Registration Information & Policies

Since classes start promptly at their designated time, you may want to consider arriving a bit early, so that you can be set up and ready to go. Typically, instructors kick off the class with important announcements and demonstrations that set the tone for the class. Being on time prevents disruptions and more importantly, exhibits a respect for your instructor, your classmates, and their time.

If you plan to miss any classes, please inform your instructor as far in advance as possible. In addition, you may call the studio during office hours and your message will be given to your instructor. If you have a last-minute conflict, please call the studio at: 704.334.4842 to inform your instructor.

• Students will be assigned a shelf space on the first night of class, you will be given a tag with your name and session you are enrolled in. Make sure that your tag is current to the session you are attending.

• Beginner students and students in Sculpture classes receive a half shelf (Sculpture students also have another area to store your project in process). Intermediate and Advanced level classes receive a whole shelf.

• Please keep all items on your assigned shelf. Clayworks suggests that you not store your tools and underglazes on your shelf, however, you may do so at your own risk.

• Students may NOT use any empty shelves for storage of work.

• Under no circumstances may students store work on the top of the shelving units. If you leave items on the top of the units, expect those items to be discarded the following day by our staff.

• At the end of each term, all work and tools must be removed from the studio if you are not enrolling in the next session. Clayworks is not responsible for personal items left after the last class. All projects, clay, tools, etc. remaining WILL BE DISCARDED OR DONATED.

Clayworks does not provide tools for students. You may purchase a pottery tool pack or a handbuilding tool kit from our online store.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE STUDENTS ALLOWED TO USE ITEMS FOM OUR KITCHEN FOR CLAY WORK.

Under no circumstances are students or artists allowed to remove any glazes, slips, equipment, bats, wear boards, books or materials belonging to Clayworks from the building.

• Only students currently enrolled in classes may use Clayworks studio

• Children and friends of students are not allowed to work at Clayworks

• Animals are NOT allowed at Clayworks, except for service animals

For information on class cancelations due to inclement weather:

Check the Clayworks website! The popup will inform you of cancelled classes.

www.learnclay.com

• Students must utilize our firing services to use our glazes, the cost of materials is calculated in the firing fees.

• Students that choose to provide their own glazes still have to pay the full firing fee

• Fees are calculated by cubic inch (length x width x height x $.06) for all firings. When delivering your artwork, Leave the pieces in the intake area and studio monitors will intake your work and email you an invoice.

• Please attach with your artwork: your full name, phone number AND email address at time of drop off.

• Invoices will be sent and are due upon receipt. We will only fire work after the invoice has been paid.

• More information on firing services.

• How to submit a piece for firing

Students are not allowed to remove any slips or glazes from the building or alter glazes or slips in any way.

Once you have retrieved your bisque work, it is time to glaze it.

Clayworks keeps careful controls of the glazes for consistency. Students should NEVER add water to glazes, if you suspect a glaze is thicker than it should be notify the studio manager.

Selecting Your Glaze

There are glazes available to students in the glaze room. Your instructor will provide you with specifics about each of the glazes.

• TIP: Early on, you may want to create your own set of test tiles, based on the ceramic body you are using and the glazes which most interest you. These will serve as your color palette. Clayworks does not charge a firing fee for test tiles (they must be test tiles and not small pots or napkin rings)

Preparing your work area

• Begin by gathering newspaper, so that the glaze table stays clean.

• Lay out the newspapers.

• Place your work on the newspaper.

Glazing Your Piece

• Wax all work and allow the wax to dry before glazing it. Use Mobil A wax for all clay bodies except porcelain. There is a special porcelain wax only for this clay.

• Apply wax. Do not use studio sponges to apply wax resist.

• Inspect the bottom after glazing to be sure it is clean/free of any glaze at least 1/8 inch from bottom of the piece. Your piece has to be clean and free of any glaze on the bottom, before it is glaze fired.

• This last step is very important. If the work is not clean, it will be returned to the "CANNOT BE FIRED" shelf for you to clean/fix later. Please understand that this will delay the firing process for you. We are very strict about this because we are trying to protect the longevity of our equipment. In a community setting, we need to be protective with what we have.

Cleaning Up Your Work Area

You are required to clean up after yourself and leave your area cleaner than how you found it. Wiping down excessively soiled surfaces, covering all glaze buckets and cleaning all of the utensils you use, put any tools back where you found them, including your own.

Conserve water as much as possible while cleaning up.

Glaze Firing

Once you have applied glaze to your piece, it is time to glaze fire it. Once your work is thoroughly clean, place it on the shelf area marked [GLAZE FIRING] in the kiln room.

Setting Your Piece on the Glazeware Shelf

Glazed, clean work MUST be placed on the appropriate glazeware shelves:

• For cone 5 ware, the shelves are adjacent to the greenware shelves.

• For cone 10 ware, the shelves are in the kiln room, next to the gas kiln.

• For Salt kiln, there are two carts labeled Salt kiln in the kiln area.

