208.A Beginning and Intermediate Handbuilding

208.A Beginning and Intermediate Handbuilding

Class - Ceramics | This class is completed

251 N Spruce St. Winston-Salem, NC 27101 United States

Handbuilding - Ceramics

No experience required

10/3/2022-11/28/2022

12:30 PM-3:00 PM EDT on Mon

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$375.00

$337.50

$30.00

Explore the creative possibilities of clay without using a potter's wheel. Beginners will learn pinch, slab, and coil techniques to create various projects. Students with experience can refine their skills while exploring new forms and design options. Decorating and glazing techniques will also be explored. Ages: 13 - Adult

A $30 material fee for the first 25 pounds of stoneware clay and related glazing and firing will be added at time of checkout.

  • Students enrolled in ceramics classes and workshops may sign up for additional open studio hours for the duration of their class.
  • A $30 material fee for the first 25 pounds of stoneware clay and related glazing and firing will be added at time of checkout. Porcelain clay excluded.

    For your first class, you will need to bring a an old hand towel or bath towel, a large car wash sponge and a bucket or other open container to hold about a quart of water. Additionally, you will need a pottery tool kit (if you do not already have one). To purchase, please bring with you to your first class $20.00 cash or a check made out to Sawtooth School for Visual Art. If paying cash, please bring exact change, as we can not currently provide change.

Max Saunders Artist in Residence at Sawtooth School for Visual Art.

Max Saunders Artist Statement

My work is heavily inspired by archeology, geology, and a sense of time. Clay, deposited in the soil years ago, is wedged and shaped to pleasing forms. Often I will sketch in clay for months or years as I search for the correct weight and balance for the pot. The base forms are often inspired by archeology, pottery, or other artifacts from history. Once I am happy with the shape, I use it as a canvas for a pallet of gestural marks. I carve, stretch, and beat the clay in ways that emphasize or change its form. These marks are often read as a sign of geological weathering or erosion. I chose to woodfire my work as it adds an extra layer of dynamic marks to the piece, which can be controlled with careful loading and firing strategies.

The overall goal is to create objects that can be interacted with in a variety of ways. Cups are drunk from and their surface is explored, revealing exciting moments from the creation and firing processes. My current series of sculptural vessels allows me to take this mark making process and explore it more deeply, as the ultimate form has no need to be functional. Ultimately these forms are all for both visual and tactile exploration. I seek to create work that is visually and physically dynamic, carrying a sense of age while remaining fresh and immediate.