Clay Game Lab: Handbuilding, Glazing, and Game Design

Clay Game Lab: Handbuilding, Glazing, and Game Design - Image 2

Clay Game Lab: Handbuilding, Glazing, and Game Design

$240.00

Date	11/7/26 – 11/8/26
Department	Ceramics

10 in stock

SKU: C-Game-F26 Categories: CERAMICS, Workshop Tag: product-course

Description

Ever wanted to build the board game you’ve been dreaming up — out of clay? In this hands-on ceramics course, you’ll design and construct your own game boards while learning core handbuilding techniques. We’ll start with wedging clay and move into coil building, slab building, and the pinch pot method, using each technique to bring a personal game concept to life in three dimensions. You’ll also learn foundational surface design skills — underglazing and sgraffito — to add detail, texture, and personality to your board, finishing with a full glaze application. This course blends creative problem-solving with technical skill-building. You’ll design a functional object with rules, strategy, and a story behind it. No prior ceramics experience is needed — just curiosity and a willingness to get your hands dirty.

DATES: SATURDAY & SUNDAY 11/7/26 – 11/8/26

TIME: 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM

SKILL LEVEL: ALL LEVELS

INSTRUCTOR BIO

FRANKIE PITTORF is an interdisciplinary artist creating work that centers around themes of identity, adolescence, and memory. Frankie’s work operates within a realm between past and present and investigates how childhood shapes Queer and Trans identities. Working in collaboration with their younger self, Frankie uses toys, old craft materials, and crayola crayons to recreate their childhood drawings, forming contemporary narratives of their lived experience. These works create a sense of longing and nostalgia, operating as a way to return to childhood to try to fill in gaps where identity was lost. Collectively, these works become an act of reclamation and reconciliation, allowing space for queer affirmation and expression. Frankie received their BFA in studio arts from Syracuse University in 2022 with a focus on ceramics and jewelry. After graduation, they completed residency, earning a kiln fellowship at The Steel Yard in 2022-2023. They have exhibited their work in shows around the U.S. and currently have work on view at Gallery 263 in Boston. Frankie continues to work in Providence and teaches ceramics at The Steel Yard. Since 2022, they have completed multiple partnership programs with Onward We Learn and Project Open Door.

Ana Popescu is a Romanian-American artist based in Providence. Working primarily in clay, she combines traditional ceramic processes with digital fabrication, architectural references, and a healthy obsession with ornament, history, and material experimentation. Before earning her MFA in Ceramics from RISD in 2025, Ana spent over a decade creating immersive installations, performances, and large-scale productions in New York City and beyond. Her work has been exhibited in New York, London, Bucharest, and Providence, and she currently teaches ceramics at The Steel Yard and works as a technical assistant in RISD’s Ceramics Department.

COURSE WITHDRAWAL & TRANSFERS

All enrollments are subject to our REGISTRATION & ENROLLMENT POLICIES.