Beginning Hand building with Erik Brown

In this class, students will learn about the properties of clay, and the techniques that make clay a useful medium to create functional as well as artistic forms fitting for everyday use. Techniques that will be primarily taught will include:

• Additive pinch technique fit for forming vessels from coils of clay, blending them together for sound structural constructions.

• Soft slab construction for forming objects out of thinly rolled sheets of clay that can be bent and stretched to the desired form.

• Hard slab construction, where slabs are allowed to dry to be cut into exact shapes and joined together at the right time to allow the clay to securely bond together.

• Pre-glaze decoration techniques suitable for the various stages in which the clay may be worked.

• Introductory glazing and finishing techniques for functional and decorative work.

Students completing the class should also obtain a firm basic grounding in not only methods for forming clay by hand, but also an introduction to the esthetics of form.

Class cost includes materials. Finished work pick-up day will be within three weeks of the end of the class to allow for firing time.