Wine + Mud Workshop with Bridget Dorr
We know you've been hearing and seeing a lot about the clay workshop we attended recently, but we had to wait until we had the finished products to show you to give you all the deets. Let's just start by saying, neither of us have much experience with hand making pottery and Bridget did an awesome job of showing us the ropes without stifling our (sort of) creative sides.
The workshop took place inside an art studio that's attached to Bridget's shared workspace, and the entrance was through an old phone booth (how cool is that?!)
Bridget offers a few different workshops, we attended the Wine + Mud which spanned two consecutive Friday nights from 6-9 PM (although we ended up staying a bit over, typically). Check out her latest class schedule and sign up here.
The price of the workshop includes wine and snacks (we had cheese, crackers and jam), which was nice to have while mingling with new classmates and taking breaks.
The spread!
Night 1: Slab Working and Creating
Bridget had all of the supplies for us to make as many things as we could/wanted to during the 3 hour period. We started by learning slab work, where we rolled the clay and used templates to create different types of vessels (vases, mugs, cups, bowls, plates).
Once we had the base pieces, we could customize by adding handles, or changing the shape.
We also made something called "pinch pots". We made these by working the clay around our thumbs and forming cups or bowls. The pinch pots definitely are less precise than the slab work and leave a little more room for creativity.
Here's all the pieces that our class created in 3 hours!
Night 2: Glazing
We showed up and our pieces had all been fired and were ready to be glazed!
We hand glazed each piece, which allowed us to make each one unique, use one color or multiple colors, and paint designs if we were really feeling ambitious.
Bridget had tons of colors and types of glaze to choose from, as well as suggestions for which colors might look good together or which types of glaze to use for your piece. Again, she provided feedback when asked, but gave us the space to get creative!
Once we were all finished glazing, we left the pieces with Bridget to be fired again. We picked up the pieces a few weeks later.
The Finished Products
We each ended up walking away with about 6 finished pieces, which we felt was pretty impressive given we had never done anything like this before! Bridget was a great instructor who provided not only all of the necessary materials for constructing, but also an awesome learning experience that yielded functional and beautiful pieces of pottery. Now that we know the basics, it would be even better to go back and hone our craft to make even more unique items. Stay tuned for next time-- or we'll see you there!
Questions about our experience? Comment below!