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.

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 workshop, students learn the terminology associated with wood firing, and gain understanding of what happens during the firing and cooling processes. Participants are guided through observation systems such as the fire triangle and stoke scale, and learn how to move heat via interval stoking, and spicing up anemic wood ash via "watering your wood." Participants gain confidence making decisions during the wood firing process while creating new work and gaining valuable technical experience in wood firing.

This hand-building workshop invites participants to transform personal stories and images into sculptural form. By focusing on Kim’s’s specialized slab-building techniques and incorporating other handbuilding techniques, students explore clay as a medium of both structure and narrative, reflecting memories, dreams, and desires. This workshop emphasizes creative expression over technical mastery by shaping figures, objects, and abstract forms that carry meaning. Through modeling and storytelling, participants experience clay as a living material, discovering how touch and imagination merge to produce not only sculptures, but also vessels of personal voice, memory, and vision.

Students dive into the science behind ceramics in this clay-focused workshop, going beyond myths to gain a solid, scientific understanding of how clay bodies work. This course is designed to empower participants with the knowledge to control materials and optimize studio practices as they learn the origins, composition, and properties of earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. They learn how to analyze and apply clay formulas for throwing, construction, and casting. Students will master the principles of heat and temperature and learn to identify and correct common clay flaws, building a strong, fact-based foundation to transform their work.

During the workshop, participants discuss making forms that can be enhanced by the soda-firing process as well as what slips and materials to use for different effects in the firing. The workshop demonstrates a wide array of techniques for throwing and altering forms and gives students the opportunity to practice them. Vessels and sculptures will be created during the first week, followed by soda firings the following week.

In this intensive class on product design in clay, students focus on a combination of professional practices and hand-building strategies, learning the techniques behind crafting unique, tabletop-sized vessels. Through demonstrations, we learn essential design principles around shape, form, and silhouettes, and techniques for hand-building and coil-building. Participants receive personalized guidance and feedback on projects while developing technical and problem-solving skills. The goal is for each participant to complete a minimum of two models and two prototypes.

Young artists discover the endless possibilities in clay through its many creative forms, including functional ware and sculpture. This workshop, designed specifically for teens, introduces methods of handbuilding cups, mugs, and other forms. Participants learn basic coil, slab, extrusion, and pinch techniques as they develop skills and create from their imagination. Fun and informative, this workshop is for both beginning and experienced students who want to explore clay as an expressive medium.

In this intensive one-week workshop, students discover the possibilities of combining differently colored clays. We explore the Nerikomi method, a Japanese ceramic art technique that involves building intricate patterns by combining and laminating different clays, and learn how to hand-form functional and sculptural objects through a variety of patterning and building techniques.

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 today’s contemporary art landscape, where mixed media is increasingly prominent, exploring the development of 2D imagery for 3D forms offers a timely approach in ceramics. This two-week immersive workshop investigates the intersection of photography, digital processes, and ceramics, encouraging students to combine and expand these media in innovative ways.Focusing on narrative development, participants work with personal, found, or generated images to create compelling visual stories on clay surfaces. The workshop emphasizes the conceptual potential of photographic imagery and pictorial illustration, guiding students in designing and producing photographic decals for transfer onto fired ceramic forms. Students may work with handbuilt forms, then move into image preparation, design, and transfer techniques. By the end of the workshop, participants will have gained both technical skills and conceptual strategies to integrate 2D and 3D elements seamlessly, opening new possibilities for contemporary ceramic practice.

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.

Students focus on developing ideas that resonate with personal meaning and content through exercises and projects that bring forward shapes and forms with thoughtful resolutions. Students are challenged to create pottery and vessels that explore individual life experiences and add new techniques that further develop skills. Participants engage in making objects for the home and kitchen, bringing pleasure into everyday routines.

Learn innovative slab surface treatment techniques in this dynamic workshop that combines hand-building, textured decoration, underglaze screen-printing, and particularly the process of building textured slab-molds using fabric and plaster. Students design and create their own cast textured clay slabs, transforming them into sculptures or functional wares, and explore a technique for applying underglaze color patterns with EZ screens—a technique that can be done easily in a home studio. We learn the art of creating templates and stencils for printing onto clay slab surfaces, and come away from the workshop with plaster texture molds, screenprinted stencils, and several finished works. The workshop is ideal for students who are skilled in slab building functional pottery and want to invigorate their practices with new surface techniques.

This three-year mentorship program supports ceramic artists in deepening their practice and expanding their professional portfolios through guided mentorship within an immersive studio-research environment. Participants receive individualized support, dedicated studio time, and critical dialogue while working independently within a collaborative community of peers. The program emphasizes conceptual development, craftsmanship, experimentation, and interdisciplinary approaches. Over its course, artists refine their practice, develop innovative methods, and complete a capstone project that reflects their artistic growth while exploring clay's unique capacity to shape ideas, narratives, personal histories, and identities in transformative ways. In-Person Sessions at Anderson Ranch: Aug 10 - 21, 2026 Aug 9 - 20, 2027 Aug 7 - 18, 2028 Participants engage in a two-week in-person residency at Anderson Ranch (one each of the three consecutive summers), complemented by ongoing virtual engagement throughout the program. Each year includes two personalized one-on-one mentorship sessions via Zoom and a virtual group critique held in January. The program's final online Zoom meeting will be in April 2028, followed by the final on-campus two-week-long session in summer 2028. The final in-person session on campus culminates with a capstone exhibition in Anderson Ranch's Patton-Malott Gallery. Tuition is listed per year. Lodging and meals are additional. To Apply: Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis with a deadline of February 16, 2026. To apply, please complete the 2026 Advanced Mentored Studies Online Application. A non-refundable deposit of $650 per workshop is required to reserve a space for an adult. Questions? For more information about the next session of the Advanced Mentored Studies Program, please contact: Betsy Alwin, Artistic Director of Ceramics and Expanded Media, [email protected].

Be immersed in the experimental and unique characteristics of saggar firing. A saggar allows for multiple miniature atmospheric environments to develop in a gas kiln. We explore all the facets of saggar firing, from making saggars, producing the work to be fired, preparing the combustibles, and firing the finished pieces. The aim of this workshop is for students to learn about firing different combustibles and how they affect each outcome, and to leave with the knowledge to create their own firing vocabulary and keep on experimenting.

This workshop is designed for beginning students who have never touched clay before, and intermediate students wanting to improve their throwing skills. Students start with centering the clay and work their way to the creation of forms: cylinders, bowls, mugs, and vases. This workshop focuses on wheel-throwing, though participants are able to experiment with underglaze and slip decoration, and glazing. Work finished early in the week will be glaze fired to cone 6; work completed later in the week will be bisque fired.

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.

Clay printing, also known as clay monoprinting or printing with colored clay, offers a unique way to use clay—not by firing slabs, but by transforming them into richly detailed printing plates. Using pigments made from clay slips and universal tints, participants layer colors, textures, and patterns onto a slab of leather-hard clay to create one-of-a-kind imagery. Once the design is ready, special canvas is placed on top and hand-rolled, capturing the clay's intricate surface in a vibrant monoprint. The workshop combines clear instruction with playful experimentation, making it ideal for artists and enthusiasts eager to explore a new approach. Students leave with a collection of unique two-dimensional works on canvas.

This intensive workshop focuses on thinking, forming, and exploring new possibilities with utilitarian pottery. The guest artist, Chef Barclay Dodge, discusses presentation, creative decision-making, and seasonal influences, sharing a menu to inspire participants in the creation of tableware. Studio work and firings culminate in a multi-course meal—served on the dishes we make in the workshop — at the acclaimed Aspen restaurant Bosq. Demonstrations, discussions, and presentations focus on personal expression in pottery as it moves between both service and display.

Experience the meditative process of coiling delicate vessels in porcelain. During this one-week workshop, Joanne teaches how to effectively roll thin coils and use them to build basic forms. Participants gain confidence and skills, working up to complex forms, including the elegant Moon Jar. Students can expect to leave with new, refined skills to continue practicing in their home studios. Though the focus of this workshop is practice, students leave with some finished and some bisqued work. The workshop is for anyone who has taken beginner workshops or has had some experience with clay.