Get in on the fun of making pottery. Our early spring classes are open for enrollment.

Get your hands in clay

As winter reluctantly yields to spring, what better time to get your hands in clay and delight in its sensuous tactile qualities while you learn to create artful objects for yourself and others?

Our early spring classes start soon, so get yourself signed up now. Try throwing for the first time or develop your skills in our Introductory and Continuing Wheel classes. We've just added a Sunday session, so you have four times to choose from. Or learn an off-the-wheel way to create with clay in our Saturday morning Coffee and Clay hand building class. If you want to give clay a try first or treat someone else to an experience with clay, we have Try It Once on the Wheel classes scheduled for March 19 and April 9.

Enroll today.

Studio calendar

Ready, load, fire

Here's the tentative schedule for our next gas kiln firing:

Loading: Tuesday-Wednesday, March 29-30.

Firing: Thursday, March 31.

Unloading: Sunday, April 3.

This schedule could change depending on the amount of work that's ready for firing.

Tool time demo

Getting a grip on handles. Sunday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. This demonstration by Kay Yourist is free and open to the public. Just drop by the studio at demo time and learn how Kay makes handles that people want to get their hands around.

Upcoming classes

There's still time to register for the early spring series of classes.

Coffee and Clay

Saturdays, March 5 through April 9, 9:30-11:30 a.m., with Nancy Bulkley.

Introductory and Continuing Wheel

Mondays, March 7 through April 11, 7:00-9:00 p.m., with Kevan O. Wilson.
Thursdays, March 10 through April 14, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., with Nancy Bulkley.
Thursdays, March 10 through April 14, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with Kay Yourist.

New Sundays, April 3 through May 8, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., with Shannon Nelson.

Try It Once on the Wheel

Saturday, March 19, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. with Shannon Nelson.

New Saturday, April 9, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. with Shannon Nelson.

Sign up here.

Potter's pipeline

Potter's quick tip

Can frozen glaze be rescued?

Q. I left some glaze in my car overnight and it froze solid. Can it be reclaimed and used, or should I just pitch it?

A. What a timely question. This quick video from Amaco tackles the problem of frozen glaze and clay and explains how to reclaim both. At a minimum, frozen glaze needs defrosting and a good stirring. If you have frozen bagged clay, however, be prepared to do some thorough wedging to rehabilitate your clay after it has thawed.

Readers, if you have a pottery question for Kay, ask away. And if you want to revisit a past tip, you'll find earlier issues in our studio newsletter archive.

Brief notices

Clay community digest

Events to know about

Indigenous Beauty:

Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection, now through May 8 at the Toledo Museum of Art

This display of Native American Art, which includes southwestern pottery, "celebrates the visionary creativity and technical mastery of native North American artists from tribes across the continent." The exhibition includes about 120 works from one of the largest and most comprehensive privately owned collections. Read the details here.

Dates: Now through May 8
Toledo Museum of Art
2445 Monroe Street, Toledo, OH
800-644-6862

Simple Forms, Stunning Glazes:

The Gerald W. McNeely Collection of Pewabic Pottery, now through August 28 at Cranbrook

The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research and Cranbrook Art Museum is currently showing an exhibit of the Gerald W. McNeely Collection, one of the largest private collections of Pewabic Pottery. The collection was recently donated to Cranbrook Art Museum and has never before been seen in its entirety. The exhibit includes 117 works.

Dates: Now through August 28
Cranbrook Art Museum
39221 Woodward Avenue, Box 801, Bloomfield Hills, MI
248.645.3323

. . . After All These Years

The Eastern Michigan University Gallery hosts an exhibition of works by 42 potters from around the United States. The featured potters make functional work and "remain devoted to creating a wide variety of beautiful and useful ceramic objects -- cups and bowls, pitchers and teapots." You can learn more about the exhibition here and here.

