Handbuilding for Form & Function with Kira Straub
Tuesdays, 6 Classes
6pm – 9pm
Offered For:
Fall Session Two (Nov. 3, 10, 17, 24, Dec. 1, 8)
Price:
$265
This handbuilding workshop covers the basics of handbuilding with clay. We will learn skills for creating sculptural and functional forms and spend time exploring surface design techniques. Through learning these techniques, students will deepen their material relationship to working with clay, and use it to create unique forms of sculptural and functional work.Â
Purchase clay prior to your first class by calling 727-821-7162 ext. 2311 Please note that we are open Wed-Sat 10am-5pm
Clay options located at the bottom of this page
Class will be held at:
Morean Center for Clay
420 22nd St S
St. Petersburg, FL 33712
Artist Bio:
Kira Straub is a sculpture and installation artist who graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 2024 earning a BFA in Studio Art with concentrations in Sculpture, Ceramics, and Community Art. Straub recently completed a month-long residency at Penland School of Craft and their work has been included in shows across Wisconsin at Var Gallery, Trout Museum of Art, Center for Visual Arts Wausau, and the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Their first work of public art was included in Sculpture Milwaukee’s 2023 exhibition Dear, Nature located at the 3rd St. Market Hall in downtown Milwaukee. For the past two years Straub has been working as Studio Manager at community art studio Tooth + Nail Milwaukee where they spend their days arm deep in buckets of clay.
Options For Clay
Brown Clays:
259 Stoneware – Buff colored stoneware. Smooth enough to throw on the potter’s wheel, but strong enough to withstand most hand-building techniques. Can be fired from Cone 6 to Cone 10.Â
112 Speckled Brownstone – Plastic clay for wheel and modeling. Granular manganese gives speckled surface. Good in oxidation or reduction firing. Can be fired to Cone 6.
306 Stoneware – Smooth throwing body. Orange-brown in reduction. Gray at Cone 10 oxidation. Can be fired from Cone 6 to Cone 10.
Red Clays:
308 Brooklyn Red – Rich dark red colored clay. Contains grog that makes it exceptionally strong for sculpting or throwing large vessels. Can be fired to Cone 6.Â
108 Red with Grog – A high fire red clay with medium grog and sand for surface texture and minimal cracking and warping. Designed for sculpture, slab, and coil work. Can be fired from Cone 6 to 10.
White Clays:
240 White – Made by Standard clay. Very smooth, plastic throwing body that fires to Cone 6.Â
213 Porcelain – A white body formulated for Cone 6 firing. Plastic and throwable.Â
130 Porcelain – A white firing, high temperature plastic body. Very fine white porcelain grog enhances strength and throwability. Reduction firing: Potentially yields black specks. Can be fired from Cone 7 to Cone 10
