2025 Workshops & Demos
Justin Paik Reese
Preparing + Throwing Large Volumes of Clay
Live Demo + Discussion
Friday, October 17
2:30–4:30PM
Demonstration Focus: Join Visiting Artist Justin Paik Reese as he demonstrates and talks about centering, opening, and throwing 25 lbs of clay and discusses how he approaches making larger composite forms on the wheel.
Experience Level: Open to everyone at any level of experience with clay (including no experience!).
GENERAL PUBLIC: $50 | PS MEMBERS + current STUDENTS: $40
Justin Paik Reese
Throwing + Carving Composite Forms
A 2-Day Workshop
Saturday + Sunday, October 18+19
10AM–5PM
Workshop Focus: Learn how to throw, carve, and pierce larger multi-part forms and develop confidence troubleshooting challenges you may encounter when working with substantial volumes of clay.
Visiting Artist Justin Paik Reese will demo and discuss how he creates detailed surface and dimensional designs both on paper and as he works on the wheel. Justin will guide students through the steps involved in imagining and then developing patterns for large thrown forms, and will show how he maps out geometry and repetition to create cohesive designs.
This workshop will use Laguna B-Mix cone 10. A tool list will be provided, and Justin will share best practices and show his favorite tools for carving and perforating stable, large hollow forms.
Experience Level: You’ll get the most out of the workshop if your wheel skills are technically sound.
While Justin will adapt his teaching throughout the weekend to support every participant, please note that the pace and scope of the workshop curriculum cannot accommodate instruction on basic wheel skills such as centering, pulling, and shaping walls.
GENERAL PUBLIC: $345 | PS MEMBERS + SESSION #2 + #3 2025 STUDENTS: $295
~ Just 2 spots left! ~
Justin Reese is a studio potter out of Youngstown, Ohio. Some of his influences include 90’s pop culture, retro video games, gothic architecture/design, and Korean pottery and patterning. He fires to cone 10/11 in his soda kiln, often looking for rich carbon-trapping with bright, electric celadons. If he is not loading a kiln or making work, you can find him spoiling his daughters and nerding out on the Super Nintendo.
Read more about The Potters’ Studio workshop logistics and policies
Natalia Arbelaez
Creating Figures with Reusable Armatures
Saturday + Sunday, November 8+9
9AM–4PM
Workshop Focus: Explore zoomorphic and/or human figurative, legged forms and learn how to integrate surface decoration into your work, including majolica stain techniques with Visiting Artist Natalia Arbelaez! You’ll learn how to build your own reusable armatures using wooden dowels and boards and will learn how to build and troubleshoot making medium pieces with mid-range stoneware.
This workshop will use Laguna Red Sculpture clay (WC-390), which fires from cone 2 to cone 5. You’ll focus on making and learning skills to continue working with armatures and at mid-scale on your own and will be able to take your in-progress greenware work home when the workshop ends. This workshop is a process-centered educational experience. Bisque or other firing is not included in the workshop fee but is available to PS members and contract firers (the general public).
Experience Level: This workshop is open to all levels. You’ll get the most out of the workshop if you have some experience handbuilding with coils, slabs, and pinching, but experience is not required. This workshop includes hands-on guidance on constructing armatures using hand saws, drills, and other tools.
GENERAL PUBLIC: $345 + $45 materials fee
PS MEMBERS + current STUDENTS: $295 + $45 materials fee
Natalia Arbelaez is a Colombian American artist born and raised in Miami, Florida to immigrant parents. She received her BFA from Florida International University and her MFA with an Enrichment Fellowship from The Ohio State University. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in museums, galleries, and included in various collections, such as the Everson Museum, New York; Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York; Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts; The ICA Miami; and the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, Canada.
In 2016–2017, Arbelaez was a Rittenberg Fellow at Clay Art Center in Port Chester, New York, and was awarded the Inaugural Artaxis Fellowship that funded a residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine. In 2018, she was recognized by NCECA as an Emerging Artist and was a 2018-19 resident artist in the Ceramics Program at Harvard University, where she researched pre-Columbian art and histories. In 2019-2020, Arbelaez was an artist-in-residence at MAD in New York City, where she researched the work of historical and influential women ceramicists of color and continued this research as a 2021 and 2023 Visiting Artist at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona, California.
Natalia joined the School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington as Assistant Professor in Ceramics in the fall of 2024 after completing a residency at the MenLo Studio in Jingdezhen, China, where she spent the summer researching the city’s rich ceramic history and industry.