Dates: Now through April 12
Reception: Wednesday, March 9, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
University Gallery, EMU Student Center
900 Oakwood St, Ypsilanti, MI

Indulge yourself in . . . Cake

Fill up on all things cake at the Dinnerware Museum's exhibition, Cake, which runs from April 9 through September 4 at the Museum on Main Street. Nancy Bulkley and Kay Yourist are among the artists displaying cake stands and cake sculpture at the exhibition, which also includes vintage cake stands and other paraphernalia and utensils associated with cake. Will there be cake, too? You bet. Get full details here.

Dates: April 9 through September 4
Reception: Saturday, April 9, 1 to 4 p.m.
Museum on Main Street
500 N. Main Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Cutting Edge Texture: Using Die Cut Forms to Alter Surfaces on Wheel Thrown and Hand Built Pots

On Saturday and Sunday, April 16 through 17, RNR Ceramics' presents Cutting Edge Texture, a hands-on workshop with ceramic artist Nancy Gallagher at trustArt Studios in Ann Arbor. April is right around the corner, so enroll now to secure your place. For details and to register, visit the RNR Ceramics web site.

Open to the public: While the workshop is limited to registrants, this event offers something for everyone interested in ceramics. The public is invited to attend the reception, gallery sale, and artist's talk at trustArt Studios on Friday, April 15, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Dates: April 16 through 17
Public reception, gallery sale, and artist's talk: Friday, April 15, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
trustArt Studios

7885 Jackson Road, Suite 1, Ann Arbor, MI
734.253.2551

Stop, look, listen . . . and learn

Beware the potter's evil eye

The BBC World Service reports that making pottery is taboo in Ethiopia.

Listen here to find out why and to learn how one potter, Berekte Tewelde, is overcoming people's fears to establish a women's pottery workshop in Addis Ababa.

Developing your artistic voice

If you're wondering just what it takes to develop your "artistic voice," here's some insightful advice from United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins, who says "It's jealousy. And it's with every art, whether you play the saxophone, or do charcoal drawings. You're looking to get influenced by people who make you furiously jealous."

But what does poetry have to do with pottery? Check out Billy Collins's presentation at The White House Poetry Student Workshop and whenever he speaks of poetry, poets, or poems, substitute pottery, potters, and pots. Billy Collins begins speaking at the 31:05 mark.

Drink up!

A conversation about cups

These two videos, "Meaningful Cups" by Chris Staley and "Thoughts on Cups" by Pete Pinnell, form a sort of dialogue between the two potters about the intimacy and influence of touch inherent in hand-crafted ceramic cups.

" . . . cups are the most intimate form a potter makes . . ." Chris Staley

As Staley throws, he demonstrates a new form he has created and talks about making cups that will end up being used in the kitchen rather than being displayed in the living room. Touch, Staley says, slows us down, and he likes the "sense of contemplation that can happen" when drinking from a cup.

"One of the greatest powers, I think, of the cup - the simple cup - is that it immediately enters the viewer's most intimate zone." Pete Pinnell

Pinnell begins by placing cups in the context of pottery in the fine arts world, then talks about how drinking vessels are a "reflection of a lot of different ways to think about the importance of touch in human communications." He describes the "teaching moments" when he learned that his interactions with cups are more complicated than he thought.

Share what you know

Do you know of resources or upcoming events of interest to the clay community? We invite you to pass the information along to us so we can feature it here.

Ceramics for a cause

Saving the world's coral reefs

Meet ceramic artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison, who is on a mission to preserve the ocean's fragile coral reefs with her ceramic art. Mattison's immense and detailed installations depict the beauty of coral reefs and show what the reefs look like when they have been damaged and die. After you view the video, you'll also want to visit Courtney's web page to see more of her breathtaking coral reef sculptures.

Yourist Studio Gallery | 1133 Broadway, Ann Arbor, MI 48105

734-662-4914 | www.youristpottery.com

Inspiring classes and workshops for new and experienced students | Bright, modern, fully equipped community studio workspace | Comprehensive selection of pottery tools for sale | Gallery exhibiting the works of celebrated artists | Online gallery shop for the purchase of ceramic art