This workshop explores expressive figurative sculpture, using the human face and bust as a foundation for both observation and experimentation. Participants will begin by sketching and developing ideas, building an understanding of structure, proportion, and expression.

From sketch to clay, participants will construct head and bust forms using handbuilding techniques such as coiling, slab building, and hollowing. These foundational forms will then be expanded through the addition of distorted, hybrid, and unconventional elements, encouraging a shift beyond traditional representation.

The workshop will also introduce playful surface approaches using slip, inspired by Buncheong techniques (분청: Korean decorative technique). Through layering, marking, and spontaneous gestures, participants will explore how both intentional and unintentional touches create unique and expressive surfaces.

This process driven workshop invites participants to experiment, take risks, and discover their own visual language. Rather than focusing on perfect likeness, the emphasis is on shaping ideas into form and allowing the work to evolve through making.

Each student will receive 25lbs of clay. A carving knife and a wooden modeling tool will be provided. However, for more diverse surface exploration, participants are encouraged to bring additional tools. Items with interesting textures—such as stones from your yard or unique tools and objects from your kitchen or toolbox—are welcome. Please bring at least one item to experiment with.

This is an all level workshop, and anyone with a love for clay and a desire to explore and learn is warmly welcome.

About the instructor: Eunjoo Kang 강 은 주
Eunjoo Kang is a ceramic artist and sculptor whose work explores expressive figurative forms rooted in observation and personal narrative. Drawing from her Korean heritage and personal experiences, she reflects on identity and a sense of hope through contemporary approaches to surface, texture, and the emotional presence of the human figure. She received her BFA in Ceramics from Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, and participated in the Korea College Outstanding Exhibition. Since moving to the United States, she has exhibited at the Boulder Public Library Canyon Gallery and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival where she received the 3rd Place Artist Award, and will participate in Sculpture in the Park in Loveland this year. She is a member of the Boulder Potters’ Guild, where she teaches.

To learn more about Eunjoo please visit her website, or check out her instagram. 

Please Note: Firing service is not included; if you wish to fire your pieces an additional fee will apply based on the size of the items.

This class takes place at Groundworks Main (3750 Canfield St.)

Ages: 16+

Gather your family together for some Mother's Day clay fun!

The instructor will lead students in a fun clay project! Learn new clay skills by making animals and flowers and decorate together with your family. We will fire all work and let you know when it is ready for pickup, about 4 weeks later.

Location: Groundworks Art Lab Main - 3750 E. Canfield Street, Boulder

Cost: $45 per person

All materials included.

For children ages 4+

 This book combines the soft opening of a leather spine with the sturdy firmness of board covers. The completed book opens nearly perfectly flat making it an ideal book for your journal writing or drawing. Creating your book involves sewing folded signatures through a leather spine with the long stitch. We will begin by getting acquainted with paper grain and its importance for the finished book. We will cover the boards of the book with decorative paper and once dry we'll drill holes in the covers to prepare for sewing. The leather spine will also need holes for sewing which we will pierce with an awl or drill. Paper signatures will be folded and pierced and then we'll take a short break for lunch. After lunch we will learn to sew the long stitch to bind the book. Covers will then be sewn onto the leather spine piece. By the end of the workshop, you will have completed your book, and have the skill to make more on your own. Class fee includes all materials we use to make a book: leather for the spine, a sheet of decorative paper to cover boards, paper for your signatures, a pair of pre-cut cover boards, glue, and waxed-linen thread. Students can borrow tools from the BAL or you can bring your own bookbinder's toolkit. Students will need: bonefolder, medium-weight awl, Xacto knife, scissors, ruler, and a bookbinder's needle. Optional: Students may elect to bring their own sheet of decorative paper for covering the boards..

Ages: 16+

This class takes place at Groundworks East (3063 E. Sterling Cir)

Will be available to register on Monday, March 30 at 8:00am.

Always wanted to try the potter's wheel, but didn't know where to start? This class is a great intro to the wheel in 5 short weeks!

This class is intended to get you familiar with the basics of throwing on the potter's wheel. Students will have 3 weeks of throwing instruction, one week of trimming, and one week of glazing. This class is ideal for those who have limited experience and want to learn the basics of centering, trimming and glazing, with a short instructor demo and hands-on assistance each week.

Please note: This class does not include Open Lab hours or additional clay.

Ages 16+ to register

Class meets weekly on SATURDAYS.

 All pieces will be fired to Cone 6 in a reduction kiln.

This class is Pay What You Can with a suggested price of $200

Will be available to register on Monday, March 30 at 8:00am.

Ever wonder what goes on inside a metalworking studio? Come and try out a selection of metalworking techniques in our classroom studio! Sample practicing a variety of cold-work and hot-work processes! Students will try their hand at welding, blacksmithing, fabrication, and sheet-metal along with a highly experienced Metal-Fabricator!

This class has no prerequisites and is specifically set up for absolute beginners to this art form. Our Metal Studio does have some safety basics before anyone is allowed to join in the fun (failure to meet these requirements will result in not being granted access to the equipment):

• Please come dressed in close-toe shoes, and natural material clothing, i.e. cotton or linen, long pants are required.
• For welding, a long sleeved cotton shirt is recommended that fully covers your chest. We have long sleeve over-shirts in the studio. Please be aware that sparks can damage clothing.
• A bandana or tight cap is advised. If you have long hair, please have it securely tied back from your face.
• No loose or dangling jewelry, long earrings or scarves.
• We will provide safety goggles and other PPE, but if you have your own and would like to bring them, please do!
• Please bring a water bottle!

Ages: 16+

All supplies and materials will be provided.

Sampler classes DO NOT include open studio time.

This class is Pay What You Can with a suggested price of $415.

Will be available to register on Monday, March 30 at 8:00am.

Susan Taylor Glasgow will share her unique style of sewing glass components together to make complex and exciting objects.  In this multi-day workshop,  students will learn pattern making, and advanced cutting skills*. We'll work with traditional hand glass cutting tools and also glass saws and Dremels, all while building a 3-dimensional house!

*Students need experience with cutting sheet glass.

Friday, January 9 (4-7pm), Saturday, January 10 (9am-5pm), Sunday, January 11 (9am-5pm)

Note: We will have a lunch break on Saturday and Sunday; please bring your own brown bag lunch for those days.

Ages: 16+

ARTIST BIO: Glasgow grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA in Design. Her sculptures are included in the collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR, the Alexander Tutsek Foundation, Münich, Germany, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA, the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA and the Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ.  Susan Taylor-Glasgow lives and works in Columbia, Missouri.

Each sewn glass sculpture starts out as a flat sheet of glass. In her previous life, Glasgow was a professional dressmaker and seamstress, so had created a comfortable understanding about how to take a flat sheet of material and give it form. In her sculptures, each glass panel is cut from a pattern designed to match the form for which it was made. To establish the three-dimensional shape and holes, each section of the glass is kiln-fired several times. The imagery is embedded into the glass by sandblasting, and then by rubbing glass enamels into the blasted area to create the black and gray photo-like quality. The components are then re-fired to 1250 degrees to melt the enamel into the glass. Once cooled, the sections are finally sewn together. Depending on the complexity of the vessel or sculpture, the entire creative process may take two to four weeks to complete.

Artist website: http://www.taylorglasgow.com/category/available-work/