Three New Handbuilding Workshops in July and August! Two With Local Artist Janly Jaggard and One In Partnership With The Art Hive!

We have had quite a few queries about whether we were going to have new handbuilding workshops this summer, and we are very excited to officially announce three! Two, a Sculptural Coiled Forms workshop starting July 16 and an intensive Clay Slabbing and Hollow Forms workshop beginning August 9 (both geared towards adults age 14+), are taught by special guest artist and instructor Janly Jaggard. The third, for young people ages 10–18, entitled coil pot planters | 3 day clay workshop, is a “co-production” by Staunton Clayground, the Art Hive and Mottainai! Click the links or read on to learn more about all of them!

Let’s start with that last one, “coil pot planters | 3 day clay workshop,” because it is starting first (Wednesdays, July 10, 17, 24, from 1:00–4:00 pm)! Designed for young people ages 10–18, it is set to take place at Staunton Claygroundand the Art Hive.

During the first day, taking place in our clay studio, “Get inspired by indigenous potters Maria Martinez & Louise Goodman as you dive into the art of coil pot construction. We'll share stories and techniques while you build your very own coil pot, ready to house your favorite plant.” The last two sessions will be hosted at the Art Hive. During these two, students will first decorate their pots using underglaze painting then, to wrap up the workshop, “Join Jacque from Mottainai for a fun session on planting and caring for your new green buds in your beautiful vessel!

Don't miss out on this hands-on experience where art meets nature!” Tickets available here!

Our next two new handbuilding workshops, both for adults, are taught entirely at the Staunton Clayground by a special guest instructor, local artist Janly Jaggard. Here’s a link to her bio on our website, and you can check out her art on her own website here!

The first will be a Sculptural Coiled Forms workshop, taking place over five 3-hour sessions, 1:00–4:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, July 16, 19, 23, 26 and August 6, 2024.

“It will deal with several aspects of working with earthenware clay and has both the beginner and the experienced clay worker in mind. The focus will be on material and on the design skills that will build aesthetic discernment about handbuilding skills as well as shape, form, surface and texture. Students will begin with drawings or other found references, like images that are of plant and other natural forms such as seaweed, trees, sand dunes, clouds, leaves, legs, etc., which will be the starting point for shape and form and then detail of texture and color.”

The second is an intensive workshop, Clay Slabbing and Hollow Forms, consisting of two 6-hour sessions + glazing day: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. on Sat. and Sun., August 9 and 10, and glazing Fri., Aug. 30, 10:00 a.m. until finished (may take less time than the previous two sessions).

As Janly Jaggard writes, “Slabbing is a technique that uses leather-hard clay construction and recalls real-world angular shapes. These shapes are the inspiration for the project students will create in this workshop. Ideas will come from references to buildings, man-made forms such as machines, and manufactured forms. We will make plans and drawings on paper then work on rolling out clay. Exploration of methods of joining slabs and developing surface decoration will be next, as the clay gets to leather hard and ready for building. Decoration and embellishment includes adding clay, piercing, carving, and using color.”

If, on the other hand, it is wheel classes you’re looking for, more experienced wheel throwers ages 14+ can join Nicole Eyerman Hill for her 3-day Wheel Throwing & Surface Decoration workshop, Vases & Carving, in which students will focus on throwing small vases with slightly thicker than usual walls, making it possible to carve out faceting or other designs once the vessels are leather-hard.

This is an interesting way to add interest to the surface of any piece, and can be done either on plain clay as a way to show off the effects of particular glazes or in combination with colored slip or underglaze decoration applied before clear-glazing.

We hope to add at least one more beginner wheel class over the summer, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, thank you to everyone who has applied for our Studio Membership program! You can expect to hear from us very soon 😃 We’re working through those applications right now!

See you soon at the Staunton Clayground!

Membership Applications Now Open! Check Out Our Membership Info Page And Apply Now :-)

Hello Friends of the Staunton Clayground!

Just a quick note to remind you that Studio Membership applications have just become available as of 4pm today, Saturday, June 22.

Click this link to visit our Membership Info page, and at the bottom you will find the application.

Applications will be evaluated on a first-come-first-serve basis, so we urge you to apply now if you are interested. We will be starting off with a limited number of members and increasing that slowly over time as we see how things go!

It will take us a few days to process these first applications, but we will get back to you as soon as we can if you fill one out. Accepted members can expect to be invited to one of a series of tutorials we will be holding over the next several days. The studio will officially open for members on Saturday, July 6 at 7am! It will then be available for members to come and work from 7am–10pm, 7 days a week (excluding major holidays).

Come and clay! 😃

Instructor Showcase at Hotel 24 South until June 27! Plus, Studio Membership applications open Saturday, after the Open House!

Well, it’s officially summer! I love this season here in Staunton, when Beverley Street turns into a pedestrian zone on weekends and you can stroll from shop to shop, dine al fresco, see kids making chalk murals in the middle of the street, eat gelato, go to outdoor plays and concerts, enjoy live music great shopping at the farmers’ market and, of course, retreat to our lovely cool Staunton Clayground studio to play with clay!

Our town gets plenty of visitors who enjoy downtown, but even if you’re a local, you might want to try and pop into Hotel 24 South sometime in the next few days, because you only have until June 27 to check out the Staunton Clayground Instructor Showcase display in the lobby!

We’ve put together a display window where you can learn about our staff and instructors and their work, and everyone lent us some pretty cool pieces to exhibit. So, when you’re walking around downtown this weekend enjoying Staunton’s very own seasonal pedestrian promenade, stop by Hotel 24 South and see who your teachers might be when you sign up for a class!

Speaking of which, there are still a couple of spots left in our Pottery Wheel For All-Level Beginners class startingthis coming Tuesday!

Or would you rather join us in our nice cool studio this summer and play with clay whenever the fancy strikes you? We’re launching our Studio Membership program next month, so you could do just that! We’re hosting a special Open House dedicated to answering all of your questions about becoming and being a member tomorrow, Saturday, June 22, from 11am–3pm (read the original blog post about it or check out the Facebook Event page for more details), so stop in if you can! The membership application form will open to the general public at 4pm the same day (which is when this link to the Membership Information page and its embedded application form at the bottom of the page will start working). Initial spaces will be limited as we get the program up and running. Applications will be evaluated in the order they are received, so click the above link Saturday at 4pm if you’re interested! Members will be able to start using the studio 7 days a week, 7am–10 pm, starting on Saturday, July 6!

Come and see us!

Is that all? I think so… oh, boy, we've sure got a lot going on around here! We are so excited, and hope that you are, too! 😃

Enjoy the weekend downtown, stay cool, and we’ll see you soon at the Staunton Clayground!

Membership Q&A Open House Reminder! Plus, 2 Spots Left In Beginner Wheel Class Starting Tuesday, June 25

Things have definitely been heating up at the studio, and not just because of our kilns 😁

We have been hard at work not just setting up a ton of great classes (taking place inside where it is nice and cool 😉) but also getting ready to launch our Studio Membership Program next month! And July is just around the corner, so we wanted to remind you about our special Open House happening this Saturday, June 22, from 11–3, for the express purpose of answering all of your questions about memberships, classes and anything else you might want to know about what we’re up to!

We are very excited to show you our new member space and tell you all about what we’re planning. Not only that, but there will be refreshments and door prizes for 3 lucky winners, who will get a discount on their first 3 months as members! Come down and see us! Tell your friends! RSVP on Facebook, if you like. We can’t wait to see you there.

Also, our wheel classes have been filling up fast, but there are still 2 spots left in the Pottery Wheel For All-Level Beginners class starting this coming Tuesday, June 25! It will run Tuesday evenings, 5:30–8:30 pm for 5 weeks.

Come down and clay!

New Sunday Pottery Wheel All-Level Beginner Class Announced And Last Call For "Bowls & Underglaze" Workshop, Starting Tuesday!

We hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend and staying cool!

We’re writing with some exciting news! We have just posted a new Pottery Wheel For All-Level Beginners class, set to run on Sunday afternoons, 2:30–5:00 pm, June 30–July 28 and August 11, 2024.

Why have we added another one? Well, we have had a lot of requests for Sunday classes, plus the other all-level beginners wheel class we posted just a couple of weeks ago is already nearly sold out! If you were interested in that one, which will be running on Tuesdays evenings, 5:30–8:30 pm, June 25–July 23, now is the time to grab one of the few spots remaining!

