Yard Courses Calendar

Spend a weekend learning the basics of metalworking: ripping through steel with gas torches and fusing it back together with a 10,000° electrical arc! This two-day workshop will introduce students to MIG welding, the oxygen-acetylene torch, various metal saws, and the grinder. By the end of the first day you will be able to heat, cut, join, bend, and polish. On the second day you will have the full day to use your new skills creating a project to take home. No previous experience necessary—this is a great opportunity to explore welding for the first time. Materials and tools will be provided.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This course offers students the opportunity to learn hand building techniques while creating unique, one-of-a-kind ceramic sculptures! Starting from a sketchbook design, students will bring their ideas to life through clay. Learn the works of various historic and contemporary artists while fostering your own interest and ideas. Experiment with expressive mark making, texture and surface designs. The instructor will give many demonstrations which will cover hand building techniques (Slab, coil, pinch, & extruded construction), surface decoration and texture, and glazing. Students will have one-on-one assistance with instructor.

No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Spend a weekend learning the basics of metalworking: ripping through steel with gas torches and fusing it back together with a 10,000° electrical arc! This two-day workshop will introduce students to MIG welding, the oxygen-acetylene torch, various metal saws, and the grinder. By the end of the first day you will be able to heat, cut, join, bend, and polish. On the second day you will have the full day to use your new skills creating a project to take home. No previous experience necessary—this is a great opportunity to explore welding for the first time. Materials and tools will be provided.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This is the perfect class for theaspiring smith and avid foodie! By making a variety of kitchen implements frombarbecue forks to bottle openers you will gain a thorough grounding in basicblacksmithing techniques!

No prior blacksmithing ormetalworking experience is necessary.    

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about ourregistration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

We will begin with simple slab plates and tumblers. We'll talk about rolling a great slab, handling the clay with care and attention, and the magical combination of risk-taking and note-taking. Basics and refinements will be covered, with care taken with rims, feet, and how pots meet our bodies and our homes. We'll move on to darted cups, plates and bowls, with a discussion of template-based iteration for students who are interested in being able to make repeatable forms. We will briefly touch on the basics of glazing.

No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

The bottle opener ... it's everyone's favorite tool and a great conversation starter at a party! In this workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of blacksmithing, while focusing on forging their own unique, handmade bottle openers.

A perfect introduction to the craft of forging, this course teaches the basics of heating, hammering, and shaping steel. In three hours, we will cover techniques such as punching, drifting, tapering, bending, twists, and texturing. This class focuses on forging techniques for small pieces; think less brute force and more precise detail. No need to be big and burly for this course.

No previous experience necessary; all tools and materials are provided. Students will leave the workshop with a completed bottle opener.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

They say if you chop your own wood, it will warm you twice. If you forge the axe, it will warm you thrice!
In this advanced course, you will forge your own axe in the ancient way. Students will create a small hatchet, using the asymmetric wrapped-method preferred by smiths in the viking era. Working from steel bar, we will forge, fold, forge-weld, grind, and heat treat a small axe for wood cutting, adventuring, or for burying with you on your way to Valhalla. Handles will be provided, and you will go home with your own hand made chopper.
   
This course is only appropriate to participants who have successfully completed a Fundamentals of Blacksmithing class, or similar 20+ hour introductory blacksmithing class. All tools and materials will be provided, and students will leave the course with a completed axe.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This class will cover the ancient technique of moving metal via chasing and repousse. This technique pushes the elasticity of metal to its limit and the allows us to create beautiful three-dimensional pieces of art from flat sheets metal. In this class we will be starting with the basics and moving into more advanced techniques as we progress. In order to grasp the technique on the first day, we will be creating small ring dishes and platters. The second day of class we will let our imaginations run wild and create any form of jewelry or art we desire. Throughout the class we will learn proper use of chasing tools along with the jewelers saw, flexshaft, files, drop shear, torch and forming stakes. We will also be covering various finishing techniques including natural liver of sulfur patina.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Move beyond the appreciation of jewelry to creation by learning the fundamentals of jewelry-making techniques, design and fabrication. A range of hand-tool processes will be covered through practical exercises and imaginative concept-based projects. You will acquire a solid set of technical skills, and will also exercise your creative design skills. The non-technical side of the class focuses on idea development and the critical-thinking skills needed to realize a vision. This course will review sawing, filing, soldering, scoring/bending, texturing, forming, linkages, wire construction and more. No prior metal-smithing skills are necessary. Metal will be provided for practice and exercises, but students may need to pay for additional metals needed for their independent work.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

We will begin with simple slab plates and tumblers. We'll talk about rolling a great slab, handling the clay with care and attention, and the magical combination of risk-taking and note-taking. Basics and refinements will be covered, with care taken with rims, feet, and how pots meet our bodies and our homes. We'll move on to darted cups, plates and bowls, with a discussion of template-based iteration for students who are interested in being able to make repeatable forms. We will briefly touch on the basics of glazing.

No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

They say if you chop your own wood, it will warm you twice. If you forge the axe, it will warm you thrice!
In this advanced course, you will forge your own axe in the ancient way. Students will create a small hatchet, using the asymmetric wrapped-method preferred by smiths in the viking era. Working from steel bar, we will forge, fold, forge-weld, grind, and heat treat a small axe for wood cutting, adventuring, or for burying with you on your way to Valhalla. Handles will be provided, and you will go home with your own hand made chopper.
   
