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News, Events, Inspiration ◊ September, 2022

Great Studio Cleanup reminder

The first day...

Student wires off finished pot

Student Becky Nistel wires off

her finished pot

...of our fall semester will soon be here. You still have time to sign up for classes but hurry. Remember, our pottery classes offer learning at its best. No tests, no grades, no report cards. Just the thrill of getting your hands in clay and delighting in its sensuous tactile qualities while you learn to create artful objects for yourself and others.


Join us for fall classes now.


Here's our class lineup:

Introductory and Continuing Wheel

  • Mon, Sep 12-Oct 17, 6:30-8:30 pm, with Kevan Wilson
  • Wed, Sep 14-Oct 19, 10:00 am-12:00 pm, with Steve Olszewski
  • Thurs, Sep 8-Oct 13, 10:00 am-12:00 pm, with Nancy Bulkley
  • Thurs, Sep 8-Oct 13, 12:30-2:30 pm, with Nancy Bulkley
  • Thurs, Sep 8-Oct 13, 4:30-6:30 pm, with Kay Yourist
  • Thurs, Sep 8-Oct 13, 6:30-8:30 pm, with Kay Yourist
  • Sat, Sep 10-Oct 15, 9:30-11:30 am, with Laila Chalati


Introductory / Continuing Wheel Fridays

  • Fri, Sep 9-Oct 14, 6:30-8:30 pm, with Nick Glynos


Introductory Wheel Sundays

  • Sun, Sep 11-Oct 16, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, with Maxwell Davis


Continuing Wheel Sundays

  • Sun, Sep 11-Oct 16, 1:30-3:30 pm, with Maxwell Davis


Coffee and Clay (In studio or via Zoom)

  • Wed, Sep 7-Oct 12, 10:00 am-12:00 pm, with Nancy Bulkley
  • Sat, Sep 10-Oct 15, 9:30 am-11:30 am, with Nancy Bulkley


Hand Building

  • Thurs, Sep 8-Oct 13, 6:30-8:30 pm, with Meg Gizzi


Design your clay surface New!

  • Mon, Sep 19-Nov 21, 6:30-8:30 pm, with Darcy Bowden.


Advanced and Intermediate Clay

  • Wed, Aug 31-Nov 30, 6:30-9:00 pm, with Maxwell Davis


Advanced / Intermediate Independent Study

  • Tues, Sep 6-Dec 7, 6:30-9:00 pm, with Kay Yourist


Enroll here.

Try It this fall


Get down to earth on the pottery wheel in our Try It Once on the Wheel class:


Try It Once on the Wheel

  • Sat, Sep 17, 1:00-2:30 pm, with Kay Yourist


Sign up now.

Studio life

After the joy of clay...

Cleanup after working at the studio

Use plenty of water

...comes the job of cleanup. We revisit this reminder once a year because a clean studio is a healthy studio. As a community of clay artists, it's up to us to keep the studio clean and welcoming.


We expect all students and members to be conscientious about cleanup and courtesy. Remember to use plenty of water to prevent clay or glaze from drying out on any surface in the studio.


  • Clean your work area and always leave it better than you found it.
  • After throwing, mop the floor around your wheel and clean your mirror.
  • Clean every table surface that you have worked on.
  • After using the glaze area, clean off the table surface and surrounding floor.
  • After you finish cleaning, wipe out your sink and dispose of chunks of clay in the slop bucket.
  • If you receive phone calls, please step out of the work area to talk and do not use speaker phone.


Thank you for doing your part to keep the studio clean, healthy, and user friendly for all.

Job opportunity

Studio intern

We're interviewing potential studio interns for fall and winter to help with studio maintenance in exchange for studio use. The successful applicant should know how to mix glaze, load kilns, mop floors, and perform other typical studio duties. Please send a letter of interest, including your pottery studio experience, to Kay Yourist.

Do you have...


...July or August bisque or glaze ware awaiting you on our shelves? On September 30, we must empty our shelves of all the bisque and glaze ware that has accumulated there in July and August.


  • Please pick up your glazed pieces and take them home to enjoy.
  • Please glaze your bisque ware now or take it home for glazing in the future.


With the fall semester under way, any unclaimed bisque ware and glazed pieces remaining after September 30 must be discarded to open up space for new work.

Masking update


Before coming to the studio, please check the following links for current advisories on COVID transmission risk and case numbers in Washtenaw county:


CDC COVID Community Levels page.

Washtenaw County Health Department page


CDC currently updates its advisory every Thursday at 8 pm ET.


The studio will operate in accordance with the latest CDC advisories. Thank you for helping us keep our studio safe and healthy for all students and members.

Potters quick tip
How to tape a pot

Q. I can't resist the tape pull videos you've included in past newsletters and would like to try taping a pot myself. Can you show me how?


