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Hi Dana, Love the idea of a place to share what we are all working on. I also have been posting more of my ceramics on my Instagram @thewaight. I hope to photograph and post more soon-ish.    This is a piece I just finished. Also with tape resist. I used just a little amaco underglaze because I love seeing the clay and a matte finish.  nice to meet you, Courtney   

This class is open to all members that have mastered a basic cylinder; we will not be covering beginning throwing. In order to practice a technique during the class session, you will need to throw some pieces and have them at a leather hard state. I will discuss and demonstrate all of the homework in the previous class. (7/9) Session 1. Learn how to take your basic cylinder and alter it by applying pressure to deform it, both with the wheel spinning and with a leather hard piece. We will cover sprigs, stamping and inserts.                Homework: Throw some thin walled bowls and cylinders and dry them to leather hard (7/23) Session 2. Today we will take a bowl and a cylinder and alter it by cutting and perhaps removing sections of clay. These “darts” will allow us to form interesting and asymmetrical forms.                Homework: Throw a cylinder with no bottom and dry it to soft leather hard on the bat.Throw a tall thinner one and a wide, low walled cylinder. (8/6) Session 3. We will take our exploration of non-rounded form farther by making traditional flasks and an oval or rectangular baking dish with a lid.                Homework: Sketch a complex form and throw the first piece. Let it dry to soft leather hard. (8/20) Session 4. We will combine thrown sections to make larger and more interesting forms. These can include large and shapely vase forms, and complicated double wall forms.

Hello hello!   For this months hand building series we will be working on organic sculptures. I'm thinking flowers, trees, snakes, fungi, animals, frogs, abstractions of all of the above. Maybe some chimera creatures. I'm thinking striking silhouettes and a strong object presence. I'm thinking detail. I'm thinking texture. I'm thinking color. These can be small, tiny even, or they can be huge (as long as they fit in the kiln). Whatever you want. In a pottery studio, and in ceramics generally, there is a huge tendency to stick to the confines of functional objects: cups, bowls, pitchers etc... While these objects can certainly be exquisite and artful in their own right, a purely sculptural form, with no intent of use or obvious function, can help break us out of the often extremely rigid frameworks of functional pottery. Making sculpture pushes us as artists and craftspeople to think beyond the limits of function and start thinking more about form. These lessons can then be applied back to our work as functional potters and improve our work tremendously. And you'll get to walk away with a pretty amazing piece of art.  Some artists to get you thinking: Juz  Kitson Phoebe Cummings Matt Smith Brendan Tang Crystal Morey Martha Russo Masaomi Yasunaga Ying-Yueh Chuang Nuala O'Donovan Lisa Hellrup Daisuke Iguchi Alex Anderson Week one: July 5, 7-9 pm We are jumping right in.  This week, there is no need to have a particular vision in mind. We will be going over a handful of intermediate construction techniques as well as a few decorative and sculptural methods.  The huge majority of this class will be demos to get you thinking about what you might want to make.  Week two: July 19, 7-9 pm Ideally, you will all come prepared with a rough outline or sketch of what you might want to make.  You may even have started working on your piece.  This class will be geared as much more of a workshop with each of you working on your pieces, while I give feedback and demos as needed.  We will be going over some decorative possibilities that need to be done before the bisque firing; slip decoration and some underglazing.  Week three: August 2, 7-9 pm Decoration and glazing.  At this point, work on your sculptural pieces should be moving along pretty well. If your piece hasn't already been bisque fired, it should be soon. This week we will talk about your plans for glazing and surface decoration. There is no set agenda for this week (it depends on what you are all doing), but we will likely be talking more about underglazing and the process of glazing complex objects.  Week 4: August 16, 7-9 pm Critique and class wrap up.  For week 4, I would love for everyone to have a finished piece ready to talk about. How did everything go? What problems did you have? And more importantly, what solutions did you come up with?  How is your glazing working with the form? Is your concept clear to the viewer? Are there unresolved technical or aesthetic issues? These are the sorts of questions that may come up during this weeks meeting.  If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask!