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Short Course

Ceramics - Beginners

  • Duration

    10 Weeks / 6 Weeks

  • Cost

    £375 / £225

  • Tutor

    Lucy Baxendale

  • When

    Tuesday Evenings

Ceramics Short Courses at HCA

This course is tailored to complete beginners, and those who need a refresher course in ceramics. You will be encouraged to freely explore hand building, glazing, extruding, and throwing.

Overview

This course begins with an introduction to a variety of hand-building techniques, exploring what each one can create. You'll have space to develop your own ideas and find the techniques that resonate most with you. Once you’re familiar with working with clay by hand, we'll gradually introduce students to throwing on the wheel, offering two-at-a-time guidance for a focused experience.

Basic materials are provided, and we’ll suggest any additional tools or supplies based on your projects. By the end of the course, you’ll feel confident with your skills and ready to explore ceramics on a deeper level.

Someone is about to sponge down a plaster cuboid in our ceramics workshop
A woman in a colourful waistcoat is rolling out a slab of clay. She is leaning over the work and there are people also rolling out clay behind her, out of focus.
A student is kneading clay. Their hands are messy from the clay and they are mid-action.
Someone coil-building a clay vessel
Someone is rolling out clay onto a textured plate.
Student working in a ceramics class
Lucy Baxendale works on a ceramic sculpture in her home studio. She has curly brown hair and glasses, and wears a red jumper with blue dungarees.

About the Tutor

Lucy Baxendale is a Ceramicist, Illustrator, and Community Artist from rural Herefordshire. She transforms her sketches into unique 3D sculptures, where lines evolve into stories. Her work bridges imagination and reality, featuring unglazed, stained surfaces that capture the essence of a sketch. Lucy’s playful approach invites you to see drawings come to life in new, unexpected ways. Recognized as Craft and Design magazine’s “One to Watch” in 2011 and one of Ceramics Monthly’s Emerging Artists in 2022, Lucy continues to refine her practice.

See more of Lucy's work

Term Dates

Term starts on Tuesday 30th September. There will be 10 sessions with a break for half term on 28th October. The final session will be on 9th December.

Term will start on Tuesday 13th January. There will be 10 sessions with a break for half term on 17th February. The final session will be 24th March. 

Term starts on Tuesday 14th April. There will be 6 sessions and the final session will be 19th May. 

A wide shot of the Folly Lane Print workshop. Various students are working at different workstations throughout the workshop. The room is filled with old fashioned printing presses, ink stations and is flooded with natural light from big windows.

Industry standard workshops and studios

This is where you make your ideas happen. Find out more about the professional kit and spaces we provide at HCA.

Workshops and Resources
Someone is rolling out clay onto a textured plate.

I loved the fact that we were making on week one, and I was surprised by how quickly my confidence grew. The small class sizes meant I got a lot of one-to-one support which really helped.

Sally - Beginners Ceramics Short Course

FAQs

Basic materials are provided on all of our short courses, and you will be advised on any additional materials you may want to buy for personal projects whilst on the short course. 

You may want to bring a sketchbook for taking notes. We sell these at our college shop so you can buy one before your class starts if you want to. 

Make sure to bring some water, and dress appropriately for using college equipment (for example, no open-toed shoes and long hair tied back when using workshop equipment).

Courses like these can look great on your CV and are good for professional development. Therefore, we award certificates at the end of the course, provided that you attended enough of the sessions. 

Our short courses are non-credit bearing programmes.

This course is suitable for complete beginners or anyone wanting to refresh their ceramics skills starting from the basics. 

This course will be held at our Folly Lane Ceramics Workshop. You will need to arrive at our reception each week to sign in. 

This course will take place over 10 sessions with a break for half term. Please see dates listed above. 

Sessions will start at 6.30pm and will finish at approximately 9pm. You may have to arrive earlier on your first week for registration. 

Unless otherwise stated, our short courses are suitable for anyone over the age of 16. 

We recommend anyone aged 16-17 is accompanied by someone 18+ who is also a paying participant. 

We keep our class sizes small so that you benefit from a lot of contact time with the tutor. There will be a maximum of 10 people on this course.

Yes, there is parking available on campus. Please use the car park at the back of our Folly Lane Campus, just off Whittern Way. 

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