Boot Camp Series: Throwing

Why would you want to go to Boot Camp?

Pottery Boot Camp is the fastest way for you to improve as a ceramic artist. This strenuous class will push you to improve your abilities and help you make more interesting pots. You will be provided with guided practice, and handouts to help along the way. Your instructor will challenge you to monitor and think about how you are creating, what isn’t working, and how you can improve that portion of your practice. By the end of this intensive class you will be able to reliably center clay, pull even cylinders, and shape bowls. You will be able to use these basic pottery shapes, techniques, and mindsets to make any form that you imagine. This class will be difficult, it will be frustrating, and it will be messy, but you will grow in your pottery practice.

Beginners are welcome, but prior experience with throwing on the wheel is recommended.

Day 1: Centering: we will only center during this class. The goal is for a student to be able to center quickly, accurately, and repetitively. Beginning with 1lb and gradually increasing to 3lb.

Day 2: Cylinders: “Cylinders are one of the two general forms that all pottery stems from.” This week we will only be pulling cylinders. The student goal is to center, and pull even cylinders. Each cylinder will be wired in half to inspect the wall evenness. Beginning with 1lb and gradually increasing to 3lb.

Day 3: Bowls: “Bowls are the other of the two general forms that all pottery stems from.” The student goal is to center and pull even bowls. Each bowl will be wider than a needle tool. Every bowl will be wired in half to inspect wall thickness, and clay distribution. Beginning with 1.5lbs and moving up to 3lbs.

The students will be able to create well thrown cylinders and bowls by the end of Throwing Boot Camp. Each student will be able to keep one item, but it won’t be recommended. Instead they will be encouraged to make more pottery that is even better than what you created during boot camp. This class is designed to develop growth mindsets in the students and help them to think critically about their work and the processes that they are using to create it.