If you already have some experience at the wheel and are itching to get your hands back in the clay a little sooner, there’s still a little time to book a spot in Nicole Eyerman Hill’s pottery wheel and surface decoration workshop starting this Tuesday, Bowls & Underglaze.

It will consist of three 3-hour sessions, running from 5:30–8:30 pm on Tuesday, June 18, Friday, June 21 and Friday, June 28, 2024. Sign-ups close after Sunday, June 16, so if you’re interested, now’s the time!

Last but not least, don’t forget about our Open House on Saturday, June 22, from 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.!

This event will be specifically dedicated to answering your questions about our Membership Program, which is set to start up very soon! Look for the Facebook Event page, going up this week.

Keep watching this space for news about this and more great summer workshops!

Wishing you a great weekend and, to all of you Dads out there, Happy Father’s Day! 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

Grab Your Spot In Our Bowls & Underglaze Workshop Starting June 18 - Part Of Our Wheel-Throwing & Surface Decoration Series

We’ve got so many classes and workshops starting this month, and the next one is scheduled to launch just a week from today! We are calling potters with some wheel experience to join our next three-day wheel-throwing and surface decoration workshop, Bowls and Underglazes!

If you can throw a basic 4-inch cylinder on your own, then this workshop is for you!

The talented Nicole Eyerman Hill of @eyerman.art will teach participants how to expand their portfolio of decorative techniques beyond simple glazing to create wares that can still be functional and food-safe!

The workshop will take place over three days, from 5:30–8:30 pm on Tuesday, June 18, Friday, June 21 and Friday, June 28.

That first session is just a week away, so, if you’re interested, now is the time to grab your spot.

More fun is coming soon, so keep watching this space!

Wishing you a great week!

Last Call For Sign-ups for "Mugs & Sgraffito" Workshop, Plus, Opening Reception at the BSSS Gallery Tonight!

We hope you’ve had a fabulous week. We started our first All-Level Beginners Wheel-Throwing Class on Monday and are very happy to be off and running (or spinning 😁). We’re also excited for the coming week, when we’re going to launch our first workshop of the three-part surface-decoration series being taught this summer by Nicole Eyerman Hill.

In sgraffito technique, a colored surface layer is carved or scraped away to reveal the clay beneath, thus creating the design

The first part, Mugs & Sgraffito, is set to begin on Tuesday, June 11. This workshop is designed for potters with some wheel experience, so if you think this could be the one for you, now is the time to grab a spot! Sign-ups close at the end of the day on Saturday, June 8, so don’t miss your chance!

Also, we wanted to remind you that this evening from 5:30–7:00 is the Opening Reception of Volume and Solitude, a really wonderful exhibition (and we can say that because we’ve been there!) at the Beverley Street Studio Gallery(located inside the Co-Art Gallery space at 22 West Beverley St. in downtown Staunton). Check out the Newsleader article about it that was published this week! The exhibition is curated by our very own Janly Jaggard. Don’t miss your chance to meet the artists tonight!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Studio Membership Q&A Open House, Saturday, June 22, 11am–3pm

Exciting news! It has been an action-packed last six weeks or so since we opened our doors. We’ve run a few classes, helped lots of folks get their hands dirty (in the very best way) and made a lot of new friends!

After this soft opening, we are finally gearing up to launch our Studio Membership program by next month, and we would like to invite you to join us later in June for a special Open House dedicated specifically to answering all of your questions about becoming a member of the Staunton Clayground!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 22, from 11:00 am–3:00 pm. We will be here to tell you all about it and show you around the studio, if you haven’t had a chance to see it just yet.

There will be refreshments and a door prize of a discount on the first three months of membership for 3 lucky visitors! Stay a while, ask us any questions you have, and we will answer you or even give you a quick equipment demo if need be!

Also, if you made a garden stake at our last Open House and still haven’t picked it up, you can do that on June 22, too!

We are so excited to be nearly ready for this moment we’ve all been waiting for!

Keep watching this space for updates. See you soon at the Staunton Clayground 😃

New Pottery Wheel All-Level Beginner Class Added! June 25–July 23, Sign-Ups Now Open!

