This immersive five-day workshop is your gateway to mastering the pottery wheel! Whether you’re a beginner or have some experience, we’ll guide you step-by-step through the essentials of wheel throwing. Over just a few days, you’ll go from learning the basics to creating beautifully crafted pieces with confidence. By the end, you’ll have not only refined your skills but also shaped a deeper connection with the art of pottery. Perfect for anyone looking to get hands-on, have fun, and bring their creative vision to life!
Day 1: (3:00 pm to 5:30 pm) Let’s Get Started
Day 2: (11:00 am to 1:30 pm)
Day 3: (11:00 am to 1:30 pm) Playing with Shapes
Day 4: (11:00 am to 1:30 pm) Adding Your Personal Touch
Day 5: (11:00 am to 1:30 pm) Polishing and Perfecting
The course is spread over five sessions, each designed meticulously to cover various aspects of pottery wheel throwing.
Introduction to the potter’s wheel, tools, and clay. We’ll introduce you to the potter’s wheel, the tools you’ll be using, and the feel of the clay. It’s all about getting comfortable and excited to create!
Making Your First Forms – Refining centering techniques. Learn how to center your clay and shape it into simple forms like cylinders and bowls. This session is all about finding your rhythm on the wheel. Our instructors will help you to get the basics of centering right. Practice till you get perfect. Remember, this is the fundamental step of getting better at working on the wheel, so no compromise, do your best!
Playing with Shapes – Pulling, trimming, and altering shapes. Now that you know the art of centering, begin your journey to creating beautiful shapes. Take your skills up a notch by exploring advanced techniques like pulling clay into elegant shapes, trimming, and altering forms to make them uniquely yours.
Adding Your Personal Touch – Introduction to surface decoration: carving and adding textures. This is where your creativity shines. We’ll show you how to decorate your pieces with carving, incising, and adding textures to give them character.
Polishing and Perfecting – Focus on refining shapes, smoothing surfaces, and final touches. It’s all in the details! Spend this session refining shapes, smoothing surfaces, and putting those final touches on your pieces before they’re ready for firing.
Workshop Highlights:
We’re an art studio using clay / ceramics / pottery as a medium, nestled in a quaint village in Himachal Pradesh, India. We started in 2019 in Dharamkot village with one pottery wheel, a few kgs of clay and a simple dream of making a community art space. We’re self taught artists from different backgrounds and with different stories; the Studio and art connect all of us together.
On an elevation of 2100 m, Dharamkot is a small hill station in Kangra district in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. On the crest of a hill above McLeodGanj, (Dalai lama stays here and also place of Tibetan government in exile ), Dharamkot is a spot with wide views of the Kangra Valley and the Dhauladhar ranges. Dharamkot also has the world famous Vipassana meditation centre, Dhamma Shikara and Tushita Meditation Centre which is a centre for the study and practice of Buddhism in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition. Famous for yoga, meditation and Hippies Since 1970s, Dharamkot is also known as second home for Israeli tourists coming to India. Most of the restaurants here serve Israeli dishes.
The accommodation and studio lie amidst the pine and cedar forest, completely secluded from the hustle-bustle of the town yet easily approachable by road and just a 5-minute walk away from the village. We have single and double-occupancy rooms. We don’t put up strangers together- so you will either have the whole room or share it with someone you bring along.
All the rooms are with attached washrooms, high–speed WiFi, power backup, hot water, electric kettle, heaters/Fan private balcony and modernist aesthetics. You will have a view of the Dhauladhar mountain range from your room!
The accommodation and studio lie amidst the pine and cedar forest, completely secluded from the hustle-bustle of the town yet easily approachable by road and just a 5-minute walk away from the village. We have single and double-occupancy rooms. We don’t put up strangers together- so you will either have the whole room or share it with someone you bring along.
All the rooms are with attached washrooms, high–speed WiFi, power backup, hot water, electric kettle, heaters/Fan private balcony and modernist aesthetics. You will have a view of the Dhauladhar mountain range from your room!
An in–house cafeteria provides delicious and healthy vegetarian food. Vegan or gluten-free food is also available on request.
All meals (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner) are included in the price.
Apart from our in–house cafe there are many other cafes to explore, just a 7-10 minutes walk away from the retreat centre.
Meals Provided
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Diets Catered
Dairy-free
Egg-free
Gluten Free
Vegan
Vegetarian
By Air – Kangra Airport (DHM) is the nearest airport which is around 20 km (50 minutes) from the studio, direct taxi (Rs. 1200/-) to the studio will be available.
By Bus – Overnight journey from Delhi by semi-sleeper bus. The nearest bus station is Dharamshala (8 km), and from the bus station, you can take a taxi (Rs. 600/-) to the studio.
By Train – Pathankot (85km) is the nearest railway station. From Pathankot, you can take public transport to Dharamshala and then a taxi to the Studio. Or you can take a taxi from Pathankot to the studio.
