Throughout art history, steel has been associated with industry, strength, and even violence. This workshop challenges those associations by exploring ways to make steel appear visually delicate, and by creating new meanings through its combination with materials of contrasting characteristics. Participants engage in exercises that address both technical and creative questions, including how steel is cut, shaped, and joined, as well as how to rethink its role in a composition—treating steel as a secondary, supporting element rather than the primary focus. Through experimentation, students learn to challenge material assumptions and expand the expressive potential of steel in contemporary sculpture. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

Investigate new materials and approaches to building sculpture in this two-week exploratory workshop. Students discover innovative ways to combine different materials, creating dynamic mixed-media sculptures. This workshop experiments with adding different materials to students’ work — such as clay, steel, and found objects — while considering how each adds formal information and intensified content. A rigorous studio environment gives access to a variety of new materials and fresh ways of approaching students’ studio practice. The workshop is open to students working in any media who are looking to try something different and add new skills to their toolbox.

In this foundational paper-making workshop, students transform pulp into one-of-a-kind cast-paper sculptures. Beginning with dry abaca pulp, participants learn to reconstitute, beat, dye, and cast sheets using a traditional mold and deckle. Abaca paper, with its long fibers and impressive wet strength, is ideal for sculptural manipulation. Students mold wet sheets onto objects brought from home, found in the studio, or discovered in the environment. Sewing and gluing techniques are used to combine dried paper forms into cohesive sculptural creations. By the end of the week, students gain a versatile set of paper-making and sculptural skills that can be adapted to any studio environment.

Finger weaving is a centuries-old, tool-free technique in which strands are interlaced by hand to create strong, flexible, and visually striking patterns. This workshop examines both the traditional foundations of the method and its contemporary possibilities, emphasizing how simple materials—rope, cords, or unconventional fibers—can be transformed into intricate woven structures. Participants explore the principles of tension, patterning, and rhythm, developing a deep tactile understanding of the material. Exercises encourage experimentation with scale, form, and texture, allowing students to push the boundaries of conventional weaving. Over the course of the workshop, students create several experimental sculptures, combining traditional techniques with inventive approaches. Participants leave with both practical skills and a creative framework for integrating finger weaving into their broader studio practice.

Discover the many possibilities of working in mixed media incorporated with quilting techniques to create colorful and vibrant compositions. With an experimental approach to quilting, students use appliqué, cyanotype, photographic images printed onto fabric, painting and ink, stamping, embroidery, and decorative hand stitching as they focus on pattern, composition, surface texture, and color relationships. While addressing the complexities of the quilted image, we emphasize discovering new ways to piece together compositions, creating formal connections, and incorporating personal and found materials like fabrics, beads, and relics.

The embodiment of human expression and mimicry, marionettes have historically captivated the imagination through their theatrical and allegorical power. This workshop guides participants through the process of designing, constructing, and presenting a marionette doll using personal stories and a variety of materials and processes such as wood, metal, 3D printing, and found objects.

Discover the power of the miniature to capture imagination in this unique introduction to architecture through model-making. Students explore making as a way of thinking while learning the woodworking and technical skills involved in creating a model. They learn how to visualize the organization of space and develop their own innovative techniques for representing the built world in miniature. We focus on woodcraft, technique, design, and ideas through the instructor’s visionary and transformative processes, grounded in the knowledge of historical and contemporary design practices. Students develop their own models for spaces—real or imagined—gaining confidence, curiosity, and insight into the development of our built environments.

Explore the intersection of perception, material, and personal expression in this immersive sculpture workshop. Students create sculptures in response to an installation of elements arranged by the instructor. The focus is not on replicating what is seen, but on translating impressions into a personal, expressive language that reveals the maker’s own perceptions and feelings. Using a variety of materials — clay, cardboard, linear steel, and plaster — participants explore different ways of thinking and feeling through each medium. Each material offers unique possibilities for interpreting the installation, allowing students to experiment with visual, physical, and emotional responses. Through the creation of multiple sculptural iterations, students discover how the behavior of each material can uncover new ideas, truths, and modes of expression, deepening their understanding of form, process, and personal vision.

This hybrid, two-part class explores the handbuilding methods an artist can use to compose dynamic sculptural and installation compositions with clay and mixed-media resources. Week one is spent in the ceramic studio exploring ways to build small objects and components for larger work, with emphasis on conceptual ideas and non-traditional methods of fabrication. Week two shifts to the sculpture studio to explore additional form-building methods using urethane and epoxy resins, sculptural adhesive putties, paint, pigments, and found objects. Students will have access to plastic printers to generate objects for finished assembly or for plaster mold making at a later date.

In this dynamic mixed-media textile and painting class, students incorporate painting and drawing vocabularies into a variety of textile media. Students are encouraged to translate their personal imagery into fiber paintings, exploring formal conversations including color, mark making, foreground/background, and conceptual questions about memory, presence, and absence. Surface texture, narrative, and atmosphere are explored through the combination of methods and techniques. This experimental workshop is an opportunity for students to add new image making approaches to their studio practices, including image transfers, painting, and textiles.

This hands-on workshop invites students to explore kinetic sculpture by experimenting with motion while learning the techniques needed to make sculptures move. The workshop simplifies and demystifies the process, breaking down different types of motors and their potential applications. Participants engage in guided experiments and creative problem solving, working with timers and controllers that require no coding experience. Students gain foundational knowledge of motor types, control systems, and kinetic mechanisms, and have time to apply these skills to develop their own projects.