It certainly has been an eventful few weeks since our first Open House back in April. Our very first Intro to Clay classwrapped up last week and our first two handbuilding workshops are in full swing, with students’ pieces from both just about ready for the final step, glazing!

“What about pottery wheel classes?” you might ask. Well, the first two Pottery Wheel For All-Level Beginner classes we posted both sold out well before their start dates, so we are very happy to announce that we have just managed to schedule an additional one!

cue drum roll

Space is limited! Grab your spot now!

Sign-ups are now open for a brand new 15-hour Pottery Wheel For All-Level Beginners class, starting on June 25! It will consist of five three-hour sessions, running on Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30, June 25 through July 23, and be taught by Nicole Eyerman Hill. You may know her work from seeing her booth at Art in the Park or from seeing her page on instagram.

We are doing our best to understand what it is that everyone in our community is most interested in and plan our future classes accordingly! If there is something specific you or a friend is interesting in learning and it is not already among the Staunton Clayground class and workshop offerings, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do. We want to know what it is that you want to learn!

Meanwhile, if you see a past class that makes you wish you’d been there, no worries. We plan to offer repeats of our popular classes in the future.

In other news, a lot of you have been asking about when we are going to open up our studio for memberships. Well, we are working now on hammering out the final details of our membership program! We are planning a special open house geared specifically towards answering all of your membership questions. We’ll have the date nailed down in the next few days, so keep watching this space!

Meanwhile, we wish you all a marvelous weekend!

Ceramic Art Exhibition Opening Downtown This Friday at the Beverley Street Studio School

This week we are very excited to announce the opening of a ceramics art exhibition, Volume and Solitude, of which we are a proud sponsor.

The exhibition will open this coming Friday, May 31, at the Beverley Street Studio School Gallery at 22 West Beverley Street, and run for seven weeks, until July 27.

Curated by our very own Janly Jaggard (who will be teaching two workshops at the Staunton Clayground later this summer) it features the work of four different ceramic artists, Noah Hughey-Commers, Katherine Maloney, Tom Clarkson, and Kevin Crowe, and is well worth a visit!

The Opening Reception will be held on June 7, from 5:30–7:00. We plan to be there with bells on and we hope you can make it, too!

If you can’t make it to the opening or if you just want to visit the show, the Gallery is open Wed. & Sun. 1–5, Thurs. & Sat. 10–6, and Friday 10–8.

Stay tuned for more news about Janly Jaggard’s upcoming workshops and more, coming soon!

New Modular Workshop Series Coming in June & July! Surface Decoration for Wheel-Thrown Vessels: Take One, Two or All Three

Get ready for an exciting series of three modular nine-hour workshops with local potter and Staunton Clayground instructor Nicole Eyerman Hill (@eyerman.art), focusing on different surface decoration techniques applied to wheel-thrown work. Pick just one, two or take all three in a row to develop and add a whole new portfolio of creative skills to your pottery creation (15% discount on a future class or workshop for people who sign up for all three classes!). Participants must already have experience with the wheel (be able to throw a 4-inch-tall cylinder unassisted). First workshop kicks off on June 11, so grab your spots now!

Module 1 –  Mugs & sgraffito: 5:30–8:30 pm on Tues., 06/11, Thurs., 06/13, Thurs. 06/20

Students will first focus on making mugs with a design and shape that lend themselves to sgraffito decoration. They will then move on to learning how to use this technique to decorate their vessels, using a variety of carving tools on colored slips and underglazes applied to the surface of the clay body.

Module 2 –   Bowls & underglaze: 5:30–8:30 pm on Tues. 06/18, Fri., 06/21, Fri., 06/28 

Students will focus on making bowls with an interior surface adorned with painted-on underglaze. This is a fun and practical way to add decoration to the inside of a bowl while still allowing it to be used as functional tableware, if desired, since the underglaze is then sealed with a layer of clear mid-fire glaze to make it water-tight and food-safe.

Module 3 – Vases & carving: 5:30–8:30 pm on Wed., 07/10, Sat., 07/13, Sat., 07/20

Students will focus on throwing small vases with slightly thicker than usual walls, making it possible to carve out faceting or other designs once the vessels are leather-hard. This is an interesting way to add interest to the surface of any piece, and can be done either on plain clay as a way to show off the effects of particular glazes or in combination with colored-slip or underglaze decoration applied before clear-glazing.

