NEW Introduction to Pottery 3D Campus

This course is ideal for complete beginners who have never worked with clay before, or for those with some experience, who’d like to brush up their skills and gain confidence in throwing, hand building and glazing.

What The Course is About:

You will be taught the basic skills of working with clay including throwing (working on the pottery wheel), pinching, coiling, slab building and working with slump moulds. You’ll be introduced to a variety of materials including stoneware clays, underglazes and coloured slips, and later in the term decorating with oxides and glazing is introduced. For each new project, you’ll have demos, handouts or see examples of artist’s work to inspire you. The course is designed to be taken a term at a time, or complete all 3 terms to gain confidence and a good understanding of working with clay. Each term the balance of hand building to throwing varies, with focus on different hand building and decorating techniques.

3D Campus: Bentley House, 4a Disraeli Road, SW15 2DS (Directly opposite Putney Library). N.B Classes in 3D Studio 1 and 3D Sculpture Studio are not yet accessible for wheelchair users (Staircase leading to first floor). Please speak to the Admin Team who will advise an alternative course at Oxford Road (lift) or ground floor 3D Campus.

Materials Required:

What to bring to the first session: Bring a notebook and pencil/pen and lots of ideas! You will need a waterproof wipeable apron and a hand towel / tea towel is also useful. A basic pottery tool kit including a small sponge, cutting wire, pottery needle, wooden kidney, wooden pottery knife, a couple of trimming tools and a metal kidney will do just fine. For hand building, a serrated kidney and pottery knife are also very useful, as are a couple of small and medium sized paint brushes. Most of your tools can be bought in the school shop and you will be given a list of tools needed when you join the course.

Clay will need to be weighed and paid for before firing to cover the cost of two firings and glaze/colour materials. We have Stoneware/Eathenware (Terracotta) /Porcelain clays to use.

Previous Experience:

Suitable for complete beginners who have never worked with clay or learners who have not worked with clay for a while or need to gain confidence.

End of course:

What will I achieve? You will learn the basic principles of working with clay and gain a good grounding of the technical processes involved. You will develop a feel for the optimal consistency and strength of clay at different stages of the making and decorating process. You’ll have been introduced to a variety of decorating materials including slips, underglazes and glazes and you’ll have an understanding of how to apply them to achieve an array of interesting results. The aim of the course is to help you to develop your understanding of clay as a medium of expression for the ceramic artist