24-7 pottery classes mobile, al. wheel throwing courses

(24 Hours  / 12 Classes) 

Majority of small bowls in the gallery are beginner level and can be accomplished in this time frame for most student on average.  If it takes longer than 12 hours to make 1 bowl, you may want to switch to hand building and still practice on the wheel from time to time for fun. if you succeed in the first 2 to 12 hours you may want to continue 24 hours to make many bowls of different sizes to hone skills for the next level of throwing.  Course timeframes are flexible to the needs of the student for all lessons.

- Centering 

- Making the center hole 

- Stretching the clay 

- Using a rib 

- Trimming 

- Centering a leather hard piece 

- Cutting a foot 

- Glazing

(24 Hours  / 12 Classes) 

The cylinder is not like the bowl and gets much much more difficult the taller the cylinder till once mastered you cant throw not much farther than an arms length.  Trimming a cylinder is also more difficult than a bowl.  level 2 starts with a 4 inch cylinder and graduates up to pitcher size cylinder  at around 8 inches to 10 inches in 24 hours time.  There are infinite ways to make a handle so a little creativity comes into place here quite often.  Handle pulling is a professional and probably the quickest way to make a handle and should be learned by any potter to save time on handles.  they can take much longer than throwing if sculpted or extruded and attached for example.  Also pulled handles look more like clay or how clay would act when soft than a rigid extrusion or an organic carving.   Each level of throwing its important to repeat a form many times each time larger and larger as clay becomes more difficult to conrtol with more weight you learn more about the structure of that form on the wheel and it takes time so 24 hours  minimum if succeeding in first 12 hours a completed mug. of course you have all the time you want this isn't being graded.  It is for entertainment and productivity and maybe a few extra dollars in your pocket if you sell something.  Also any student is welcome to use doylepottery.com to list and sell their work for free.

 - Making a cylinder 

- Trimming a cylinder 

- Handle making 

- Pitcher throwing and handle pulling (for those higher skill level)

- Glazing 

(24 Hours  / 12 Classes) 

Level 3 wheel is not until you can throw at least 6 inches high to throw a decent sized teapot body.  4 inches wont be enough, 6 for some shapes is sufficient.   tea pot spout is not too difficult if youve gotten to this level already.  the body of the teapot may take some mastering to get a good one at this level.   Also if you are moving right along in development at this stage its encouraged to make as many teapots as you can till you've mastered the assembly, handle making, and so forth.  there is a large world of teapot forms and handles.  some handles aren't even clay.   if you want a bamboo handle you'd need to buy one on amazon to the dimensions of the body you made. they sell bamboo handles that attach to clay loops you attach to the body of the teapot.  another complicated art of the teapot which is important to master is the lid making so that your lid fits well snug and doesn't get stuck if you spin it.  This can be difficult to master and is a big part of level 3 throwing.   level 3 might take up to 24 hours even after all the prior practice to achieve 1 good teapot.  some may take more hours than that.  All these schedules are flexible and adjustable to the needs of the student.   Also any work can of course be sold on the website for free.  Hope to see more student reach the end of level 3 sucessfully .  at that point you would be an advanced potter but not quite the master quite yet.   Mastery can take up to 15 years for most potters.  Theres very very many thigns to make and discover along the way.   I've been at the wheel since 1996, I still like it and i still develop.  Im not really sure what mastery is actually.  I don't want to be there.  Mastery would make clay dull to use nothing to discover.  So after this level there's really many more levels to accomplish.  That goes for the levels of hand building also.   Finally if you cant get past level one, do not fret, ceramics is much more sophisticated as a hand builder.  hand building is more versatile and accessible to any level of experience and can deliver outstanding work, on the wheel would be impossible.

