WORKSHOP:
Wood Fire
Ceramics
Next session: Monday, March 1 to Friday, March 26 (4 weeks) Workshop fee: $2,000 includes all materials, not including accommodations.
Invitations start going out August 1st
In this immersive workshop taught by the artists of Cider Creek Collective, you’ll live on the land, make things, and fire a catenary-arch wood-soda kiln. You’ll harvest and process native clays and play with glaze recipes using local materials. With plenty of time to come and go from the studio, you can pace yourself and explore how it feels to settle into local life here on the coast.
During the first week, you’ll be harvesting local clay and glaze materials from Cider Creek, Salmon Creek, and local river estuaries. Cider Creek artists will demonstrate making techniques in the studio, working back and forth between the potter’s wheel and handbuilding, utilitarian and sculptural and open to requests.
Outside of the studio, you’ll have plenty of time to live on the land in Albion and experience the local environment and communities, coming and going from the studio. You can experiment with the material, learning the process of harvesting and refining primary clay, moving at the pace of natural processes. We’ll learn how to make for the kiln, and for the special atmosphere created by wood and soda firing. Even the weather will come into play, as the moisture in your work responds to the climate and influences your path forward.
In the 3rd week of the workshop, you’ll load your work into the kiln and heat it up slowly, allowing the fire to decorate your pieces with patterns of melting wood ash and flame. The kiln will provide a warm 2400 degree nucleus as the days get longer and warmer and fruit trees start flowering around you.
Invitations start going out August 1st
In this immersive workshop taught by the artists of Cider Creek Collective, you’ll live on the land, make things, and fire a catenary-arch wood-soda kiln. You’ll harvest and process native clays and play with glaze recipes using local materials. With plenty of time to come and go from the studio, you can pace yourself and explore how it feels to settle into local life here on the coast.
During the first week, you’ll be harvesting local clay and glaze materials from Cider Creek, Salmon Creek, and local river estuaries. Cider Creek artists will demonstrate making techniques in the studio, working back and forth between the potter’s wheel and handbuilding, utilitarian and sculptural and open to requests.
Outside of the studio, you’ll have plenty of time to live on the land in Albion and experience the local environment and communities, coming and going from the studio. You can experiment with the material, learning the process of harvesting and refining primary clay, moving at the pace of natural processes. We’ll learn how to make for the kiln, and for the special atmosphere created by wood and soda firing. Even the weather will come into play, as the moisture in your work responds to the climate and influences your path forward.
In the 3rd week of the workshop, you’ll load your work into the kiln and heat it up slowly, allowing the fire to decorate your pieces with patterns of melting wood ash and flame. The kiln will provide a warm 2400 degree nucleus as the days get longer and warmer and fruit trees start flowering around you.
You’ll tend the firing in shifts around the clock, entering the circular clock of “kiln time”. You can choose what times of day work for you to sit with the kiln, and generally abandon traditional time and ambitions in favor of sitting by the fire, tuning into the process.
The kiln will take 3 days to cool, during which time you can enjoy Salmon Creek Farm and the local area on your own or join in visits to local studios and kiln sites.
Visit Staying at Salmon Creek, Life with the Land, and the Workshop pages for the rest of the details before applying.