Gathering Ways is spotlighting local Chonkush “Tusa” dePalatine in this Wild Clay & Pit-Fire Pottery workshop!
October 6-11th
This intensive 5-day workshop will be hosted in Jefferson County, WA, near Quilcene. Details TBD.
This class will be utilizing entirely hand-building techniques, no wheel. Pinch pots, free form, coil, and corrugated techniques will all be touched on. We will not be using glazes, but instead a finishing technique called burnishing using very smooth stones. Etching, embedding, or reliefing designs at different stages. Clay paints will be available for adding colours and designs. Even without glazes, you will learn how to produce lasting kitchen and cookware. You are welcome also to sculpt any other shape you like within the parameters of what can be safely fired. We will discuss the benefits of unglazed low fire pottery, and tips and troubleshooting for wild clays and pit fires. For the pit-fire, we will play with pulling pieces out to burn designs onto them, or oxidizing them to be completely black. This workshop will encourage experimentation and play over perfection and product. There is never a guarantee when we step into the transformative world of fire and clay that a finished product will result from the process. This is a process-oriented class that will help you learn what it takes to engage in the process and give you the confidence to be curious about the wild clays you encounter on this wild and beautiful Earth.
What will this course cover?
- harvesting wild clays - ethics and practice
- assessing wild clays for their uses
- hands on processing wild clays
- hands on sculpting with multiple types of wild clays
- blending clays for different properties
- ceremonial low-fire pit-firing
- talking about wild clays and their uses in many types of kilns
- & grog is more than a pirate’s drink :)
MEALS
Tuition includes lunch and dinner for 5 days, made from local organic produce and organic or better meat.
You bring your own breakfasts or talk with us if this will be too difficult for you.
AMENITIES
The location for this class is still TBD, but we will be near Quilcene, WA.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND WHAT TO BRING
Tuesday 6th-Thursday 8th Sculpting Friday 9th Processing clays, prepping for the fireSaturday 10th, pit-fire, weather permittingSunday 11th departure
Comfortable clothes for indoor/outdoor setting in all weather
Any hand-building pottery tools that you like to use (we’ll have plenty to share)
If you are local and can bring firewood to contribute, that is awesome
If you have any wild clays you are curious about, bring them!! Let’s play
Work-trade positions are available.
Work-traders are fed lunch on the days they help.
10% off if registering for more than one workshop
PRICE IS STILL TBD - check back by September 10th (will depend on the venue)
No matter the final price, there is a $50 non-refundable deposit in order to hold your spot.
Payable through Venmo to @chonkush or paypal chimacumcircle@protonmail.com
Questions???
Chonkush Tusa dePalatine bio:
“Tusa” loves working with her hands, coaxing connection from the loam of human and Earth as a body-worker, artist, and builder. Her 15+ years of relationship with wild clays began with neighborhood projects and home construction, and now extends into pottery.
Tusa lives in the Salish territories of the interior tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, where mountains meet sea with marvelous marl. She tempers her passion for somatic connection with nature and the healing arts through the practice of ancestral skills, as an amateur herbalist, fiberist, foodie, composer, and instrument maker.