Handling Handles Ceramics Workshop
Handling Handles Ceramics Workshop with Melanie Unruh
Thursday, September 10
4:30 – 7:30 pm
Minimum Students: 3 | Maximum Students: 10
$67 CAE Member / $75 Non-Member
Take your functional ceramics to the next level by mastering one of the most important—and often overlooked—elements: the handle. In this focused workshop, you’ll learn a variety of techniques for creating strong, comfortable, and visually balanced handles for mugs, cups, pitchers, and more.
Melanie will guide you through demonstrations on pulling, forming, and attaching handles, along with tips for proportion, placement, and design. You’ll explore a range of styles—from clean, basic handles to more expressive, signature forms—helping you develop a look that’s uniquely yours.
Students are encouraged to bring 2–4 pieces of leather-hard greenware to work on during class. You’ll have time to practice different techniques, refine your approach, and build confidence and consistency in your work.
This workshop is ideal for students with some clay experience who want to elevate both the function and aesthetics of their pieces.
All studio tools are provided. Please bring an apron and hand towel. Clay is included.
Instructor
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Melanie UnruhMy art is an intermediary between people, creating a connection across variable distances of space and time between myself and the person using the mug, or vase, or tea bowl that I have made. I’m deeply interested in the connection between artist and the user of the art, as expressed by the product. The virtual physical contact between my hands and the hands of the person holding my work is a recognition of our common humanity, an intimacy through art. It is said that a piece actualized by being put to use; it is not finished when it’s removed from the kin, but is finally imbued with meaning when it’s filled with food, or arranged with other pieces. My art is intended to be used, to find it’s purpose in someone’s life. Thus, it’s probably no surprise that I prefer to make functional work. My influences include Asian forms, firing methods, and surface treatments. I’m also very interested in juxtapositions of organic forms and machined artifacts, and things that are revealed and concealed. Variable surfaces of texture and color are evident in all of my art. See Melanie’s work at science fiction and fantasy conventions in the Rocky Mountain region, or at art shows and markets across Colorado. (See the Upcoming Events page for a schedule.) Melanie is a member of the Arapahoe Ceramics Guild, the Arvada Ceramic Arts Guild, and a founding member of the Convention Arts Guild.
