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‍Note:  Our materials and supplies fee includes use of all studio equipment and tools, glazes, and bisque and glaze firings, and 5 kg of clay per person. Students requiring more than 5 kg of clay can purchase additional clay at $25 per 5 kg.

First and foremost, the Clay Studio is a community-based studio operating in the best interest of its members. We are an open community studio where people from all walks of life gather and work on individual and collaborative projects, exchange ideas, and work in a welcoming and friendly studio space.  

In addition to our regularly offered programming of introductory and intermediate courses, the Clay Studio has revamped and repositioned some of our course and workshop offerings to better reflect the content offered and the skill level of our target audiences. Our regular programming and services and new activities for 2020-2021 are outlined below.

Regular Programs

• Open Studio: Our Open Studio has grown to over 40 regular open studio users, which has increased the level of demand for clay and for studio volunteer hosts.  We have been able to meet the demand for open studio by enlisting the help of five regular volunteer studio hosts.
• Introductory Courses: Our Introductory Pottery course is always a popular offering and every Fall and Winter we include Introduction to Pottery into our scheduling. The Introductory courses include, “Pottery Introduction (8 weeks)” where the students are introduced to four classes of handbuilding and four classes of wheel throwing techniques.
• Children’s Birthday Parties: For groups of up to 10 children, parents canbook their child’s birthday party at least two weeks in advance.  During the two-hour session, children willcreate a clay project from scratch such as pinch pot animals and choose theglaze colour of their choice.
• Visiting Artist Workshop: The Clay Studio has confirmed renowned Handbuilder / Ceramic Artist Sunshine Cobb for our visiting artist for2020.  Sunshine Cobb has agreed to come to Newfoundland to teach our visiting artist workshop, and this workshop will be offered once travel restrictions from the U.S. are lifted due to Covid-19 pandemic.

New Programs

• Pottery Night Out Sessions: These one-night pottery education workshops are designed to teach students the skills required to start and complete one project from start to finish, such as “Make and Mug” and “Build and Bowl”.
• Speciality Introductory courses focusing on either hand-building or wheel throwing.  During our Fall and Winter schedules, Pottery introductory courses have been revitalized to include our regular general introductory courses but we also added our Introductory WheelBoot Camp and our Hand building Organic Functional Forms.
• Try it Out Tuesdays: This open house style open studio session are targeted to the novice and first-time customers of the Clay Studio. Patrons pay a nominal fee of $5 to try their hand in clay and to watch demonstrations.  This approach is less intimidating and less of an initial investment for individuals wondering if clay is for them.
• Studio Safety and Orientation Nights: Throughout the year, the Clay Studio offers Studio Safety and Orientation sessions scheduled the last Tuesday of every month at a cost of $20 per person.
• Hand Building Artistic Forms in Clay: In addition to our Introductory Hand building courses, this intermediate artistic hand building class will be of interest to those wishing to move into working with more sculptural and artistic ceramic forms.
• Surface Design Techniques: Two new surface design techniques courses we offer involve incorporating illustrations in clay (Sgraffito) and colour theory in clay (Clay as Your Canvas). These surface design courses featured instructors such as well-known ceramic artist Anita Singh and an Arts graduate student (illustration) Evelyn Roitner.
• Glazing Techniques and Chemistry: This course offered by Vicky Northey covers the chemical process of mixing a base glaze and adding mason stains and oxides to use as colourants.  This course will broaden the basic knowledge for many studio users and former students to move to the next level in their studio practice.
• Corporate Team Building Sessions – The Clay studio has added the opportunity for one-half day and full-day corporate team-building sessions focused on building rapport amongst corporate teams.  We offer general creative team-building sessions and a more meditative team-building session whereby we partner with Dominique Hurley.  Ms. Hurley introduces the concept of meditation and clearing one’s mind before working with the clay.

Community Events

The Clay Studio regular conducts demos at our community events in St. John’s which include throwing demos during the Folk Festival, CCNL’s Christmas Craft Fair, the Royal St. John’s Regatta, and other summer events.

One of our signature events is our Middle CoveBeach Pit Firing event, scheduled for mid-August each year in Middle Cove,NL.  During this time, people can drop by and watch our community potters stoke the pit with handmade pots and watch the embers glow and pots come out of the fire. We literally sell the pots while they are hot!  This takes place surrounded by the beauty ofMiddle Cove Beach.  Proceeds from pot sales during this event go toward helping support our community studio and the community potters donate their making time to creating beautiful works of art.