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

Beginner - Advanced

Explore the connection between form, narrative and surface design by drawing, painting and carving on leather-hard clay. Bring a sketchbook of your favorite source material and be ready to incorporate old and new influences to create a library of imagery that is uniquely yours. Participants will be guided in the process of distilling these ideas into dynamic, colorful surface design; giving individual stories universal appeal. This workshop is appropriate for makers of all levels. Participants should be comfortable constructing simple vessel forms or tile—hand-built and/or wheel-thrown—to be decorated in the leather-hard state using sgraffitto and painting techniques.

Sue Tirrell was born and raised in Red Lodge, Montana. Receiving an AA degree from Cottey College and BFA from Alfred University, Sue’s work draws inspiration from life-long experiences in the American West. She is passionate about folk art, vintage kitsch, and western art and culture. Tirrell has exhibited widely in the United States as well as Canada and Australia. A former Resident Artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, she has taught workshops across the US and Canada in community art centers, college classrooms, retirement homes, and one-room schoolhouses. She currently makes her home and studio on the banks of the Yellowstone River.

Course Fee: $500 + $80 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Skill Level: Beginner - Advanced

Come join us for this rare opportunity to study and work with renowned artists Andrea and John Gill. Held in the highest regard, both artists bring contemporary and historical weight to their ideas, dynamic problem solving, and unique construction techniques. This intensive workshop is guaranteed to alter your trajectories in thinking and creating. Andrea and John are both leaders in our field because of their groundbreaking work and profound abilities to teach, guide, and support others in their creative quests. Working with a blend of focused spontaneity and predetermination, both artists exude a unique gift for communicating what that process looks like. There will be demonstrations, discussions, hands-on exercises, and heaps of individual attention.

Andrea Gill received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Recently retired, Andrea was a Professor at Alfred University since 1984. Among her many recognitions, Gill has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Ohio Arts Council. Her works are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has been featured in many magazines and books. Gill’s work was included in the prestigious White House Collection of American Crafts Exhibition in Washington, DC’s National Museum of American Art in 1995.

John Gill earned his MFA from Alfred University in 1975 and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1973. A member of the International Academy of Ceramics, John Gill has presented lectures and workshops in the United States and internationally for over 30 years. He presented the keynote address at the Seventh International Ceramic Biennale in Korea in 2013.  His work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Crafts Council in 2014.

Course Fee: $600 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee