Fridays in October: After-School Workshops -- Colfax

Want to book this class in Pullman? Click here. In Moscow? Click here. 

Join Terracotta Colfax After-School for an immersive, multi-media artist workshop! Select the day(s) of the week that work best for your schedule, and develop new skills in sculpting, the pottery wheel, fused glass, sgraffito, and glazing.

Our after-school youth workshops meet weekly, with our artists building their skills through the process of creating pottery and fused glass. Our young artists are welcome to arrive in the studio as soon as they can make it after school (after 3:15pm), and can stay until 5:30pm.

Our October theme is "Spooky Season" and will feature Halloween and harvest-inspired projects, including: 

1) Custom Ceramic ghosts with hats, bows and other accessories. This project lets our young artists get comfortable with the process of shaping, handling and attaching clay--skills they will continue to build on all month.

2)  A haunted mini-house out of clay. Young artists will use the slab roller, texture tools and other sculpting methods to create one-of-a-kind, spooky mini houses. They will get their projects assembled in this workshop, and prepared to slow dry and return to work on the following week.

3) Our young artists will continue detail work on their haunted buildings, learning about and trying techniques  that are only possible once the clay has dried to a "leather hard" state. They will have the chance to apply underglazes and sgraffito to their works. As artists complete the project, they are invited to try out the pottery wheel for the first time.

4)A jack-o-lantern or customized ghost fused glass sun catcher, or both! As artists complete their projects, they will have another chance to try the pottery wheel.

5) Free Choice of art forms and projects to apply their month of practice on an idea of their own! They can choose fused glass, sculpting or the pottery wheel. 

About our after-school series:

 Shorter or longer months will expand or contract activities to fit the appropriate number of weeks.

• Week One: Tweens and kids will explore the month’s seasonal theme while learning some basic sculpting and slab-building techniques. Artists will become oriented to the studio, how to use our tools and slab-roller, and how to take care of our shared space. Artists will begin sculpting their first functional piece of pottery.
• Week Two: Students will sculpt their second piece of functional pottery by following their inspiration and creating a project of their choice, using our full studio of templates, tools and equipment, with the help of our instructors. Projects can range from vases to mugs, bowls to candle vessels, and lidded boxes, teapots and more. Our artists will spend time continuing to work on finishing details of this project in Week 3. 
• Week Three: Students will experiment with sgraffito techniques to add color and decoration to their creations through carving and painting. Artists will also be introduced to the art of fused glass and create a magnet or pendant.
• Week Four: Students will have the opportunity to spend the last day of our month-long workshop on our studio wheels! Kids and tweens will take our wheels for a spin with the expert support of our studio teachers, and spend the other half of the class glazing their pottery creations from the prior weeks. Students who choose not to try the wheel will be able to continue creating another fused glass project instead.

Prices include all instruction, clay, tools, kiln firing, and dip-glazing. Pottery is generally ready to glaze two weeks after creating.

Artists are encouraged to pack a light snack or bring a few dollars to pick out a snack at one of our local cafes. At about midway through the workshop our group will go for a short walk to grab a snack at one of our neighbor cafés and look for inspiration in the natural world—like leaves, flowers, insects and rocks-- that can be incorporated in their art.