Sculpting Sound—A Ceramic Ocarina & Wind Instrument Workshop

with Melissa Navarre

4-day, July 11–14, 3:00–6:00 p.m.

Tuition: $300

Materials Fee: $30

In this four-day workshop in Ox-Bow’s ceramics studio, students will learn the fundamentals of crafting functional ocarinas and other unique wind instruments. Participants will be guided through techniques in clay modeling, acoustics, and surface design to craft their own playable instrument. A final clear glaze may be applied to the work after the clay is dry and students will pick up their fired pieces 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.

Photos taken by Israel Davis in The Ancient Future: Clay and Sound course at Ox-Bow in 2023.

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.

Special Fall Intensive: Wicked Woodfire

with Henry J.H. Crissman & Virginia Rose Torrence

10-day, October 22–November 2, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $1000

Materials Fee: N/A

Optional Room & Board Cost for this workshop only: $2080 for solo room; $2990 for shared room.

This intensive workshop will explore the many histories, methods, and potentials of using wood as fuel to heat and transform clay into ceramic. The experience caters to mid-career artists or those with a background in ceramics. Presentations will survey ceramic science, the history and logic of kiln design, and the incredible range of things artists have created with and around wood fired kilns. Demonstrations will include handbuilding and wheel-throwing techniques as well as methods for material experimentation with found ceramic materials and objects, specifically using clay gathered from a nearby beach on Lake Michigan to augment clays and make glazes. Conversations throughout will aim to assist students in finding creative agency with ceramics. The bulk of the class will consist of parallel working on independent projects and culminate in a nearly two-day long firing of Ox-Bow’s 80 cubic foot catenary-arch, wood kiln; a massive group effort will involve loading the kiln and methodically stoking it with wood for the duration of the firing until our desired temperature is reached throughout. We will once-fire the ceramics we make in the workshop and students are also welcome to bring bisqueware. Once cool, the kiln will be unloaded and cleaned, results will be finished and discussed.

Henry James Haver Crissman is an artist and educator who thinks of his art as a means, not an end. The projects, objects, installations, happenings, etc. that one might call his ‘art’ precipitates from the swirling confluence of ceramic making, place making, critical engagement, and community facilitation and participation that wholly encompasses his life.

Henry James Haver Crissman earned a BFA in Craft from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI in 2012, and a MFA in Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, NY in 2015. He now lives and works in Hamtramck, MI where he and his wife and fellow artist, Virginia Rose Torrence, founded and co-direct Ceramics School, a community ceramics studio and artist residency. He regards teaching as an integral aspect of his creative practice, and in addition to teaching at Ceramics School, he is currently an adjunct professor in the Studio Art and Craft Department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI.

Virginia Rose Torrence (She/her) Co-owns, operates and teaches at Ceramics School, a community ceramics studio and Artist Residency in Hamtramck MI. Virginia’s art practice is sometimes making pottery, and sometimes making sculptures. She received her BFA in Craft/Ceramics from the College for Creative Studies (Detroit, MI) in 2013 and her MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University (Alfred, NY) in 2016. Virginia lives and makes art in Hamtramck, MI with her partner and co-teacher Henry Crissman, two dogs, two cats and a parakeet.