Ready to unlock new surface design skills and discover how to make your wheel-thrown pottery truly come alive?
Join me for a hands-on, three-day workshop at Snow Farm where we’ll dive deep into the interplay between surface design and form. I’ll demonstrate my process for creating wheel-thrown pottery, and you'll have the opportunity to try out a wide range of surface techniques for yourself. From carving and stamping to layering slips and glazes, we’ll explore methods that bring depth, rhythm, and personality to your pots. Come ready to get your hands dirty, experiment freely, and develop new ideas through making.
credit: Harvard Ceramics
Come spend two creative days with me at JunkPot Studio in Hartford CT as we dive into the rich connection between form and surface in ceramics. I’ll share my process for throwing on the wheel and walk you through the layered surface techniques that give my work depth and energy. We’ll explore methods like stamping, slip inlay, painting with slips, and using flashing slips—all leading up to the final soda glaze firing. This workshop will show how considered surface treatments can elevate both the look and utility of a finished pot.
credit: Harvard Ceramics
soda glazed plate with wax resist
This immersive two-week workshop is designed for ceramic artists eager to explore the dynamic process of high-temperature soda glazing. Through hands-on instruction, participants will create their own pottery forms and prepare work for firing, with a focus on surface development, kiln loading, and firing techniques unique to soda glaze. Ideal for those with basic wheel-throwing or handbuilding experience, this workshop offers a focused opportunity to deepen your understanding of atmospheric firing and its transformative effects on clay surfaces.
This workshop is being planned for two weeks in late June 2027. Registration and detailed course description will be announced in 2026.
This workshop will explore the possibilities of surface design on clay and its connection to form. Stamping, painting, incising, and scraping stoneware pots will bring layer upon layer of visual interest to the surface. We will also experiment with flashing slips, underglazes, wax resists, and glazes, firing to cone 10 in soda and gas reduction kilns. Numerous exercises will boost mark-making confidence. Forming techniques will include wheel throwing, altering thrown forms, and hump-molded forms. Handmade brushes and clay stamps will bring a unique touch to our marks. The convergence of practice, novel ideas, and refined technical skills will help students develop a signature body of work. We’ll work with stoneware and/or porcelain. All levels. Upper clay studio.
Studio potter; teaching: Anderson Ranch (CO), Haystack (ME), Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (BC), Harvard (MA); collections: Islip Art Museum (NY), The Gregg Museum (NC), University of Tennessee Ewing Art Gallery (TN), San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (TX); published in Tableware in Clay (Crowood Press), The Art of Contemporary Pottery and Functional Pottery (Krause Publications), Mastering the Potter’s Wheel (Voyageur Press); former Penland resident artist.
Regular enrollment begins November 15.
Sugar Maples is located in the small village of Maplecrest, NY, a lovely quiet place to learn and make. The workshop will take place in a fully equipped and spacious studio.
Sugar Maples Ceramic Arts Studio in a lovely setting in the Catskills in upstate New York.
In this 5 day hands-on workshop we will focus on wheel-thrown pots and embellishment of the clay surface. Participants will be guided through fun exercises to familiarize themselves with mark-making and the structure of pattern using brushwork, stamping, and incising. We will make clay stamps to be used to decorate the surfaces of our pots. Michael will discuss and demonstrate strategies for pattern with brushwork, pigmented wax resist, and inlay. We will help students find patterns that are meaningful and appropriate for their forms. This workshop is designed for students with a solid foundation in wheel-throwing.
$500+ $60 Materials Fee
Intermediate to advanced
The studio at La Meridiana International School of Ceramics in Tuscany
Meet me in Tuscany for this late summer /early Fall workshop! In this 2 week course we will develop an understanding of pattern and how to express ideas with pattern and how those patterns can be made rich in the atmospheric soda kiln.
Through a series of exercises we will explore pattern making with stamps, incising, inlay, as well as the painted pattern with brushwork, wax resists, and flashing slips.
Through repetition we will gain insights and skills that will help develop a personal pattern language.
How do we pay tribute to the beauty of nature and its inspiring patterns? How do we translate that beauty into our pottery? In this intensive, two-week workshop we will set out on this quest in the Tuscan countryside and bring its inspiration to our pots!
At the wheel, we’ll make a variety of functional forms large and small, as well as plates and platters, a natural canvas for a potter.
All the while, we’ll practice brushwork through individual and group painting exercises and so that we can translate those marks onto our pots with resists, underglaze, and flashing slips. To bring a personal touch, we’ll make our own brushes, and learn basic brush techniques using wax resists and flashing slips for the soda kiln, paying special attention to the way patterns can enhance form, and how the finished soda glaze surface can enhance function and food presentation.
We will seek to recognize the joy in creativity and will gain a better understanding of how the surface and form can come together to make the complete pot full of passion and personality.
We will take the opportunity to let us inspire by the surrounding beauty. A field-trip to the Chianti countryside with wine and tastings is part of the course.
A basic knowledge of throwing or hand-building techniques is required
I’m very excited to present my work alongside Sunshine Cobb at the Functional Ceramics Workshop.
In 1977, Phyllis Blair Clark and the College of Wooster Art Department hosted the “Wooster Workshop,” with artists Ginny and Tom Marsh as demonstrators. A total of 35 students attended. That workshop—and the accompanying exhibition—expanded over the years thanks to Clark’s guidance, eventually becoming the highly regarded “Functional Ceramics Workshop.” In 1987, Clark moved the event to the newly renovated Wayne Center for the Arts. Over 200 artists attended that year. In 2012, she handed the reigns (and the whistle!) over to Ohio Designer Craftsmen. We are honored to continue the tradition of presenting outstanding workshops to a community of potters.
If you’re not familiar with Sunshine Cobb’s amazing work click here!
Kyle Carpenter
Michael Kline
In this 5 day hands-on workshop we will focus on wheel-thrown pots and the development and the embellishment of the clay surface. Participants will be guided through fun exercises to familiarize themselves with mark-making and the structure of pattern using brushwork, stamping and incising. We will make clay stamps to be used to decorate the surfaces of our pots. Michael will discuss and demonstrate strategies for pattern with brushwork, pigmented wax resist and inlay, and will help students find patterns that are meaningful and appropriate for their forms. This workshop is designed for students with a solid foundation in wheel-throwing.
