Current Status
Not Enrolled
Price
215/195
Get Started
Take this Course

Overview

What will you learn?

Take your pottery skills and understanding of the ceramic process to the next level. Whether you're a studio veteran or an open-eyed beginner, Zach will help you improve all aspects of your studio practice. Zach's deep knowledge of materials and passion for all aspects of the ceramic process will be passed on to you in this course. Classes will be divided between lively discussions and work on the wheel and slab roller. Students are encouraged to take notes and be ready to engage in a class session that engages all things clay!
Zach Sierke

Zach Sierke

Instructor

Zach Sierke is a Fairhope native and has grown up with  the idealistic vision and natural beauty of the community as a deeply ingrained source of inspiration in all aspects of his life. A childhood spent deep sea fishing with passionate and myopic focus actively engaged him in understanding the alien world beneath the surface – an approach to problem solving that has informed his life-long interests in gardening, yoga, surfing, music, and understanding the transformation of native clays in wood-fired kilns. Zach came to clay during his freshman year at Eckerd College and immediately became obsessed with the ceramic process.  The next four years were spent returning to Fairhope, investigating centuries-old kiln sites (including his great, great grandfather’s), hand-mining native clays from every available deposit, and transporting them back to Eckerd College – where he tested them in the wood-fired kiln that he helped build. He returned to Fairhope after graduation with the plan to build a small kiln and create a body of work with which to apply to graduate school for ceramics.  Through a series of fortuitous events and the generosity and support of the community, he became engaged in the construction of a uniquely innovative, well-researched, and large anagama kiln. Over the years of working on the kiln project, a cooperative oasis of sustainable-minded  community has evolved around the 1880′s farmhouse and the centuries old live oak trees.