Paul Briggs

This class teaches unique pinch forming methods that resemble how clay is pulled up on the wheel. Through patience and practice, students learn how to achieve scale and bold form, and move beyond the usual 3" pinch-formed pot to pinch up to 5lbs of clay, growing a pot from one ball without adding or subtracting material. Creating both functional and sculptural objects, we engage in the merging of ideas and form, of merging inside and outside, and of subtle metaphor. Glazing and firing will be mid-range oxidation.

Students learn how to move beyond the usual threshold of the 3- to 5-inch pinch-formed bowl by focusing on the movement of the clay upward and around the expanding clay form. The vessel becomes a byproduct of the process of growing and expanding a form from one piece of clay without addition or subtraction, being mindful of transitions in the forming process. Students begin by gaining fluency with cylindrical, bowl and vase forms and refining these objects during the various stages of the clay-hardening process. Students then move on to learn how to competently move clay using only their hands as well as develop an understanding of how to strategically reserve clay to create relief designs and patterns that emerge from the pinch-formed vessel.