A Playful Process with Piton Pottery

Class Overview

A Playful Process is a hands-on 3-day workshop that will focus on creating a variety of mug forms with personality. Using wheel throwing techniques to create expressive forms through proportions and scale, we will cover throwing-off-the-hump, pulling handles, trimming feet and adding decoration. Surface decoration will focus on the use of slips for added texture and underglazes for painting. We will be using the mug form to learn the basics of these throwing techniques, allowing for practice and multiple iterations within the class time and then scaling up the techniques for medium sized vessels.

Please note: this workshop does not cover beginner skills such as centering. It is designed for potters ready to expand their intermediate repertoire.

What You’ll Learn

• Day One: a focus on wheel-throwing, making a variety of base forms that we will continue with on the second day.

• Day Two: will consist of trimming, the addition of handles, and any form alterations.

• Day Three: we will play with adding surface decoration to our forms, using slip for texture and underglaze painting. By the end of the workshop we will aim to have 6-8 items per student that would be prepared for a future firing (not included in the course time).
  

What to Bring

• Water bottle, lunch/snack

• Notebook/sketchbook + writing utensils

• If you have your own favorite tools please feel free to bring them along, you may want to write your name on them in permanent marker or keep them separated in a ziplock bag
  

Personal Safety

Please wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. For your own personal safety during this class, please:

• Wear closed-toe shoes

• Ensure long hair is securely tied up and out of the way

• Trimmed finger nails are also advised

• Remove any dangling jewelry

• Do not wear loose clothing
  

Prerequisites

• Must be able to throw an even cylinder with 750g of clay on the wheel