Mohawk College Pottery Studio


At least half of all Brantford Potters Guild members have attended or are still attending our local community college. All four college instructors are members of our Guild. If you are interested in taking pottery classes at Mohawk College, Brantford Campus you should act early as the classes quickly fill up. This past year there were classes: Monday evening, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday evening, Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening. When the studio is not being used for a class we have 'open studio' allowing students to come in and work on their own. If Robin, the pottery technician and instructor is not present there is usually at least one advance student available to help the beginning student.

Classes are a mixture of beginner right through to advance students. Many of us have been taking classes for years. It is not unusual to have a beginner part one student sitting next to an advance student who has been taking classes for five or even ten years. Throwing (using the potter's wheel) is not difficult with most beginners being able to throw simple pots their first term. But getting to the stage were you can consistently make large complex shapes on the wheel usually takes years. Many of the more advanced students have wheels and even kiln at home. Many student potters take about four or five years before they feel confident enough to start selling their work in our Guild sales. Some student potters never enter our sales but prefer to give their work away to family and friends.


In this picture you can clearly see some of the potter's wheels. The studio has a total of fifteen wheels. All of the pictures were taken at the end of the school year. Normally the shelves are filled with student work. These pieces are wrapped in plastic so that they don't dry out and are called greenware. The next class the potter will trim the bottom of the pot, removing excess clay and often adding a foot. Any handles or spouts are also added at this time. The pots are then placed on the greenware shelves and allowed to completely dry before being bisqued fired in the electric kilns.


In the middle of the room are three tables. The table at the front has a plaster top on which clay is dried out - after all even with the more advanced students some of their pots fail. The table on the left is used for wedging the clay. The clay is wedged (like kneading bread) to remove all air bubble. The third table is used for hand building. At the back is a slab roller. While it is possible to flatten clay with a rolling pin, the slab roller allows large pieces of clay to quickly flatten for hand building.



For page 2 click on lower picture or select studio 2 from menu