Class Descriptions
A great starting place for an intense 6-week course where students are introduced to throwing on the wheel, trimming work, surface design techniques, glazing and a week of hand-building that can be used to incorporate into wheel work or on its own.
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: Prior experience is not a prerequisite
Ok great, you’ve caught the pottery bug and you’re feeling somewhat comfortable with centering. From here let’s begin working on turning pottery into one’s practice and learning how to throw other types of vessels. Additionally, we are going to broaden and refine our technique through challenging exercises in creating symmetry and learning to throw off the hump
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 3 pottery classes beforehand
Let’s start to put it all together now through declaring intentions. Let’s also start to find and express our style/voice in the medium. Projects include a teapot, closed forms, lidded jars and nested bowls.
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 2 pottery classes beforehand
Join Kelly Beiremann in a special offering of Intermediate Clay called "Push it". In this 6 week course you will focus on taking risks with your wheel-throwing techniques so that you can reap but rewards in your work and wheel practice!
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 3 pottery classes beforehand
The journey continues as we home in on our practice for symmetry (creating a dinnerware set of 4) while also learning other types of work (i.e. plates). Continue to be challenged through throwing larger work for a pitcher and a serving platter
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 3 pottery classes beforehand
Bring it back to the basics of getting in touch with raw materials and working with our hands to create stunning hand-crafted functional work. Techniques covered in the class will include: pinching, slab construction, bisque press molds and a real emphasis on texturing and coloring design.
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: Prior experience is not a prerequisite
A guided 6-week course as your learn to make visually appealing work for that you would be delighted to have in your home or gift. The course will be predominately ceramic based but will also include 1 week of woodturning for the neck of the lamp. Projects include lamps, bookends and clocks.
Locations Offered: SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 1 pottery classes beforehand
Let’s tame the beast known as the “diva of clay” as we learn all the tips and tricks for being successful (compression and hydration) when working with porcelain. Let’s also work on creating transparent lamp shade forms
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 3 pottery classes beforehand
Take a deep dive into glazes by learning what's in a glaze, altering existing and formulating your own glazes in this 8-week advanced class.
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 3 pottery classes beforehand
This is an advanced wheel throwing class (+1 week of woodturning) for students wanting to make cookware that can go directly on a stovetop. Attention and focus will be on forms and clay thickness to promote durability and thermal shock.
Locations Offered: SOMA
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 5 pottery classes beforehand
Learn techniques you didn’t even know were possible such as transposing an image on clay, using mason stains to color clay and a whole array of other surface treatments that you can incorporate into your practice
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 2 pottery classes beforehand
Tired of symmetrical pots? Combine wheel-throwing w/ hand-building or work exclusively with hand-building in exploring and creating altered forms through cutting, darting, surface decorations and msre. Think of this class as learning some great techniques to enhance your work and continue your exploration and practice into clay
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 2 pottery classes beforehand
Learn the fundamentals of slipcasting . After 6 weeks, students will be comfortable making consistent functional pottery using 1 and 2 part molds. Colored slips and surface design techniques such as marbling will be introduced as well. At the end of the course, each student will have at least 2-3 molds to take home to continue to practice with. Prior wheel experience is a prerequisite, students need to attend each session as there will be no make ups available during the session.
Locations Offered: Potrero Hill, SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 2 pottery classes beforehand
Build off the foundations from the Intro to slip-casting to dive into more advanced techniques with some really neat projects including making a lamp shade, molds for large hollow pieces (i.e. handles) and mugs created from your drop molds thrown on the wheel. Surface design techniques include slip-drips, slip inlays, mason stains for marbling and others.
Locations Offered: SoMa
Note: It's encouraged that students who enroll in this class have taken at least 5 pottery classes beforehand and the Intro to Slip-casting or be comfortable with the basics of slip-casting before the class
Intro to Sculpture
Intro to Sculpture: Expression through Form is an intensive hand building class that will provide students the tools to "sketch" with clay. Techniques such as slab, coils, and pinch construction will be covered as well as how to use texture to embellish your work.