This course is only appropriate to participants who have successfully completed a Fundamentals of Blacksmithing class, or similar 20+ hour introductory blacksmithing class. All tools and materials will be provided, and students will leave the course with a completed axe.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This class will cover the ancient technique of moving metal via chasing and repousse. This technique pushes the elasticity of metal to its limit and the allows us to create beautiful three-dimensional pieces of art from flat sheets metal. In this class we will be starting with the basics and moving into more advanced techniques as we progress. In order to grasp the technique on the first day, we will be creating small ring dishes and platters. The second day of class we will let our imaginations run wild and create any form of jewelry or art we desire. Throughout the class we will learn proper use of chasing tools along with the jewelers saw, flexshaft, files, drop shear, torch and forming stakes. We will also be covering various finishing techniques including natural liver of sulfur patina.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

In Handbuilding Basics, students will have access to our ceramics studio and a knowledgeable instructor to guide them through learning the language of clay. This class is a great fit for beginners with no prior experience, and intermediate students pursuing independent projects.

This class will explore vessel making through multiple handbuilding techniques such as pinch pot, coil, and slab building methods to create functional and sculptural forms. Students will also learn about surface decoration through a variety of glaze applications and techniques. Class projects will investigate function, design, scale, and concept based on ancient objects and contemporary artists working in the field of ceramics. Students will leave this class with a greater understanding of the material, ceramic process, and confidence to hand build any form in clay. No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Materials and tools will be provided.

Move beyond the appreciation of jewelry to creation by learning the fundamentals of jewelry-making techniques, design and fabrication. A range of hand-tool processes will be covered through practical exercises and imaginative concept-based projects. You will acquire a solid set of technical skills, and will also exercise your creative design skills. The non-technical side of the class focuses on idea development and the critical-thinking skills needed to realize a vision. This course will review sawing, filing, soldering, scoring/bending, texturing, forming, linkages, wire construction and more. No prior metal-smithing skills are necessary. Metal will be provided for practice and exercises, but students may need to pay for additional metals needed for their independent work.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This course offers students the opportunity to learn hand building techniques while creating unique, one-of-a-kind ceramic sculptures! Starting from a sketchbook design, students will bring their ideas to life through clay. Learn the works of various historic and contemporary artists while fostering your own interest and ideas. Experiment with expressive mark making, texture and surface designs. The instructor will give many demonstrations which will cover hand building techniques (Slab, coil, pinch, & extruded construction), surface decoration and texture, and glazing. Students will have one-on-one assistance with instructor.

No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This is the perfect class for theaspiring smith and avid foodie! By making a variety of kitchen implements frombarbecue forks to bottle openers you will gain a thorough grounding in basicblacksmithing techniques!

No prior blacksmithing ormetalworking experience is necessary.    

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about ourregistration and enrollment policies.

Come get down and dirty while learning to make functional and sculptural forms on the potter's wheel! In this course, students will learn how to use the potter's wheel to create cups, bowls, plates, vases, and pouring vessels. Students will practice throwing, trimming, making handles and spouts, and finishing and firing their pieces.

Students will experience clay both as a functional building material and as an expressive medium. Color and texture will be explored through a variety of slips and glazes. The instructor will lead demonstrations to give students more ideas as to what type of clay forms they could like to pursue. Students will also be exposed to the creative thought processes behind intellectual and intuitive decisions in ceramics.

Each week, a new technique will be demonstrated, and a new artist's artwork will be presented to ignite your imagination! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

We will begin with simple slab plates and tumblers. We'll talk about rolling a great slab, handling the clay with care and attention, and the magical combination of risk-taking and note-taking. Basics and refinements will be covered, with care taken with rims, feet, and how pots meet our bodies and our homes. We'll move on to darted cups, plates and bowls, with a discussion of template-based iteration for students who are interested in being able to make repeatable forms. We will briefly touch on the basics of glazing.

No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Students will receive a complimentary 25 pound bag of cone 6 clay, but may need to purchase additional clay for their personal projects. All other materials and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional access to one monitored Open Studio session per week.

Unfinished student work should be picked up within two weeks of last class.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

They say if you chop your own wood, it will warm you twice. If you forge the axe, it will warm you thrice!
In this advanced course, you will forge your own axe in the ancient way. Students will create a small hatchet, using the asymmetric wrapped-method preferred by smiths in the viking era. Working from steel bar, we will forge, fold, forge-weld, grind, and heat treat a small axe for wood cutting, adventuring, or for burying with you on your way to Valhalla. Handles will be provided, and you will go home with your own hand made chopper.
   
This course is only appropriate to participants who have successfully completed a Fundamentals of Blacksmithing class, or similar 20+ hour introductory blacksmithing class. All tools and materials will be provided, and students will leave the course with a completed axe.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

This class will cover the ancient technique of moving metal via chasing and repousse. This technique pushes the elasticity of metal to its limit and the allows us to create beautiful three-dimensional pieces of art from flat sheets metal. In this class we will be starting with the basics and moving into more advanced techniques as we progress. In order to grasp the technique on the first day, we will be creating small ring dishes and platters. The second day of class we will let our imaginations run wild and create any form of jewelry or art we desire. Throughout the class we will learn proper use of chasing tools along with the jewelers saw, flexshaft, files, drop shear, torch and forming stakes. We will also be covering various finishing techniques including natural liver of sulfur patina.

Visit thesteelyard.org to register for classes and find out more about our registration and enrollment policies.

In Handbuilding Basics, students will have access to our ceramics studio and a knowledgeable instructor to guide them through learning the language of clay. This class is a great fit for beginners with no prior experience, and intermediate students pursuing independent projects.

This class will explore vessel making through multiple handbuilding techniques such as pinch pot, coil, and slab building methods to create functional and sculptural forms. Students will also learn about surface decoration through a variety of glaze applications and techniques. Class projects will investigate function, design, scale, and concept based on ancient objects and contemporary artists working in the field of ceramics. Students will leave this class with a greater understanding of the material, ceramic process, and confidence to hand build any form in clay. No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all levels. Materials and tools will be provided.