We hope you’ll come and clay!

Looking for something to do next week? Speaking of workshops, there’s still one spot left in our Sculptural Slab Creations workshop, starting this coming Tuesday. This is a handbuilding workshop that is suitable for people with no clay experience as well as returning potters.

Stay tuned for more upcoming classes & workshops, coming very soon!

Meanwhile, a lovely Memorial Day weekend to all of you from all of us at Staunton Clayground.

A Great Weekend at the Staunton Clayground… With Our First Handbuilding Workshop and Garden Stake Pick-Up!

What a great weekend we had at Staunton Clayground.

The studio was a hive of activity as we kicked off our first weekend workshop, Slab Geometric Vases, taught by Nicole Hill of @eyerman.art, and welcomed visitors for our second Open Door day on Sunday afternoon. It was also a chance for attendees of our original April Open House to pick up their completed garden stakes, an activity we definitely intend to repeat, since everyone had such a good time painting them.

Here are some shots from the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the workshop!

Day 1: Students pick out the vase they want to make, choosing from 4 sets of stencils. They then roll out slabs of clay, add textural designs to their surfaces and use the stencils to cut out the shapes they’ll need to assemble their pieces. These sit overnight, pressed so they won’t warp, to firm up enough to work with.

Day 2: Students assemble their slabs into the final shapes of their vases using clay coils, slip (that’s very watery clay, that works kind of like glue here), tools and…. very muddy fingers (we weren’t kidding about the whole playground-clayground thing)!

Wrapping up our second day, the final slab pieces go into place, the edges get cleaned up, then the vases get wrapped to dry slowly for a few days before they go into the kiln for their first firing. After that, they’ll be ready to glaze!

Stay tuned for photos of glazing day and of the finished products in June!

Meanwhile, if this looks like good fun to you, there are still spots in our next slab building workshop, coming up next week: Sculptural Slab Creations, taught by our very own Cary, where you can try your hand at making purely decorative or highly functional pieces over the course of three mornings (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) + one morning in early June for glazing!

An example of some of the types of things you can make in our upcoming Sculptural Slab Creations workshop!

Come and clay!

Open Door Days This Week! (and updated stake pick-up time) – Wednesday, May 15, 1:00–5:00 pm & Sunday, May 19, 3:30–5:30 pm

Hello Friends of the Staunton Clayground!

We hope to see you for one of our “Open Door” days this week! If you missed our Open House, now is a great time to come visit us, tour our studio, ask questions and see what we’ve been up to. Did you come and paint your own garden stake on April 20? Then this is a great time to come and pick it up! Do you have a friend or two who couldn’t make itto the Open House in April? Bring them along!

Our door will be open on Wednesday, May 15 (that’s tomorrow!), from 1:00 to 5:00 pm and on Sunday, May 19, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm*.

Curious about the process of making a garden stake (before and after you do your amazing paint job)?

They were all so great! It was hard to pick just a few to feature here. I’m not worried though, because soon all of your garden stakes will be spread across Staunton, making our town smile

Clockwise from the top left in the above photo:

First, we take stakes that we have cut from rolled slabs of clay and bisque fire them to a temperature of about 1950 degrees F. This makes them harder and less fragile, so you can work with them without worrying too much about breaking them.

Second, you come along and unleash your creativity using paints called “underglazes.”

Third, once those are dry, we apply “wax resist” to the bottoms and edges to keep those parts dry and clean, and then we brush the top with two layers of a clear glaze (notice how it looks white before it’s fired, but don’t worry, your beautiful designs are still underneath!) and load them into the kiln.

Then we fire them again, but this time to a temperature of about 2160 degrees F (this is a “Cone 5” firing), which causes the top coat of clear glaze to transform, turn glossy and reveal all of your art underneath! It also makes your stake weatherproof, so you can put it out in your garden and enjoy it all year long 😀

If you have a problem making either of these two days, don’t worry! Get in touch and we’ll work something out.

