Ceramics: Handbuilding
Adult Summer Class | Registration opens Monday, May 4, 2026 8:00 AM EDT
Come learn the basic techniques of hand-building and sculptural design in ceramics. Each session will include time for instruction, and for practicing new techniques. Concepts and theories of 3D and 2D design will be covered along with ideas of form and function. Let your hands learn to do whatever your mind can dream up!
What you will learn:
- To throw a variety of small forms (cylinders, bowls, closed forms for more advanced students) on the wheel
- To create functional finished pots using trimming, handle-making, additive and reductive decoration, and glazing techniques
- To articulate their personal taste and vision, and use this to plan and execute pots they will enjoy using
Firing Schedule: All work should be placed on the bisque firing shelf by Friday, July 10 and on the glaze firing shelf by Friday, July 17 to guarantee it will be fired by the last week of classes. Students can continue to drop off work for glaze firing until Friday, July 31. Finished work can be picked up during operational hours between terms, or the following term. We will store unclaimed work for one term only. Questions about the firing schedule can be directed to Scott Cooper, Senior Studio Technician, at scooper@fleisher.org.
All artwork and supplies must be removed from Fleisher’s Ceramics Studio shelving by Friday, July 31 regardless of Fall 2026 registration status.
Accessibility Note: This studio is accessible by elevator, but some auxiliary areas require stairs. For access needs or accommodations, contact adulteducation@fleisher.org.
Isaac Scott
Isaac Scott is a multimedia artist who aims to reflect, absorb, and reinterpret the world around him. Working in photography, painting, and ceramics, his work is rooted in observation. In 2020, he documented Black Lives Matter activism in Philadelphia and around the country following the murder of George Floyd by police. His photographs were published in New Yorker Magazine. Taking that experience and knowledge, he pushes his artwork forward in an effort to create, as Scott states, “a monument that reflects the voices, emotions, and experiences of his environment”. His ceramic sculptures contain a similar resonance as the photography, but are entirely abstract. They take familiar forms such as a chalice or a column in order to establish cultural parallels, and elevate the everyday to the level of history.
https://www.isaacspottery.com/