05.13.18 // Introduction to Primitive Pottery with Tyler Lavenberg // 5:30-8pm

Come celebrate the world of vessels! For thousands of years people have perfected the art of transforming clay (also known as dirt) into some of the most functional and artistic accoutrements to human civilization. Before the dawn of metal nearly every culture in the world used pottery vessels for cooking, carrying water, as an artistic and spiritual medium, and so much more. This workshop is an opportunity to not only create a very useful cooking vessel, but also connect with an ancient art that is known to many hands in our history. In this 2 ½ hour class we will process clay, become comfortable with manipulating clay into desired form, and use multiple methods in creating a fully functional cooking vessel. We will also discuss digging and processing clay from home, firing pottery in an open fire, as well as care, seasoning, cooking, and methods for tending a cook fire for multiple pots. Though in this short session we will not be able to fire the pottery and thus complete the process, each student will leave with the knowledge of how to replicate the process from start to finish.

$50 per person, includes materials

Nose to the grindstone (sometimes literally), Tyler lives for the opportunity to work with his hands. Whether it be weaving baskets, sewing buckskin, fletching an arrow, it is in this realm of focus and awe of creation that he truly revels in. Over the past nine years Tyler has apprenticed and taught with many traditional skills schools and events including Wild Abundance, The Roots School (Vermont), Living Earth School (Virginia), Earthskills Rendezvous, Firefly Gathering, Florida Earthskills, Turtle Island, and more. He has worked with hundreds of children and adults through schools, homeschool cooperatives, and special events. Tyler is devoted to understanding material use in context of it’s ecological niche—unveiling ancient and scientific wisdom to appropriate technologies.