International Ceramics Center in Kecskemet, Hungary, the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, and at Kansas State University. He was a Studio Assistant at Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts and has participated in their Utilitarian Clay symposium. His innovative work has been featured in numerous magazines, national exhibitions, and he is currently an Instructor in Harvard’s Ceramics Program in Cambridge.

Course Fee: $300 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Some experience useful

In this workshop we will focus on creating interesting painterly surfaces on ceramic objects by using wax resist, stencils, incising, painting, and drawing using underglazes. We will explore wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques as ways of making functional vessels that provide perfect spaces on which to develop imagery that is unique to you and your experiences in the world. There will be a bisque and glaze firing. Some ceramics experience is preferable.

Matias Braun is a ceramic artist, father, and surfer. Born in Madrid, New Mexico, but raised and residing in Costa Rica, Braun attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics. His work has been displayed nationally and internationally in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions. Matias has been featured in Ceramics Monthly as a contributor to the "Working Potter Issue" edition. This year, Matius’ work was presented in the Demerest Pottery Show’s 50th anniversary exhibition.

Course Fee: $500 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner - Advanced

If you love to fire and achieve heaps of different surface effects, or are short on atmospheric firing experience, this intensive workshop is for you. Come participate in a variety of firings and see how each approach can inform your ideas and work. Participants will fire soda, wood, gas reduction, raku, and the always colorful pit. Emphasis is placed on glaze/surface preparation and firing techniques. This popular workshop is an exciting, information and results driven experience with demonstrations, lectures, and hands-on participation. You bring the bisque-ware, and we will fuel your ideas with heat, atmosphere, and enjoyment.

Bruce Dehnert has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and MFA from Alfred University. He has taught at Hunter College and Parsons School of Art and Design, The School of Art [New Zealand], the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, UMASS Dartmouth, and workshops in New Zealand, China, Japan, Canada, and India. His awards include three Fletcher Challenge International Ceramics Awards, a New Jersey Artist Fellowship, the Settlor Prize in Sculpture, and a Carnegie Premier Award for Works on Paper. His work is held in numerous collections including The Crocker Museum, the Yixing Museum of Ceramic Art, The New Dowse Museum, and The White House [Washington, DC]. Dehnert has written articles for journals including, Studio Potter, Ceramics Monthly, and Ceramics: Art and Perception and co-authored Simon Leach’s Pottery Handbook for Abrams. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and is Head of Ceramics at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts.

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 an MFA in Film (essayistic experimental documentary filmic installation) from CalArts. 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.

Course Fee: $600 + $120 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee