Some throwing experience useful

Among the many amazing facets of clay is that you can make tools with it. That’s one of the exciting techniques you’ll learn during this 3-day intensive. We’ll make 4 different kinds of clay stamps and then learn how to use them to create dynamic surfaces that are unique to your own ‘voice.’ We’ll also work on different styles of handles and do some fancy glazing. You’ll leave with stamps, glazed pots, bisqued pots and an interesting new approach.

A long-time potter in Pennsylvania, Rich Farrow received a BS degree in Mathematics from Moravian, and his MA in Mathematics from Villanova University. He was a journeyman carpenter for ten years and an analyst mathematician for thirty-four years before pursuing a nearly life-long passion for making pots.

Fee: $425 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $55 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

This exciting writing workshop will use collage methods to open new avenues of thinking and create fresh material. Participants will explore writing through the tactile and conceptual process of cutting, pasting, and assembling disparate elements to construct textual collages that serve as prompts for their writing. This method generates unique juxtapositions (sometimes via chance operation) and helps writers reflect on their own stories from multiple perspectives. The techniques explored in this workshop are often associated with non-traditional forms of writing like cut ups and chance operations and can easily be used to unlock new directions in any form of writing, prose or poetry, traditional or experimental. Writing As Collage is a writing workshop but is open to artists of all disciplines.

Ric Royer is a writer of performance and a performer of writing. His latest book, Niagara Falls, NY was published by Pig Roast Publishing in 2023. You can listen to him every second Thursday of the month on WGXC Wave Farm Radio with his music collaborator G Lucas Crane. Their show, Suddering Words, is an improvised mashup of various radio show formats, noise and sound poetry, resulting in unlistenable chaos.

Fee: $395 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $25 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

In this workshop, Wooten will demonstrate his glazing and soda firing approaches. Wooten will also discuss a rich variety of soda firing styles and techniques he has observed over the years. We will explore a variety of glazing and decorating techniques that work in tandem with the soda firing process to provide exciting results, with a bit more consistency. In addition, Wooten will demonstrate various wheel-throwing techniques and applicable soda-firing designs for pottery.

Dallas Wooten earned his BFA in Ceramics from Indiana University Southeast and his MFA from Ohio University. Wooten established Wooten Clayworks in 2020, which now resides in Hackettstown, New Jersey where he currently teaches and curates exhibitions and workshops. Recently, Wooten co-founded the Princeton Pottery Festival with Ben Carter and Eric Rempe.

Fee: $670 (Course Fee: $550 + Lab Fee $80 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

Visible mending not only makes our clothing unique and extends wear, but it also lets others know that we have fixed our clothes. This visible alteration carries meaning in a fascinating number of ways. At the very least, mending can communicate personal aesthetics and care. It might even inspire others to take up mending as well! Students will learn a variety of mending techniques that can excite the senses and expand on how fashion can be made personal.

Megan Piontkowski is an artist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BFA from Montclair State University, and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Brooklyn College. Her book, Feminist Ships, celebrates the lives and achievements of women sailors. Piontkowski discovered visible mending a few years ago and has been off to the races ever since.

Fee: $420 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $50 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

We will learn how to make cyanotypes directly from nature and objects using the beautiful yet simple 19th century printing process. Plants and objects are placed directly on paper that has been coated with the cyanotype solution and is then exposed by sunlight and simply developed in water. Students will use pre-coated paper and learn how to hand coat fine art paper to achieve exquisite prints. The process is fun, organic, and open to all levels. No previous photo experience is required.

Bryan Whitney is a fine art photographer in New York who specializes in alternative techniques from x-rays to lens-free imaging and cyanotype printing. He has exhibited widely and teaches at the International Center of Photography, Penumbra and other locations.

Fee: $435 (Course Fee: $330 + Lab Fee: $65 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

This popular workshop invites participants to dive straight into creating acrylic paintings from initial concepts to a finished piece. Attendees will learn basic painting techniques and will be encouraged to draw upon learned life experiences, new ideas and underlying inspiration. This workshop will give participants new insights as to how to take risks, learn from experimentation, and make artistic expression a fulfilling, life-long endeavor.

Kárin Lowney-Seed is an accomplished working artist whose bold, confident and colorful paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States. Featured as a popular guest artist at The Sugar Maples Creative Center, Kárin takes personal pride in elevating her student’s artistic talents sharing her extensive knowledge of technique, color and space. She holds both MFA and BA degrees from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Fee: $540 (Course Fee: $440 + Lab Fee: $60 + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

All levels welcome

For as long as ceramists have engaged in wood-firing, its age-old customs and practices have been examined and evolved. Together we will fire “Julia,” our new Train Kiln, to high temperature and then cool the kiln in reduction in search of iron red surfaces. Students will arrive with bisque wares made with stoneware or iron rich clay-bodies. We will use applied slips and raw clays to maximize deep surface effects. This dynamic workshop will feature demonstrations and discussions about kiln design and firing processes that maximize aesthetic options when using wood as both fuel and partner in the creative process. This is a unique opportunity to study with one of the principal innovators of “reduction cooling”.

Daniel Murphy is a studio artist and professor teaching ceramics at Utah State University. Murphy began using local clays and then built and successfully fired his first wood kiln while pursuing his undergraduate degree. He has built and fired kilns all over the world and continues to discover something new each time he does so. Murphy has a passion for sharing what he has learned from these experiences.

Fee: $760 (Course Fee: $600 + Lab Fee: $120 [includes one bag of stoneware clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)

Skill Level:  Beginner – Advanced

Using clay to create pottery, sculpture, architectural tile and forms, dates back 28,000 years when the paleolithic Venus figurines were sculpted. From magnificent Native American pots to modern tilework, hand-building processes play an important role in artists’ abilities to express their imaginations and traditions through this malleable medium. During this exciting course students will learn a variety of techniques for realizing forms. There will be demonstrations on pinch, coil, and slab, as well as glazing and firing. This is a fun hands-on course!

Fee: $385 (Course Fee: $275 + Lab Fee: $70 [includes first bag of clay] + Non-Refundable Registration Fee: $40)