Hand Building with Clay
with Ghaz Ahmad
Long before the wheel was invented, people made clay pots using various hand building techniques.
This course explores those techniques and offers students the opportunity to develop their own projects, first in stoneware and then in porcelain.
Summer Term 2024
Hand Building: continued skills
Develop your hand building techniques, building on the skills you have previously learned. You will also learn new techniques and more advanced methods of working with clay. You will be able to focus on particular aspects of hand building if you prefer, whether that is coiling, slab work or advanced pinch pots. There will be a focus on ongoing project work which can span several weeks if necessary. This course is suitable for people with some experience already in hand building.
Project Definition
Project work in each of the modules will include designing, making and finishing the work to the point that it is leather hard. Projects can be worked on in successive weeks if necessary. If students wish to have their work bisque fired, glaze their work and then have it high-fired, this can be arranged with the studio. Please note that all projects that are to be fired need to be designed with the dimensions of the studio kiln in mind. The studio makes a small additional charge for each piece to be fired based on its weight.
This course is suitable for beginner and intermediate levels.
Gallery
Reviews for Ghaz Ahmad…
“ If you’d like to try your hand at something new, I thoroughly recommend one of Ghaz’s handbuilding classes. Ghaz’ is just inspirational and is a wonderful teacher. He makes making large platters and bowls just so easy, and although it is not straightforward, (a lot of thought and preparation and finishing off goes into making these) it is such fun. Ghaz started the class by showing us how moulds are made. He then provided a vast number of these - various shapes and sizes - from which we could choose one in order to create a masterpiece! He is very patient and managed to answer our questions and was hands on in helping us. Day 1 saw our masterpieces being made and day 2 was spent finessing our piece, then decorating it. Just such fun and I learned such a lot. Can’t wait to sign up to another session, Ghaz!.”
“I’ve just completed the 2-day workshop with Ghaz Ahmad and enjoyed it so much that I’ve booked the full course. Ghaz is a lovely, enthusiastic, patient instructor. All the participants had the chance to hand-build two pieces each and I can’t to see them come out of the kiln! I had a lot of fun over the two days and can’t recommend this class highly enough.”
“Really enjoyed my two-day introduction to hand-building (plates and bowls) with Ghaz Ahmad. Never tried it before and thoroughly enjoyed it: well organized, intense, and certainly a lot of fun. Time flew!”