Crafting Community: Transformative Pottery Workshops Rooted in Creativity
Photo Credit: University of Michigan Photography
Photo Credit: University of Michigan Photography
Photo Credit: University of Michigan Photography
“Community can create a container for natural abilities that can find no place in a world defined by economics and consumerism.” - Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa
This belief guides my approach to facilitating pottery workshops. Whether the workshop is two hours or two weeks long, my intention is to hold space for people to be in community and discover or reaffirm their natural creative abilities by coming into or deepening a relationship with clay as a co-conspirator and material.
Workshops are always bespoke offerings, tailored to the wishes, interests, experiences, and desires of the community/individual being designed for.
I root my practice in the African diasporic ceramic tradition choosing to exclusively hand build, so workshops feature multiple hand-building techniques: coil, slab, and pinch pot building. I also have experience with various surface design methods (sgraffito, terra sigillata, underglaze, majolica, print transfer, decals, glaze, layering glazes) and could include those in a workshop experience. Additionally, I have experience with the following alternative firing techniques: smoke, saggar, and raku. Depending upon the shape of your desired container, participants will be provided air dry clay or clay that needs to be fired in a pit/kiln. If desired lectures or a short talk about craft, play, the intersections of art practice and wellness, African diasporic ceramic traditions, or other topics can be developed and delivered to ground our time together. Workshops always include demonstrations and are currently offered only to adults aged 18+.
I am based in the Ypsilanti, MI, USA making facilitating workshops at your school, office, church, gallery, or other location in Michigan and the greater Midwest (driving distance away) a breeze. I am also willing, able, and excited about opportunities to travel for workshops in locations beyond the greater Midwest and United States.
Lastly, because workshops are bespoke offerings, the pricing is too. You can anticipate needing to cover my rate and the cost of any required materials. Please note that if travel is necessary to facilitate a workshop (whether you are just down I-94 or a flight away) that will factor into the price of the overall container.
I invite you to fill out the form below to share the shape you are hoping for in the container of a workshop. From there, we can discuss what is possible and how pricing aligns with those possibilities.
I can’t wait to hear from you.
Previous Clients Include:
Testimonial’s from students in the Marsal Family School of Education after a workshop I facilitated during one of their class sessions.
“The way Gabrielle began the workshop, bringing us together and asking us questions that seem so fundamentally simple yet wholly intricate and complication, really helped me engage with the pinch pot exercise in a way that just felt...different. Her leadership, guidance, and personal connection to us all captivated me, and she challenged me to think about the relationality I feel towards all aspects of my work. This was one of the formative experiences of our course, and I was so grateful that Gabrielle shared her time and knowledge with us.” - Kyle
“I thought this was a really lovely experience and I'm very grateful for the time we got to spend touching, moving, and manipulating clay with our hands. If learning and development are about bumping into the unknown in order to expand ourselves, this experience pushed what learning in an institutional space can or should look like. The week after this experience I found myself connecting the process to writing—writing and revising is like molding and shaping the clay, shaping the ideas and the ideas being shaped by words and phrases.” - Jess