If you haven’t been down to visit us yet, the entrance to the Staunton Clayground is located at the back of the post office building at 123 W. Frederick St. The door is marked “The Cellar” and will have a sign on it reading “Staunton Clayground.” Come on in and down the stairs and you’ll find us!

There are 10 parking spaces reserved for “The Cellar” in the lot across the street from our entrance, at 116 N. Lewis Street, in which you are free to park. There is also plenty of nearby street parking if you prefer.

Looking forward to seeing you!

*The second time has been updated from the previously published time for Sunday.

Garden Stakes Are Ready For Pickup!

(And Just One Week To Go Until Our Slab Geometric Vase Building Workshop Starts!)

Hello Friends of the Staunton Clayground! We have good news for you today 😀 We’ve just unloaded the garden stakes painted at Open House from the kiln and they are ready for pick-up!

Garden stakes by our endlessly creative Open House guests. Come and get ‘em!

For now, we are scheduling two pick-up days, and hopefully one of them will work for you! They are this coming Wednesday, May 15, 1:00–5:00 pm, and Sunday, May 19, 4:00–6:00 pm. These will also be “Open Door” events, meaning that we will have our door open and we will be welcoming anyone who wants to take a look at the studio, take a tour, and get answers to questions about classes or memberships (our membership program is coming in June!).

If you have a friend who wasn’t able to make it to our open house, please feel free to invite them along to check out our space!

The basil and oregano feel very well-adorned. Let’s hope the sage and rosemary don’t get jealous!

Looking forward to seeing you soon! And please remember, once you’ve picked up your stake, we’d love to see a photo of it in its forever home! Above are the garden stakes that live in the kitchen garden of yours truly.

Also, we still have spaces available in our six-hour Slab Geometric Vases Workshop

running 1:00–3:00 pm next Saturday, May 18, Sunday, May 19 and Sunday, June 2, 2024, and taught by Nicole Eyerman Hill.

We will look forward to seeing you soon! And don’t worry, if you can’t make it to one of these pick-up dates, we’ll figure something out!

A Bountiful Bisque Firing

Check it out! All of the lovely pots that our guest potters, Justin (@potpotfrit) and Nicole (@eyerman.art) made while demonstrating wheel throwing during our open house are out of their first firing and ready to be glazed. Now their makers get a chance to play with our glaze collection!

Next firing in the schedule: all the gorgeous garden stakes you all painted during the open house! There have been some technical setbacks (to be expected during the first few weeks, they tell me!) but they're finally going in for their glaze firing! As soon as they come out, we'll set a pick-up date.

Stay tuned!

Last Evening Handbuilding In “Intro To Clay”

Yesterday evening we all (teachers included!) had a great time putting some finishing touches on all of the handbuilding projects we’ve been working on since our “Intro to Clay” class started two weeks ago. Here are some highlights from last night’s class! Rest up, kids, because next week we move on and take a spin on the pottery wheel. Can’t wait!

Just a few highlights from our class, where we worked on wrapping up some handbuilding projects, including plates made using hand-rolled slabs, textured boxes cut from slabs we learned to make on the slab rolling machine, some coil-built bowls and hand-sculpted animals. Thank you to @octobergracemedia for the amazing photos!

Stay tuned next week for pics from our first wheel-throwing class on Monday! And if you missed the earlier post about this “Intro to Clay” class, you can check it out here.

Plenty Of Fun In Our First "Introduction To Clay" Class… And More Workshops Starting Soon!

Hello everybody! It’s been a busy last several days at the Staunton Clayground since our Open House.

Feathered friend in the works (photo by @octobergracemedia)

On Monday, just two days our Open House, we kicked off our very first “Introduction to Clay” class. This is a 5-week course covering basic pottery techniques, and the first half of it, taught by Cary, covers basic handbuilding techniques.

A bird begins to take form (photo by @octobergracemedia)

So far, we’ve had an intro to hand-rolled slab building and coil building, as well as learning the fundamentals of using a slab rolling machine, but yesterday evening, during the third class, everyone had a lot of fun getting into kid mode and using simple pinch-pot skills to make animal figurines.

Fancy about to take flight! (photo by @octobergracemedia)

The odd whale out!

We’ll be continuing work on these later this week, as well as moving along with our other projects. We’ll have more fun photos for you soon!

