Day 1:

• The course will begin with making introductions and familiarising everyone with the studio, equipment, tools and materials.

• The first activity will be preparing balls of clay. Chris will teach you how to be efficient when ‘weighing and balling up’ in preparation for the wheel.

• The main focus of this first day will be throwing bowls with a focus on techniques to achieve speed and consistency of size & form.

Day 2:

• Chris will teach you efficient methods of turning your bowls (thrown on day 1). Turning bowls takes longer that actually throwing them and it a ket stage in the making process. You will be practising easy ways to get your bowls centred on the wheel, before trimming off the excess clay and carving your foot ring. Again there will be a focus on consistency of design/shape/form as well as speed.

• Chris will show you tricks he has learned over his many years as a production potter, to be able to make the shapes you want and repeat .

Day 3:

• Practising cylinders will be the focus at this stage. Making a cylinder is a different process to that of bowls. You will be looking at compressing the base (to avoid future cracks), and using tools to get crisp corners on the inside. The ‘lift’ is often tricky- especially with narrow cylindrical forms - so Chris will show you methods to perfect this stage. You will be shown techniques for repeating the same cylinder shape multiple times.

Day 4:

• On this final day Chris will teach you how to refine (turn) your cylinders, with the focus being balance of form as well as efficient practises. Chris will offer various ways to make and join handles. This is your chance to learn how to ‘pull and handle’ in the traditional way - with reference to scale, shape, curve etc…

• If there is anything specific you’d like to learn - Chris will be very happy to work with you on that.

• To get the most out of this course you will need to be relatively confident with centring, producing the basic shapes (cylinders & bowls) and turning.

Lunch

• 12:30 pm resuming at 1:30 pm.

• We can provide a delicious lunch of fresh crusty bread, cheeses, cold meats & salad.

• WE CANNOT CATER FOR ALLERGIES

• Teas, coffee and biscuits on tap throughout the course!

The cost includes all materials and equipment including 4 glazed & fired pieces which we will fire and glaze. You will have an option of 4 different glazes to choose from. Any pieces which you would like to keep over and above what’s included will be charged at £5 per piece.

**If the work needs to be posted this will be an additional cost of around £25 - £35 for P&P depending on the size and weight of the box. Also we pay extra for a ‘Fragile’ service to do the best we can to ensure no breakages.