Locations offered: Potrero
No prior experience Required
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Combining traditional woodworking with leather work, Mary Tsai will guide students to learn the fundamentals of understanding wood, milling, joinery and glue-ups while also working with leather. Students will walk away with a great understanding to executing a woodworking project and have a great piece of furniture.
Wood used: White/Soft Maple, Vegan Tan Leather
Locations Offered: SoMa
Part Wood-turning on the lathe, part traditional woodworking, students will be making a beautiful crafted 3-legged stool. Students will have the freedom to make their own templates and design how their stool will look and feel. This class is great blend of allowing art as well as a mix of traditional precision based fine woodworking.
Wood used: Red Oak
Locations Offered: SoMa
In this class, learn the fundamentals of furniture making as well as safety in the woodshop. Make your very own multi purpose step stool that can serve as a night stand.
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Wood used: Cherry
Locations Offered: SoMa
The trifecta: wood-turning, slip-casting and traditional woodworking (milling) all punched into this 8-week course. Students will come out of the class with a complete chess set that will be part pottery (the chess pieces) and part wood (the table).
Note: highly encouraged that students either have some woodworking or pottery background- there is a lot of material in this class between slip-casting, woodturning and woodworking
Wood used: White Maple and Sapele
Locations Offered: SoMa
This class focuses on woodworking techniques to create precise and repeatable design and woodworking joinery. Participants will learn to make large wood panels from rough lumber and use template routing to create precise mortise and tenon joinery for a coffee table. The class will use all the standard woodworking machinery of the woodshop like the planer, joiner, tablesaw, bandsaw, handtools and power tools. While the design of the class’s project is set, participants will be able to personalize it
Table dimensions- 18" x 20" x 42" (height, width, length)
Wood used: Red Oak
Locations Offered: SoMa
Take the dive into learning the craft of working with a living object (wood) in this multi-project 6-week class series. Let us convert you from a strictly a potter to a multi-discipline maker. Projects include: rib making, a modern plant stand and wooden lids/handles on ceramics
Wood used: Cherry, Walnut
Locations Offered: SoMa
Blended Medium
(Pottery & Woodworking)
Experience our studio to its fullest by taking an immersive 12 week course split between ceramics and woodworking. Students will start the first 6 weeks on the potter's wheel making a dinnerware set for 4. Students will then transition over to the woodworking portion where they will get an introduction to several woodworking formats with making utensils, wooden bowls and cutting boards.
Wood used: Various
Locations Offered: SoMa
A 4-week class focused on getting acclimated and proficient with the power tools in the shop to get certified to use the woodshop independently for one's own projects.
Wood used: Various
Locations Offered: SoMa
Furniture Design is an intermediate/advanced woodworking class that will teach students how to bring a design from concept to construction in the wood shop. Students will bring their own project ideas to the class and through the course of the class, develop those ideas into well-documented designs.
Locations Offered: SoMa
Intro to Turning is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of turning wood. Students will learn proper setup procedure, safety, and various carving techniques. This course also serves as a prerequisite for intermediate level turning courses.
Wood used: Various
Locations Offered: SoMa
You've got some of the fundamentals of woodturning now, but it's time to fine-tune it and go more in depth. Students will start with making a pair of matching and complimentary bowls, with an emphasis on bowl design, wall thickness and turning a feet on the bowl. From here it's on to candlestick holders in this challenging spindle turning project. Finally we'll cap it with turning a live edge bowl
Wood used: Various
Locations Offered: SoMa
Hand Carved Utensils is an intensive course that will teach students how to transform logs of wood to a beautiful set of a wooden utensils you can use yourself or give as gifts. Learn how to safely use seemingly daunting tools to unleash their full potential to make beautiful pieces of work
Wood used: Various
Locations Offered: SoMa
Intro to Hand Tools is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to the basics of traditional hand tools to through the process of creating an elegant modern box. Students will cover usage of common tools such as planes, chisels, saws, and explore different types of joinery.
Wood used: Cherry
Locations Offered: SoMa
Blended Medium
(Pottery & Woodworking)
Learn to work on symmetry across mediums under the lens of coffee. Think about making the perfect coffee mugs in ceramics and woodworking or making a ceramic mug with a beautiful wooden handle.
Locations Offered: SoMa