A. Learn from pot taper extraordinaire Matthew Arnold (aka matthewplayswithfire), who demonstrates how he tapes a pot. This video runs just under four minutes, but I'll bet taping this small pot took much longer.


You can see more tape pulls and results of Arnold's taping mastery here.


This video is part of our continuing series for beginners at all levels.

Clay lover's events

Kevin Snipes talks about his pottery

Ceramic artist Kevin Snipes draws on

"hand-built porcelain sculpture to produce unique pieces"

On-site exhibitions


We'll let you know when new ceramics exhibitions are on display and open to the public. Before you go to an on-site exhibition, be sure to check the art museum's web site for temporary closures due to COVID-19 and for masking and other requirements.


Around the World in Blue and White. Selections from the William C. Weese Collection of Chinese Ceramics. University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ongoing. More . . .


Balancing the Cosmos: Works by Li Hongwei: Combines Eastern and Western aesthetics with traditional and contemporary practices. Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Now-October 2. More . . .


Walk on the Wild Side: Animals in three-dimensional works of various time periods in stone, ceramic, and glass. Flint Institute of Art. Now-February 5, 2023. More . . .


Travel Dining. Collection of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design. Gifts of Art Gallery, Taubman Health Center. September 6-December 2. (Note: this exhibition is limited to Michigan Medicine patients and their visitors. A link on the exhibition page will allow you to visit virtually.) More . . .


Matt Wedel: Phenomenal Debris. Wedel's work represents "the phenomenal debris that is shed from being human." Toledo Museum of Art. November 5, 2022-April 2, 2023. More . . .


Clay as Soft Power: Shigaraki Ware in Postwar America and Japan. How pottery transformed global relations. University of Michigan Museum of Art. November 12, 2022-May 7, 2023. More . . .

Virtual tours and videos


Here's a selection of pottery events, exhibitions, and museum tours that you can visit and enjoy online. Lots of tasty ceramic eye candy!


Cool Boy – Ceramic Artist Kevin Snipes. Snipes talks about his unique style of drawing on hand-built porcelain sculpture. More . . .


Shapes from Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection. Video of an exhibition at Metropolitan Museum of Art. More . . .


From Earth and Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. Virtual tour of an exhibition at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. More . . .


And three from Colossal:

Colonial Ruptures. Dramatic figures by Sharif Bey. More . . .

Adorably Emotional Creatures by Nosey Mungo. More . . .

Amorphous Ceramic Vessels by Julie Bergeron. More . . .

Other events

Unforgettable Dinnerware is back

The International Museum of Dinnerware Design begins it Fall 2022 Unforgettable Dinnerware online lecture series with


Mid-Century Modern Dinnerware

Michael E. Pratt

Wed., Sep 14, 6:30 pm ET


Learn more here.

Piece of mid-century modern dinnerware
The Cracked Pot Studio Tour

You will find full details about the tour here. See a tour overview here. This year's tour will feature a pottery throw down!

Call for entries

Entomophagous Dining
That's a fancy term for "eating insects," the theme of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design's call for entries for its Fifth Biennial Juried Exhibition. The entry deadline is January 31, 2023, so you have plenty to time to get ready.

Grasshopper plate

Resources for potters

How to spice up...

Surface decoration with coils

...your surfaces with coils.

No doubt you are familiar with various coiling techniques to hand build vessels, but coils can also be used to decorate your pots. See how potter Monique Rutherford makes use of coils to produce striking surface effects on her pots.


View a slide show of Monique Rutherford's work here.

For ancient commuters?

Making a stirrup pot

On a recent museum trip potter Ann Ruel was inspired by stirrup pots made by the Cupisnique potters of Peru in 1500-1000 BCE. The pots have a hollow stirrup-shaped handle with a pouring spout at the top. Fortunately for her fans, Ann experiments with making a pot of this form herself. She hand builds her version, but you could also make the pot with a combination of throwing and hand building.


Check out additional highly sophisticated examples of Cupisnique pottery here, including contortionist and twin owl stirrup pots.

Studio and Gallery hours

Here are our open studio hours beginning September, 2022:


  • Tuesday, 12:00-6:00 pm
  • Wednesday, 12:00-6:00 pm
  • Friday, 12:00-6:00 pm
  • Saturday, 12:00-6:00 pm


There are no open studio hours on Thursday. Saturday open studio hours begin at noon with the exception of one Saturday a month, when the Try It Once on the Wheel class meets from 1:00 to 2:30 pm. Check our class schedule for the date for this class.


Please remember to sign in when you arrive and sign out when you leave. And make sure to clean your work area thoroughly before leaving.


We have curbside delivery of clay, tools, and pottery during our regular hours. If you have a specific need, please call us at the studio, during regular hours, at 734-662-4914.


Yourist Studio Gallery
6087 Jackson Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
734-662-4914 | www.youristpottery.com

•Classes and workshops
•Community studio workspace
•Pottery tools for sale
•Exhibit gallery