- Tea pot body 

- Teapot parts spout lid 

- Lid trimming and handle 

- Assembly teapot 

- Glazing 

(8 Hours  / 4 Classes) 

level one hand building, most people might like this level of my classes the best of all.  the wheel is very demanding and average people are not able to achieve advanced results.   as far as hand building, any one can do level one hand building.  its very very easy, for the most part in the studio there is an extruder for extruding fresh nice neat clean coils with no ripples or bumps.  The premade coils can be formed into most any  shaped vessel building the walls of the vessel slowly section at a time and drying the bottom with a hair dryer as you go so the bottom doesn't deform from the weight as you build you need the finished bottom part a little harder than the construction section your working on as you will be stressing the clay in the construction section.  So, adding coils is very simple and easy and you'll pick it up right away.   8 hours is enough time to make any coil vase you see in my gallery.  it takes about 8 hours to construct a 36 inch high vessel.  yes, any of those vases, vessels in the gallery made with coils is a beginner work.  i have one for sale for 1200$ right now.  I hope to sell it.   I encourage all students their first coil piece go to the max size the kiln will allow.  For this this level starts with drawings to decide what to build.  plans are very necessary in hand building not as necessary on the wheel where everything is round and forms are repeated over and over.  also student are encouraged to sell any of their work on doylepottery.com for free.   Coil construction has never gotten old.   There's always something new to make.  Students are welcome and encouraged to explore coil construction as far a time they want or just 8 hours for one big one is fine too.  its important though to start with a big one to get some experience and to impress yourself if you've never tried anything of the sort.

- Using the extruder 

- Making a base 

- Assembling coil walls 

- Finishing the form 

- Adding and subtracting from your form 

- Glazing 

(8 Hours  / 4 Classes) 

In level 2 hand building slab construction we start with creating a box with a lid.  pretty much any dimensions you want.  i suggest big.  we use textured mats to roll on the slabs for texture on the surface.  i have a few to chose from or you can carve and draw into the surface of the slab used.  most of the first class is rolling out slabs and texturing.    Then students more to assembly once the slabs have dried about 18 hours but not fully dry.   making these slabs and texturing shouldn't take over 40 minutes so you will make enough for about three boxes.  then assembly for the three and finishing the lid may take  a class or two.  this level could easily be completed in 8 hours or 4 classes.   last class would be glazing.  There's more than boxes to create with slabs if a student wants to continue with slab work they are welcome to learn another form or move to the next level.  same applies to level 1 hand building.

- Rolling slabs 

- Cutting texture 

- Assembly 

- Cutting a lid hole 

- Assembling lid 

- Glazing 

(8 Hours  / 4 Classes) 

level 3 hand building is a technique for sculpture basically.  you need to start this class with drawing of what to make or even draw a self portrait.   you can do a bust of your self or someone youve drawn before hand.  its best to draw to understand the surfaces of what you are looking at to then replicate them in the clay form your drawing.  this is important even for organic crative works that are not realistic its important to start with a drawing of what you will do for this type of technique.  Students are to build a paper and wood and tape frame for the inside of their sculpture and it will be covered with clay and sculpted to look right.  its very difficult and could take much more than 8 hours.  maybe 30 hours to complete a sculpture depending how detailed you go with your work.  its best to make out the rough shape first then slowly refine the entire sculpture till you cant improve it anymore.    you skill at this level will be determined by how well you represented your drawing or the how well the subject of your sculpture is achieved.   The highest paid sculptor in mobile work in a fashion similar to this and casts his clay subjects into bronze.  yes, you can make a bronze in the studio, although we would not fire it and it would be with oil based clay and the finished piece would be shipped to a bronze casting place.  they take our art and cast it for you for a fee.  the sculptor rarely fools with bronze themselves as it requires intense equipment for larger bronzes.  this sculpture if fired can be fired many times to get the right glaze look desired.  once you apply glaze and fire it though, the glaze cannot be removed so you work towards a finish instead of trying to complete in one glaze firing.

- Building frame 

- Covering the frame evenly withy slabs and coils 

- Carving and adding to form 

- Glazing multiple layers