This 9-week series of intermediate evening workshops is designed to help participants develop their ceramic projects.

This 9-week series of intermediate evening workshops is designed to help participants develop their ceramic projects through practitioner-led demonstrations and guided support. Throughout the workshops, you will explore a range of techniques, including hand-building, mould-making, casting, and finishing methods.

Over this 9-week block, you will begin by exploring the foundations of clay, including different clay bodies and preparation techniques.

You will then delve into various hand-building methods, including pinching, coiling, slab building, and carving. Additionally, you will learn 'Kurinuki,' a traditional Japanese technique that involves carving away from a single block of clay. This meditative process, meaning "to hollow," emphasizes discovering unique forms through subtraction. Through these methods, you will experiment with shaping, building, and adapting forms, deepening your understanding of clay.

You will also learn how to create clay stamps by carving plaster, enabling you to test various designs and textures on your work. Following this, you will be introduced to mould-making techniques. You will start by creating a simple one-piece plaster mould, or 'drop-out mould,' using a simple found object, sourced independently.

You will explore 'Press Moulding' and 'Hump Moulding' through demonstrations and learn slip casting—a technique where a clay-water mixture is poured into a plaster mould.

Next, you will learn various finishing techniques for decorating your pieces, including inlay, incising, sgraffito, stencilling, slip trailing, combing, marbling, agateware, and glazing. Lastly, you will discover alternative finishing methods through 'Raku Firing,' a low-temperature earthenware technique that involves rapid firing. This process allows you to treat bisque-fired work by plunging it into sawdust or quenching it in water.

Description supplied by the event organiser.