Surface Design & Decoration

Discover the power of surface decoration in this six-week ceramics course focused on adding depth, texture, and personality to your pottery through creative finishing techniques.

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Each week, students will explore a different approach to ceramic surface design including sgraffito, slip trailing, inlay, underglaze transfers, and resist glazing techniques. Alongside these hands-on methods, we’ll dive into foundational design concepts like color theory, composition, balance, layering, and contrast to help strengthen your creative voice and confidence with clay.

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Students will experiment on practice tiles, coasters, slab-built forms, cups, and functional pottery while learning how different decorating techniques interact with texture, glaze, and firing. Throughout the course, you’ll also create your own handmade texture rollers, stamps, and specialty clay tools — leaving class not only with finished pottery, but with a growing tool bag of custom additions to continue exploring clay in the studio.

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All materials, slips, underglazes, and decorating tools are provided. This course is best suited for students with some wheel throwing or hand-building experience, as the primary focus is surface decoration rather than form-building. Potters of all experience levels are welcome, though only minimal instruction will be provided on wheel throwing or hand-building techniques.

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