SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
In this class, students will learn essential handbuilding techniques like pinching and coiling to create vessels inspired by a historical object (e.g., a Jomon pot, Minoan octopus vase, or Incan Moche vessel). A great way to incorporate personal narrative and explore ceramics’ rich history.
The course enhances handbuilding skills and concepts through in-depth practice and discussions on techniques, surface decoration, and materials, alongside perfecting fundamentals like wedging and glazing.
Day One:
Students will cover basic handbuilding techniques and complete their first, smaller vessel, gaining hands-on experience. The instructor will provide resources for researching the historical object for the second project.
Day Two:
This session focuses on refining the first vessel and starting the second. Students will learn about form design principles, discuss their chosen object’s history, and explore ways to integrate personal stories into their work.
Days Three and Four:
These sessions are dedicated to developing the personalized vessel project. With guidance, students will apply their skills to create a unique vessel that reflects their creativity and evolving style.
Dates: November 7th, 14th, & 21st
PLUS One 30-minute private lesson + 2.5 hours of wheel time (arranged on the first day of class).
This class will begin with the basics of throwing pottery on the wheel and guide students towards their choice of creating one of three final forms: cups, bowls, or planters. The first session will cover the fundamental mechanics and processes of wheel throwing. The second session will focus on the nuances of form and technique for your specific project, while the third and fourth sessions will be dedicated to refining your work.
CLAY DATES
- NOV 1ST: Set of ORNAMENTS
- NOV 8TH: Pair of BUD VASES
- NOV 15th: Pair of PLANTERS
- NOV 22nd: Pair of NERIKOMI TUMBLERS
- Nov 29th: Pair of PET BOWLS
Connect over clay with a loved one! Handbuild ceramic art and lasting memories. Clay Dates include a handbuilding demo, all materials needed and firing. When registering, one ticket ($70) is good for two people. No experience necessary.
Capacity: 10 (5 couples)
Age: 10-14 w/an adult or 14+
CLAY PLAY AT ILWACO ARTWORKS COMMUNITY CLAY STUDIO 10am-1pm
Clay Plays are casual, beginner-friendly pottery sessions where you will learn basic ceramic handbuilding skills to create functional or decorative objects. Ages 10+ with an adult or ages 14+. Pieces are glazed, fired and ready for pick up in 3-6 weeks. Shipping is available for our visiting attendees for $15 plus shipping costs.
- Sat 11/2: Sugar Skulls
- Sun 11/3: Tree Luminaries
- Sat 11/9: Wine Cups
- Sun 11/10: Handled Cups
- Sat 11/16: Soap Dishes & Spoon Rests
- Sun 11/24: Ornaments & Winter Decor
- Sat/Sun 11/30 & 12/1: Gingerbread Houses
- Inspiration for upcoming Clay Plays
- Please email souwestertv@gmail.com to join a waitlist!
- Ilwaco Artworks Community Clay Studio – 109 1st Ave N Ilwaco, WA
- Visiting attendees can have their pieces shipped! We will invoice you for $15 handling, plus the cost of shipping.
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Returns: We understand that sometimes plans change. For Clay Plays: We will issue a full refund up to 7 days from the event. Cancellations within 7 days of the event will be issued a refund OR credit towards a future class minus a $15 cancellation fee if notified. No refunds if canceled the same day as the event. No refunds for no call, no shows.
Large Lidded Jars Workshop
w/visiting artist, Taylor Stefanski at Ilwaco Artworks. Ages 16+ and all experience levels welcome. 2pm-6pm. $110/person
In this workshop we will create our own large lidded jars! These jars are great for storing sundries, snacks or small items like rice and coffee. The first day we will create our jars and lids. On the second day we will finish the assembly of our lid and personalize our pieces with stamps, carving and color!
