Ceramics: Handbuilding (Tuition-Free)

Ceramics: Handbuilding (Tuition-Free)

Adult Tuition-Free Class | Registration opens Monday, July 13, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

All levels welcome, recommended for beginners. | Accessibility: stairs
9/9/2026-11/11/2026
1:00 PM-4:00 PM EDT on Wed
$25.00
$50.00

Ceramics: Handbuilding (Tuition-Free)

Adult Tuition-Free Class | Registration opens Monday, July 13, 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:
- Basic techniques for hand-building: pinch, soft slab, and hard slab construction; scoring; carving
- Sculptural concepts including additive and reductive processes
- Basic glaze and underglaze techniques
- Form and function

Firing Schedule: Once work is placed on the firing shelf, turnaround time is typically one week but may be longer depending on the thickness and size of the work, as well as overall studio production. All work must be placed on the bisque firing shelf by Friday, October 30, to guarantee firing before the final week of classes.

To accommodate increased demand at the end of the term, all work placed on the glaze firing shelf by Monday, November 16, is guaranteed to be ready for pickup by Friday, December 11. Work submitted after November 16 will be fired as studio capacity allows. Firings between semesters are less frequent and operate on a limited schedule, so work may not be available for pickup until studio hours between terms or the start of the following term.

Questions about the firing schedule may be directed to Scott Cooper, Senior Studio Technician, at scooper@fleisher.org.

All artwork, tools, and clay must be removed from the Fleisher Ceramics Studio shelving by the final class session, including by students registered for the Winter 2027 term. Unclaimed bisque or glaze work will be stored for one term only. Greenware will be discarded.


Please note: Tuition-free classes require an active Fleisher membership.

  • - 25lbs of earthenware clay is included in your registration - no outside clay is permitted (prolific students may purchase additional clay from Fleisher).
    - Hard fettling knife
    - 1/4-inch inexpensive brush for applying slip
    - 1-inch soft brush for glaze
    - Clean-up sponge
    - Needle tool
    - Soft rubber rib/scraper
    - Wooden knife tool
    - Metal fork
    - Plastic bags

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/