Basic Traditional Pottery Making Workshop

Pots made by students in one of Old Pueblo’s previous Traditional Pottery Making Workshops; photo by Andy Ward.

CLASS FILLED – WAITING LIST. Old Pueblo Archaeology Center will be offering the “Basic Traditional Pottery Making Workshop” each Sunday from October 7 through November 4, 2018, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. A series of five pottery-making class sessions will be taught by artist Andy Ward, which will introduce history of southwestern Ancestral and Modern Pueblo, Mogollon, and Hohokam pottery-making; demonstrating initial steps in forming, shaping and smoothing bowls, jars, and other forms of hand-built pottery using traditional hand-building techniques, gourd scrapers, mineral paints, and yucca brushes instead of modern potters’ wheels and paints, including pottery firing. The class is designed to help modern people understand how prehistoric Native Americans made and used pottery, and is not intended to train students how to make artwork for sale.
Session 1: History of pottery in southeastern Arizona and begin forming pottery with coil and scrape method. Session 2: Finish forming and begin scraping, smoothing, and polishing. Session 3: Slip and polish the pots. Session 4: Paint designs on pots. Session 5: Open-air pottery firing.
A $95 donation ($80 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and Pueblo Grande Museum Auxiliary members) covers all materials, instruction time, and facilities. Reservations and donation prepayment required by October 3: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org. This workshop will be held at Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, located at 2201 W. 44th Street in Tucson.