(photo by @octobergracemedia)

Meanwhile, if the idea of handbuilding tickles your fancy, we’ve got a couple of fun workshops starting in May, and still have a few spots available in each! Check them out on our Classes, Course & Workshops page.

Spots still available!

In addition to prepping to teach the second, wheel-throwing portion of the Introduction to Clay course, Jennifer has also been busily waxing and glazing everyone’s garden stakes, which will be fired very soon! As soon as we know when they’ll be out of the kiln, we’ll plan an “Open Door” day for you to come and pick them up (or just to come and visit and tour the studio, if you didn’t have a chance to make it to the Open House).

Stay tuned for news!

A Wonderful Open House, Thanks To You – Plus, The Raffle Winner Is Announced!

Click here to go straight to the full picture gallery by @octobergracemedia, at the bottom of the post.

Hello to everyone and a very warm welcome to all of you who just signed up for the Staunton Clayground newsletter during our Open House event this past weekend. What a wonderful time we had. Thank you for coming down and supporting us on our very first day! It was a beautiful April afternoon and, with so many great activities going on around town, we’re very glad and grateful that you decided to spend some of it with us ❤️

Kids of all ages enjoyed painting ceramic garden stakes for Earth Day (photos by @octobergracemedia)

Our “paint-your-own” garden stakes project, in honor of Earth Day, was very popular, with visitors of all ages enjoying the fun. We are working on glazing those and should have them ready to fire soon! We’ll keep you posted on the progress. Check out a taste of the fun above, and the whole gallery of photos can be viewed at the bottom of this post!

From the Staunton Clayground to a garden near you, this spring! (Photo by @octobergracemedia)

Live wheel-throwing demos ran pretty much all afternoon. The first to sit down at the wheel and show everyone what it’s all about was local potter Justin Hershey, who was volunteering to help us out for the day. Check out more of his work on his Instagram page, @potpotfrit.

Local potter Justin Hershey, demonstrating some of the amazing things a potter’s wheel can do (photos by @octobergracemedia)

For the second half of the afternoon, our very own Nicole Hill took over. You may know her by her Instagram handle, Eyerman.art, under which she exhibited at last fall’s Art in the Park, right here in Staunton. She will be one of our regular instructors, and is so far scheduled to teach a Slab Geometric Vases workshop in May and June and an Intermediate Wheel Throwing class in June and July, and has lots more ideas and skills to share!

Staunton Clayground instructor Nicole Hill of @eyerman.art shows future potters just how fun the wheel can be (photos by @octobergracemedia)

Meanwhile, we had a blast telling everyone all about the plans we have for the Staunton Clayground, from classes to workshops, upcoming events and the soon-to-come membership program (look for more info about that in May! We expect to be able to open up to members around Memorial Day).

Founder and Director, Cary (right in the lower photo), and Studio Manager, Jennifer (left), enjoy finally sharing all of their planning and hard work with the Staunton community (photos by @octobergracemedia)

Last but not least, we have to thank our fantastic photographer, Cindy Fellows of October Grace Media, for taking such wonderful photos of this very special event (check out her website at the link above or her awesome Instagram page @octobergracemedia), as well as Magdalena Bake, who helped to provide the delicious refreshments.

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… and the winning ticket number is…

The lucky winner!

We have a raffle winner! One lucky Open House attendee has won one free class or workshop of their choice, to be booked on our shop before ringing in the new year on December 31, 2024. Winning ticket #1506224, be on the lookout for an email with more details!

Open House attendees paint their bisque-fired ceramic garden stake with different colors of underglaze (Photo by @octobergracemedia)

Stay tuned for news about garden stake glazing, firing and pick-up!

If you want to check out more photos of the event, you can see the full gallery by @octobergracemedia below, and, if you didn’t have a chance to play this time around, don’t worry. You can check out our Classes, Courses & Workshops page, and we’ll be planning plenty more fun soon!

Keep watching this space!

Open House Tomorrow From 12–5 PM! Plus, we still have spots available in our Intro to Clay class, starting Monday evening!

That’s right! It is finally time for our Open House! We are officially opening our doors for business, and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with you!

