Beginning to Intermediate Wheel Throwing (Appalachian Heritage Week)

Unravel the mystery of making pottery by exploring basic techniques for approaching the potter’s wheel. Create handmade tools, have lots of practice at the wheel, and discover finishing methods to individualize your work. Finish off the week by glazing and firing your peices in the electric kiln. Designed specifically for beginning to intermediate-level learners.

$36-$72

Brant Barnes began working in clay in 1971 and graduated from Western Carolina University with a BFA in 1974. After an apprenticeship at Happy Valley Pottery in Watkinsville, GA, he returned to the mountains to build his own studio and eventually settled at the Riverwood Shops in Dillsboro, NC in 1995. He and his wife Karen and, later, daughter Zan, were in residence there for over twenty-five years, making and selling pottery in an open-studio setting and teaching classes statewide. He joined the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 2005 and is a co-founder of the annual Western North Carolina Pottery Festival in Sylva, NC. He has been teaching at the Folk School since 2008.

Karen Barnes married into pottery in 1982 and had a very practical education in the studio as she assisted husband Brant. In 1995 they took over Riverwood Pottery in Dillsboro, NC, for a 25-year residency of selling pottery in an open studio setting and teaching classes statewide, joined a few years later by daughter Zan. Karen has been a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild since 2018 and has been teaching at the Folk School since 2008, specializing in beginning clay instruction.