• To participate in salt firing you must sign up for a shift to work with loading, firing and unloading the kiln. We fire the salt kiln every quarter.

Clayworks staff will load and glaze fire your work. It is fired at a high temperature. Though glaze firings occur regularly, please allow 2-3 weeks for the glaze firing process. As it is important that the kilns be full, the frequency of glaze firings vary according to the amount of work being produced.

• If your work is large or odd-sized, please expect to wait longer.

Frequency of Kiln Firings

Kiln firings occur as kilns can be filled. The number of firings is directly proportional to the amount of work available to fire.

While electric kiln firings occur quite frequently, the gas kiln gets fired every 6 weeks. The raku kilns are reserved for students enrolled in that specific class.

Salt firing happens every 12 weeks.

On average, we suggest you keep the following in mind:

• Please allow 2-3 weeks for the bisque firing process.

• Please allow 1-2 weeks for the electric glaze firing process.

• Please allow 6 weeks for the glaze firing process for gas and 12-weeks for salt firings.

Predictability & Serendipity

Unlike the predictability an electric kiln offers, the gas kiln and the salt kiln, by nature, is more organic and unpredictable. The weather, the way the kiln is stacked, the types of glazes used and the amount of reduction all affect the kiln's internal environment and the resultant pots. We strive to have some consistency in the gas kiln, however, the classroom situation makes this very difficult. Though we regularly check the cone 10 glazes with a hydrometer (a device to check the water content in the glazes), we cannot control how individual students may apply their own glazes.

If you are looking to achieve consistency in your results, cone 5 firings in the electric kiln will be your best choice.

If, however, you are an Intermediate or advanced level class student, and you want to leave a bit up to serendipity, please experiment with the cone 10 glazes and the gas kiln as well as the salt kiln.

Operation of Kilns

Kilns are NOT to be opened, tampered with, loaded or unloaded by ANYONE but Clayworks staff.

Clayworks Kiln firing policy

Personal work of registered students, studio artists, and instructors are given priority in our kilns.

Clayworks does offer outside firing services for community members.

Beginning level students will receive one bag of recycled clay for your class. If you would like a different clay, you must purchase it.

Intermediate and advanced level classes will be given a bag of stoneware. You may receive a bag of porcelain or Brown Bear for a $5 upgrade.

Students must take their clay that is included in the tuition by the third week of class. After the third week, students forfeit their class clay.

List of Clays we carry

Students are not to video tape instructors without written consent from the instructor.

Clean Up Guidelines

Ideally, the condition of the studio upon your departure should be equal to or better than the condition of the studio upon your arrival. Please allow sufficient time for cleanup. Thirty minutes is normal.

Thoroughly wipe clean your area and equipment, including the following, plus any other tools or areas utilized. Store all your work and tools on your shelf.

Equipment

• Your Wheel and Stool (top, sides, splash pans & surrounding table)

• After using a wheel, turn it off, clean all parts of it and replace the splash pan.

• Put stool and pedal on top of wheel

• Your Bats & Boards

• Tools should 1st be rinsed in prewash buckets in the sink and then under fresh water. We need to conserve water.

• Studio Implements used

• Rinse & squeeze excess water from the sponges & bristle brushes

Work Areas

• The Floor (sweep excess clay debris or mop excess glaze debris)

• Brooms, dustpans are located in each classroom and a mop is in the unlocked storage closet just past the common area in classroom #2.

• Your Table Space (where you wedged your clay & worked, etc.)

• Clean off wedging board and tables immediately after using them.

• The Plaster Slabs, where you dry out your clay

The Glaze Room

• wipe down the counters around the glaze buckets you used, the glaze table & the floors; toss all newspapers

• rinse whisks and any containers used and return to their proper spots

• The Sink Area (using sponge, wipe excess debris from sink & squeeze into the clay barrel, rinse sponge)

Tools/Objects

• Wash the studio tools after using them and put back in their proper place.

• Once clean, return all objects to the place they belong, such as:

• Splash pans to wheel

• Bats to bat area by sink

• Your tools to your shelf

Clay

• Place clay and sludge in the large blue reclaim clay bins (All discarded clay is remixed and used for sale or our Community Engagement Programs)

• Do NOT put clay in the garbage can, it makes the garbage too heavy to lift.

• If you have clay, bisqueware or glazeware to throw away, please take it out to the dumpster in the back-parking lot.

• Do your part in keeping the Kitchen clean. If you use any of the dishes you are responsible for washing them and putting them away.

• If you make coffee in the coffee pot you will be the one responsible for turning it off and cleaning it out.

• You are welcome to put items in the refrigerator however please mark each item with the tape provided with your name and date. The refrigerator is cleaned out weekly.

• DO NOT USE ANY KITCHEN ITEM FOR CLAY WORK

Several times a year there is a Community studio Clean-up day!

This is a time where the staff, teachers, and studio artists gather for a few hours to do a deep clean of the studio. Students are invited to join us! The more the merrier (and the quicker the deep clean-up goes).

Useful Vocabulary