Ceramic Taster Course - in partnership with Turning Earth - Camden Art Centre
Type
Courses & Workshops
Format
In the Building
Date 10 Aug/17 Sep 2025
Price £260/£265
Booking information:

These courses run for six weeks, please ensure you can attend the session dates before booking. The course takes place on Wednesday or Sunday mornings, 10.30am-1.30pm in Camden Art Centre's ceramic studio.

Delivered in partnership with:
Turning Earth

This six week course is suitable for students who have no previous experience working with clay but are intrigued by ceramics and are looking to discover what the process of making ceramics involves.

This course consists of 6 sessions. Each session is a lesson of 3 hours (including cleaning up at the end of the lesson).

Session 1: An introduction to ceramic materials and the processes of making and firing ceramics, as well as Health & Safety in the studio. You will learn how to prepare your clay and start working on your first project.

Sessions 2-4: Students continue to work on their projects while the teacher introduces new techniques to build on your skills, including hand-building, wheel throwing and glazing.

‍Session 5: Cut-off point for the firing queue. This session is dedicated to applying finishing touches to your projects and getting your pots ready to be bisque fired.

Session 6: Dedicated to glazing your pots. These are usually ready to be collected 2-3 weeks after the end of your course.

Course dates and booking About Turning Earth Classes About Turning Earth

Course dates and booking

10th August-14th September
10.30am-1.30pm

Click here to book

13th August-17th September
10.30am-1.30pm

Click here to book

About Turning Earth Classes

Students who come to a Turning Earth class will be introduced to each stage of the multi-step process of making their first pottery pieces. Class participants spend roughly half of the time getting to grips with the principle hand-building techniques, and the other half mastering the wheel.

Firstly, your teacher will introduce you to studio life and its processes. You will then learn how to properly prepare clay, and some of the fundamental techniques used to make forms, such as pinching, coiling and building with slabs. You will also learn about the wheel. Importantly, how to centre your work, and how to begin to effectively form the various shapes that are possible using this technique.

When the pieces will be dry, they will be bisque-fired. At this stage, you can choose from and apply one (or even two) of the many glazes available.

About Turning Earth

Turning Earth pioneered the open-access ceramics membership model in the UK. Launching in 2013, they brought to London a model of community ceramics makerspace that had been developing in the US, and subsequently inspired many similar studios around the world. Since then, they have opened four studios: Hoxton, Leyton, Highgate, and In Production (a shared studio for more professional potters, next to their Leyton site). They run monthly memberships and weekly beginners and intermediate classes in each of their studios. www.turningearth.org

Turning Earth