🏺 The Big Clay Table: 4-Part Handbuilding Experience
🏺 The Big Clay Table: 4-Part Handbuilding Experience
🏺 The Big Clay Table: 4-Part Handbuilding Experience
Four studio sessions. Fourteen hours of hands-on instruction. Up to 12 lbs of clay. All glazes and kiln firings included.
$195 per person
There are many ways into clay.
This one gives you time.
The Big Clay Table is a four-part handbuilding pottery experience for people who want more than a quick introduction to clay, but don’t need another thing on their calendar every single week.
We meet every other Saturday from 1:00–4:30 PM, giving you time to learn, make, experiment, and come back to the table with fresh eyes.
You do not need pottery experience.
You do not need to arrive knowing what you want to make.
And you absolutely do not need to be “good at art.”
You just need enough curiosity to put your hands in the clay and see what happens.
This is not a one-night sampler.
It is 14 hours at the table, with enough clay, time, and guidance to actually begin understanding how handbuilding works.
What You’ll Learn
Over four sessions, we’ll work with the three foundational handbuilding techniques:
Pinch. Coil. Slab.
You’ll learn how to join clay securely, build forms that hold together, work with texture and surface, refine your pieces, troubleshoot the things clay inevitably decides to do, and prepare your work for firing and glazing.
The goal is not for six people to make six identical objects.
I’ll teach you the techniques.
You’ll decide what to do with them.
How the Four Sessions Work
Session 1 — Get Your Hands in the Clay
We’ll begin with the fundamentals of handbuilding and start making.
You’ll learn how clay behaves, practice core techniques, and begin your first pieces.
Session 2 — Build More. Try Things.
Now that you understand the basics, we’ll keep going.
Continue existing work, start something new, combine techniques, change your mind, solve problems, and explore different forms.
This is where clay starts becoming considerably more interesting.
Session 3 — Finish & Refine
We’ll complete the building stage and focus on the details that take a piece from “I made a clay thing” to something finished and intentional.
We’ll refine forms, strengthen joins, work surfaces and textures, and prepare everything for its first kiln firing.
Your work then stays at the studio to dry slowly and receive its bisque firing.
Session 4 — Glaze
When you return, your pieces will have survived their first trip through the kiln.
Now we add color.
We’ll explore glaze choices, combinations, surface effects, application techniques, and what actually happens when glaze goes through the kiln.
Your finished work will then receive its final firing.
What Will You Make?
That depends on you.
With up to approximately 12 lbs of clay per participant, there is room to make multiple finished pieces rather than racing through a single prescribed project.
Bowls.
Trays.
Vessels.
Sculptural pieces.
Useful things.
Beautiful things.
Deeply peculiar things whose purpose remains uncertain.
All acceptable.
You’ll work at your own pace, with guidance throughout.
Everything Is Included
Your $195 registration includes:
- Four 3½-hour studio sessions — 14 hours total
- Up to approximately 12 lbs of stoneware clay
- Studio glazes
- Bisque firing
- Glaze firing
- Use of studio tools and equipment
- All standard class materials
- Guided instruction throughout the entire process
There are no additional firing or materials fees for standard work created during the course.
The Details
$195 per person
4 sessions
Every other Saturday
1:00–4:30 PM
📍 The Studio Above the Clouds | Suches, Georgia
Beginner-friendly
Maximum 6 participants
Because the class is intentionally small, there is plenty of room for individual guidance while still getting the fun of working around a table with other people figuring things out too.
Pickup
After the final glazing session, your work will receive its last kiln firing.
Finished pieces are typically ready for pickup approximately 2–3 weeks after the final class.
We’ll coordinate pickup during the last session.
Make Yourself at Home
This is fourteen hours together. You are allowed to get comfortable.
The studio has a refrigerator, stove, and oven, and you are welcome to bring snacks or drinks.
Coffee and tea will be available.
Minimum Enrollment
The Big Clay Table requires a minimum of 3 registered participants to run.
If minimum enrollment has not been reached 96 hours (4 days) before the first session, the series will be canceled and all registered participants will receive a full refund.
Maximum enrollment is six.
If you don’t see a schedule that works for you, I’d still love to hear from you. Future sessions are scheduled based partly on what people tell me they actually need.
