Mugs & Teabowls – 3½ day Improvers – May ’24
Any regulars at Wobage, will already be familar with our partiality for tea-drinking, and just as importantly, our love of beautiful mugs to go with it! We adore making them too, and can’t wait for this 3½ day course where we will focus on the humble mug in all it’s forms, from smallest espresso to large tankard. We will also explore tea bowl making.
Students will be encouraged to look closely at the weights and measures of the pots they make, and to challenge these in relation to ergonomics and fitness to everyday purpose. We’ll look at ways of improving throwing accuracy and consistency with the use of a pointer. But in addition to these more formal aspects of repetition production, the course will explore aesthetics and different ways in which repetition can be used creatively and experimentally.
Needless to say, handling will also be a key feature of this course. If you have a handling demon that needs crushing, maybe this is the course for you! Alongside the most traditional and long-favoured methods, we’ll also explore extruded and more sculptural handle-making. One-to-one and group tutorial will be tailored to inspire students to develop a range of new skills and to imaginatively expand upon their own individual range of pots. Tuition will also be available in wedging techniques for those wishing to extend their core clay prep’ skills.
The studio invites a maximum of 9 students for this course. Each participant will enjoy unlimited access to a power wheel for the full duration. These are mostly Fitzwilliam Rayefcos and a couple of Alsagers. All students will use Jeremy’s stoneware throwing clay.
It will be expected that students attending this course will already have some experience in wheel throwing. The course will obviously cater for students at different levels of capability. However, applications are welcome only from students who are confidently already able to centre, and to comfortably lift-up a kilo or more of clay into an upright shape.
The course begins on the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd May 2024, 2pm – 5pm. Tuition hours otherwise are 10am-4pm. The course fee includes Petra’s fabulous home-made vegetarian lunches and morning and afternoon refreshments, along with wood-fired pizza on the Thursday or Friday evening, weather permitting..
Students will be invited to select a maximum of four favourite mugs to be salt-glazed and wood-fired in Jeremy and Petra’s Phoenix kiln, at a cost of £5/lb. Given sufficient time on the last day, Jem is happy to provide some instruction and demonstration to help you to raw-glaze and slip-decorate your selected work. A maximum of 4 further completed mugs may be selected for bisque firing, priced at £2/lb. These pots, for gloss and bisque, will be weighed and invoiced post firings, which is usually within about 4-6 months of our courses season. All pots that are left for firing are required to carry either a maker’s seal, signature or initials, in order that your pots can be easily identified post-firing. We prefer you to collect your fired work from Wobage, but we’re happy to post it out via courier to students living further afield. A larger selection of work can be taken home green at the end of the course, which will be charged on the last day at a cost of £1.50/lb.
More information about Jeremy Steward is available on the Tutors Pages.
To find out about availability or to book a place please visit the booking page.
If you are 30 yrs or under, and a Full-time student in Higher Education, or you are within your first year after having graduated, this course invites a 30% discount on the balancing payment. Which makes the course fee £445.00.
This course is now fully booked with the maximum 9 students. Further contact details from any additional enquiries will be added to a reserve list. Please still fill in an availability check if you are keen to join this course, as we do sometimes receive cancellations closer to course start dates. There is still limited space on others, please take a browse.