This workshop explores reverse thinking between mold and cast, treating the mold as an evolving work of art itself. Beginning with plaster prototyping, mold-making, and slip-casting, students discover plaster's versatility as both medium and tool. Not a traditional mold-making workshop, the course encourages students to move beyond convention, treating mold-making not only as a method for producing identical multiples but also as a generative process. By engaging the interplay between form and its inverse, the workshop expands the scope of slip-casting, revealing mold-making's potential for invention and new formal possibilities.

This inventive and exciting workshop, open to woodworking students of all levels, introduces participants to hand tool carving, power carving, and machine use. Through creating a wood sculpture of an animal form, students explore an array of carving techniques while considering surface detail, form, gesture, and balance.

Artists explore creative reuse as a powerful strategy for art-making, transforming everyday objects and discarded materials into assemblages, sculptures, and installations that tell new stories. By researching the history, use, and disposal of common objects, we consider the environmental impact of extractive practices and overconsumption—and reimagine how waste becomes a source of renewal. Through the process of salvaging and repurposing materials, artists experiment with ways to infuse their work with personal meaning, cultural resonance, and ecological awareness. The course includes group critiques, individual feedback, and ample studio time for hands-on exploration.

Engage in innovation and meaningful design in this workshop that focuses on clarifying an artist’s voice through a sculptural approach to furniture-making. We ideate, design, build, and discuss how to develop personal styles and details. Annie gives demonstrations in intermediate joinery, carving, shaping, and other techniques that respond to each student’s direction. Time is spent learning to articulate ideas to others and sharing feedback in a nurturing community of makers. Whether refining work in progress or starting a new body of work, this workshop is for anyone who wants to build their skill base, make meaningful furniture, and have a whole lot of fun creating it!

This workshop explores the expressive power of the human form in sculpture. Using oil-based clay on armatures, we learn how to construct a figure to scale, creating sketches and developing dynamic compositions. Participants learn and practice keen observational skills as they work with a live model. Each individual student works at their own pace with instructor guidance to build their confidence and find their voice. We take some time to photograph the sculptures at the end of the workshop, learning how to document three-dimensional work properly for portfolios and proposals. Students leave with at least one model figure.

This unique and dynamic jewelry design workshop incorporates wood, semiprecious stones, and metal to create unique pieces that make a fashion statement. Beginning in the design stage, students are guided through the process of transforming jewelry ideas into tangible forms by shaping wood into form. Each piece highlights the contrast of the warmth and organic flow of wood grain against the luminosity, color, and depth of semiprecious stones. Emphasis is placed on strategies to propel imagined designs into finished jewelry.

Discover the magic of flame-working in this hands-on glass sculpture workshop. Participants learn to use a torch to melt borosilicate glass rods into both 2D and 3D networked sculptures, guided by the instructor and a team of expert flame workers. The workshop begins with clear glass to build a foundational understanding of the torch and how glass behaves when heated and manipulated. Once comfortable with the basics, participants may choose to work with colored glass. Through hands-on guidance, students develop the skills to create intricate, networked glass forms while exploring the material’s unique properties and expressive potential. Clear glass will be provided to students. A link to purchase colors will be provided in advance so students may bring their selected materials to the workshop.

Learn how to make sculptures that can withstand the test of time in this experimental workshop that joins steel, substrate, concrete, paper, and other coatings. Participants bend and weld steel armatures and structures–the bones of a sculpture–that can support surface materials that are textured, colorful, and durable. We concentrate on basic metalworking skills, covering techniques for problem-solving toward specialized forms. Students learn basic metal forming, bending, welding, and how to mix and apply various surface materials. The workshop integrates technical proficiency with experimental approaches that introduce unique textures and exciting new possibilities for durable and tactile sculpture.

This basic mold-making workshop focuses on plaster piece molds for slip and press-mold casting. Students are guided through the technical aspects of design of an object for casting, development of a plaster mold, and methods of casting. Discussion and demonstration give insight to how artists use this practice to create a catalog of forms and objects to use again and again in their work. Participants come away with knowledge of best practices, functioning piece molds, and a bisqued cast form.

Experience the power of hot metal casting in this two-week intensive workshop covering the entire process of creating a cast metal sculpture. Students start by learning how to create wax forms to be transformed into bronze or aluminum, then are guided through the highly technical process of creating the ceramic shell mold, the burn-out process, and casting hot metal. Participants also explore the green sand-casting technique for quick-casting possibilities. Students come away with the knowledge, vocabulary, and an understanding of cast metal’s place in contemporary art practice. This workshop is ideal for anyone who has never cast metal before and for those who wish to brush-up on their skills.

In this hands-on workshop, students use the Fab Lab’s laser cutter and CNC router to translate personal imagery and visual ideas into hybrid works that combine digital precision with analog expression. Pushing two-dimensional painting onto three-3 dimensional surfaces creates a dynamic sense of wall power, and lets us explore painting as an object through individual experimentation. Incorporating physical elements, and painting on a variety of substrates and collage develops a sense of physicality, space, and texture. Painters and sculptors alike are invited to step outside of the rectangular picture plane, developing a deeper understanding of material relationships and the sculptural potential of the painted surface.