Taylor’s work is deeply inspired by the sea. Explores ideas of imperfection and honors the nature of the tides through meditative repetition. Expressed in the chosen hand building process – each of their pieces are created primarily using a coil building technique. Where she rolls each coil by hand to create each unique, one of a kind forms. Graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with a focus on printmaking and sculpture. Their ceramic work is carried in a variety of stores in Seattle, Portland and LA. She currently works and teaches in her studio in Capitol Hill.
Helen Gillet Live at The Sou’wester Lodge
11/16/2024 | 8pm
Free & open to the public
Helen Gillet is a musician, composer, cellist, singer (Belgian French & English), improviser and
looping artist. Her prolific career has won her awards of Offbeat Best of the Beat, Gambit Big
Easy Awards, featured artist at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and has been nominated three
times, most recently in 2023, as a rising star in Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll. She has
played, recorded with many musicians over the past 20 years, including members of the Sun Ra
Arkestra, AACM (Chicago), ICP (Holland), Members of Morphine, Kidd Jordan, Marianne
Faithful, Cassandra Wilson, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Steve Earle, Iron & Wine (North
America Tour 2018), Zachary Richard, opened up as a solo artist for Les Claypool at the
Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans in 2003 and Jeff Tweedy at Lincoln Center in 2019. She has
performed at a variety of festivals and venues worldwide including the Copenhagen Jazz
Festival, Dark MOFO Festival in Tasmania, Darwin World Music Festival, New Orleans Jazz
Festival, New Direction Cello Society Festival at Berkeley College of Music, Kennedy Center
and at The Big Ears Music Festival in 2024 and many more.
Helen Gillet is a singer-songwriter and surrealist-archeologist exploring synthesized sounds,
texture, and rhythm using an acoustic cello. For someone with her varied background, New
Orleans, with its mix of cultures and musics, seemed like a natural place to call home.
Exploring Raku, Obvara, and Alternative Firing Methods
In this hands-on class, you’ll explore alternative firing techniques such as Raku, Obvara, and more, in a communal kiln firing setting. Each method involves opening the kiln while it’s red-hot and applying ancient techniques to create fascinating, one-of-a-kind pieces.
Option one $40: Pick up 2lbs of raku clay at the studio any time after purchase and build your pieces at home. Drop your work off at the studio to be bisque-fired by Nov 3rd. Then, join us for the raku fire where we will glaze and fire your pieces and they will be ready to take home that day. Basic tools kits are also for sale in the studio.
Option two $60: Join us on Nov 17th, 10a-1p and choose from pre-made, bisqued pieces to be glazed and fired and taken home that day!
American Raku is a contemporary take on the traditional Japanese method. In this process, works are removed from the kiln at peak heat, where rapid oxidation or combustible reduction produces dramatic surface effects on the clay and glaze. The results, uniquely colored by fire and smoke, are ready to handle in less than an hour. While pre-made ceramic vessels are provided by Ilwaco Artworks, students are encouraged to create their own pieces.
Obvara—also known as “Baltic Raku”—is a little known Eastern European technique in which pottery, fresh from the kiln, is quickly submerged into a fermented mixture of water, sugar, and yeast. This process results in organic, black-and-white surface patterns and pigmentation that are completely unique, and is completed in under an hour.
In this class, students will learn essential handbuilding techniques like pinching and coiling to create vessels inspired by a historical object (e.g., a Jomon pot, Minoan octopus vase, or Incan Moche vessel). A great way to incorporate personal narrative and explore ceramics’ rich history.
The course enhances handbuilding skills and concepts through in-depth practice and discussions on techniques, surface decoration, and materials, alongside perfecting fundamentals like wedging and glazing.
Day One:
Students will cover basic handbuilding techniques and complete their first, smaller vessel, gaining hands-on experience. The instructor will provide resources for researching the historical object for the second project.
Day Two:
This session focuses on refining the first vessel and starting the second. Students will learn about form design principles, discuss their chosen object’s history, and explore ways to integrate personal stories into their work.
Days Three and Four:
These sessions are dedicated to developing the personalized vessel project. With guidance, students will apply their skills to create a unique vessel that reflects their creativity and evolving style.