So often pottery is presented in a classroom environment with commercial bags of clay and pre-programmed kilns, bypassing the meaningful relationship that we can create with the source of our materials and the lineage of the craft.
Pottery is an ancient art, intrinsically tied to the land, inspiring our belonging to it as we shape the things we need up from the ground.
For this very reason, using local clays is profoundly meaningful. It slows down our “production” mindset and allows us to tune into the immense ecological and geological narrative we are apart of.
We are earth and this craft reminds us that we too are shaped by our choices, becoming vessels that can hold our deepest prayers. Clay is a powerful medium for intuitive exploration of the soul, because it grounds us to the material world as we face the transformative fires of life.
Shaping Earth and Fire immersion is a devotional week of wild embodiment, creative exploration through clay, and community ritual.
Our full five day retreat integrates the creative process with informational hands-on learning. Having a full week to ground together gives us time to dive into wild clay processing and all the things one needs to know to begin working with foraged clays at home, as well as practice various hand building techniques with space and time for the creative process to move through us. We will integrate indoor and outdoor studio time, group time, and solo time.
No prior experience with ceramics is necessary to participate. If the clay calls you, please join and know that no skill is needed for shaping earth, it is inherently human.
Registration now open below!
Firing Range: Earthenware v Glaze Firing
During this retreat we will low fire our pottery and learn more about the incredible world of earthenware. There will be a whole day dedicated to the chemistry of using wild clays for mid-range electric firings and high firing with gas and wood that will equip you with the knowledge you need to try this at home.
Unlike mid-range and high fire pottery, earthenware specifically refers to low fired ceramics and sometimes implies that a locally harvested clay was used. Pit, clay kiln or open firings are practiced by many cultures around the world to make functional pottery without the use of electricity. Each of these ancient ceramic cultures has their unique pottery forms, decorations, techniques and cuisines cooked in clay.
An open fire or small clay oven can only reach bisque temps, it is not hot enough to melt glazes, so techniques such as burnishing and sealing are used instead of glazes to create finished functional, everyday use ceramics for the kitchen and home. The idea that earthenware is not food safe is a prejudice of the Western world superiority, and more a question of proper hygenic practices.
A key difference between earthenware and glazed pottery is in its durability. Glazed pottery is essentially permanent - taking as much as 1 million years to decompose. Given our global consumption of mineral resources, this can be seen as a significant reason to make more earthenware. Unliked glazed pottery, earthenware can be broken up and composted, returned to the soil, helping to not only trap valuable nutrients but also retain water.
Week Overview
Sunday afternoon/evening: Arrival & settling in, dinner
Monday - Wednesday: Time on the land, foraging and processing clay and other materials, handbuilding and creative exploration, decorating and burnishing
Thursday: Clay lecture and hands-on experimentation: clay chemistry, geological narratives, blending theory, addatives, firing ranges, troubleshooting, and more! Glaze tests! Plus preparing for the firing
Friday: All day pit firing ceremony and evening pottery sealing
Saturday Morning: Closing & departure
Costs
Full Workshop Fee is $750, which includes five full days of facilitated learning, making, and ritual with finished fired pieces and all materials for making, as well as organic dinners every night and access to kitchen. Lodging is not included.
$150 deposit will hold your place, with a monthly payment option $200 until the retreat. Please be in touch to confirm monthly payment schedule.
Lodging information is below. Payment can be made online ahead of time or brought as cash at the time of the retreat.
This workshop is taking place on the unceded indigenous lands of the Kalapuya. Understanding our materials as potters connects us intimately with the geologic, as well as peopled histories of these lands. It is our responsibility as guests in these places to come with respect and care for these histories and ecosystems, so that we are contributing to connection and protection and not perpetuating extraction and harm.
If you are Indigenous or Native American, Black, Latino/a/x/e, or someone of the global majority that has been prevented from connecting to, tending or protecting the land as a result of colonial oppression there is a 20% waived fee for participation in this workshop. Please pay deposit and include BIPOC in your registration info!
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Center for Rural Livelihoods is a 40 acre forested sustainable education and retreat center in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Located 2 hrs 30 minutes south of Portland. The Eugene airport is 50 minutes from the CRL (picks up at the airport can be coordinated).
Cottage Grove is a small timber town, but does have basic amenities like a small natural food store and larger conventional grocery store.
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There are a few lodging options onsite for the week. Please indicate your lodging preference on the registration form.
Car and tent camping - $90/wk
Private dorm room* with bunk bed - $150/wk - can be single occupany or split cost with another participant. PRIVATE DORMS ARE CURRENTLY ALL BOOKED - if you’d like to see about sharing a bunk room with another participant, please email for more information.
Shared sleeping room in the lodge - $100/wk.
Shared private cabin (~13 minutes away), three beds - $280 split 3 ways, $420 split two ways, or $600 for the week for just one person* (if you are interested in this option please select it on the registration and clarify your preference for sharing or not.
All beds come with bedding and pillow, but extra cozy things from home will be appreciated.
*The private rooms do not have any insulation between the upstairs and downstairs, so sound is very permeable.
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Breakfast and lunch will be on your own. There are full kitchen (oven, toaster, blenders, etc) and fridge on site.
Dinners Sunday through Friday night are provided.
Dinners are a wholesome, organic fair balancing veggies, grains, and ethically sourced meats (including fish, chicken, beef, and goat).
We accomodate food restrictions by putting common sensitivities on the side like gluten, dairy, and meat. Please indicate on the registration form if you have any preferences so we can plan ahead.
Shaping Earth and Fire Retreat is a devotional week of wild embodiment, creative exploration through clay, and community ritual.
We will gather to honor the land, open ourselves to be held by the earth as we hold and shape the earth, creating vessels with intention. This creative practice is a ceremony, from crude earth to decorated and finished pottery, invoking fire at the end of the week to receive our prayers and pottery.
Our full five day retreat gives us time to dive into wild clay processing and all the things one needs to know to begin working with foraged clays at home, as well as practice various hand building techniques while giving us space and time for the creative process to move through us.
Full class description at Shaping Earth & Fire page!
100% before Sept. 1st, 50% refund Sept. 15th, No refund after October 1st
Instructor
Hosanna White is dedicated to learning slow crafts like primitive firing, weaving, and foraging that connect her with the source of her materials and the magic that comes from transforming them for everyday use.
Hosanna lives in the foothills of Western Oregon, a geologically rich landscape that inspires her studio work, Whitesnake Arts. She blends bio-regional history and land stewardship into her artwork and place based pottery.