Organics & Ceramics

with Melissa Navarre

4-day, August 25–28, 3:00–6:00 p.m.

Tuition: $300

Materials Fee: $30

In this four-day workshop in Ox-Bow's ceramics studio, students will utilize pinching, slab building, and coiling techniques to design vessels for plants. Students will be guided through the process of adorning their vessels with embossed organic textures foraged from the Ox-Bow landscape and adding underglazing effects. A final clear glaze will be applied to the vessels after the clay is dry and students will pick up their fired vessels from Ox-Bow at a future date.

Plan to bring: All materials will be provided but simple drawing supplies and a sketchbook are encouraged for drafting ideas.

Melissa Navarre (she/her) is a recent graduate of Central Michigan University (CMU), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics, along with a minor in music for percussion. She has assisted in The Ancient Future: Clay and Sound workshop, presented at CMU and Oxbow School of Art and Artist Residency. Her work has been exhibited at the University Art Gallery at CMU, and she has received awards including the 2023 Windgate Fellowship at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the 2024 Regina Brown Undergraduate Fellowship through the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Melissa is currently a studio assistant at Grayling Ceramics in Kalamazoo, MI.

Photos taken by Israel Davis in The Ancient Future: Clay and Sound workshop at Oxbow in 2023