Come celebrate the opening of the Staunton Clayground pottery studio at our Open House tomorrow from 12–5 pm! There will be a chance to win a door prize of one pottery class or workshop, tour our studio, see live wheel throwing demos, enjoy refreshments by Pizzeria Luca and Magdalena Bake, and, in honor of Earth Day, paint your own ceramic garden stake (we’ll fire it for you for pick-up later).

Still wondering how to find us? We are located in “The Cellar” at 123 W. Frederick St., with our main entrance around the back of the post office building. Free parking spots for “The Cellar” are available in the lot at 116 N. Lewis St. There is also plenty of on-street parking nearby, and we are just a few blocks’ walk from the public parking lots (also free on weekends) at the Wharf and on South New St.

In other exciting news, our first class, “Introduction to Clay,” co-taught by Cary and Jennifer, is kicking off next week, on Monday evening, to be precise!

An Introduction to Clay: Basics of Wheel and Handbuilding will consist of nine 2-hour sessions (18 hours total): Monday and Thursday evenings, from 6:00 – 8:00, (April 22, 2024 – May 20, 2024)

“Come and learn the basics of working with clay! If you are an absolute beginner or haven’t been back to the pottery studio since that class you took in school, then this course is for you. The goal of this pottery class is to learn the basics of functional pottery and have several pieces to show for it by the time the course has concluded. Over nine 2-hour sessions, students will experiment with hand building using slabs and molds and with using the wheel to make basic pottery shapes such as small cups, bowls and mugs. 

Everything we make will be functional and oven, microwave, dishwasher and food safe!”

We’ve got a whole bunch of other classes lined up, too, with more coming soon. Please don’t forget to visit our online shop or our Classes, Courses & Workshops page and check them out!

We hope you can come and see us! We are more than ready to finally invite you to “Come and clay!”

See you soon!

More New Wheels, Glaze Making, Our First Kiln Firing and... Just One Week To Go Until Our Open House!

It has been a very busy week here at the Staunton Clayground! We have been working like mad trying to get everything ready for our Open House next weekend and first classes after that, which we are so excited about! (Don’t forget, our very first “Intro to Clay” class starts on Monday, April 22, and there are still spots available! More on that below.)

Let’s clay!

First off, we unboxed and set up our new member wheels, a Shimpo Whisper and a Speedball Clay Boss. They have larger wheel heads (14”) and can handle more weight, and having them means that members will always have a guaranteed space to come and work in, separate from any ongoing class (if you recall, we have a bank of 9 wheels for classes already set up and ready to go)! Aren’t they enticing? I can’t wait to take them each out for a spin, pun fully intended ;-)

Studio Manager at work!

Then we started in on preparing our line-up of glazes! Jennifer got suited up and, over two days, got all eight of our colored glazes mixed (she actually used a drill with a mixer attachment, but the whisk was more photogenic).

Meanwhile, Cary has been hard at work finishing making kiln cookies, a task we’ve both been hard at work at for weeks, sometimes with the help of friends and family! For those of you who don’t know much about pottery firing, kiln cookies are not nummy treats, although we certainly could have used some of those more than once over the last couple of weeks!

They work kind of like coasters with a mug of tea: you put your glazed pieces on them while they’re in the kiln, because if the glaze runs down and drips, this way you end up with molten glass-like gloop on the disposable cookie instead of on the big, much-harder-to-replace kiln shelf.

Then we got to unload the kiln!

Cary got to lift the lid. It was an exciting moment, since this was the first firing we’d ever gotten a chance to do in our new studio!

Can’t wait to start dipping these in our brand new glazes!

Needless to say, we were as close to jumping up and down as we could be in a confined space filled with fragile equipment :-) In the end, all but one tile made it and now we are ready for glazing!

It’s going to be a very fun and busy weekend! With lots more to do before the Open House, just one week away!! We can’t wait to see you there! Not sure how to get there?

Just drop us a line if you still have any questions about how to find us!

And remember, our very first class, an “Intro to Clay,” starts on April 22, the Monday after our Open House. It will cover the basics of wheel throwing and handbuilding, and will be co-taught by Cary and Jennifer. There are still some spots left if you’re interested, and don’t forget to check out the rest of our class line-up for spring and summer. There are quite a few already, but we’re still adding to it! New and exciting workshops are still coming!

So keep watching this space!