MOUNTAIN VIEW — The Arkansas Craft School in Mountain View invites the public to sign up for upcoming craft classes.
The first craft workshop of the season, Creating a Professional Pottery Studio, will be presented Saturday by Judi Munn. This course will address the hurdles involved in making a private ceramics workspace in one’s home. The class will be held at Munn’s pottery studio at the Ozark Folk Center.
Also Saturday and Sunday, Sage Holland will teach To the Grindstone! — a course on working with the diamond lapidary wheel, a specialty grinder that when used in glass bead-making can produce surfaces that are opaque like old trade beads or clear like paperweights. The beads or other glass objects can also be faceted and buffed to a fine jewel shimmer, revealing internal patterning that is only exposed upon polishing.
April will feature three special artisan studio workshops. On Thursday, April 7, through Saturday, April 9, stained-glass artisan Roberta Katz-Messenger will present an intensive tutorial for a limited number of stained-glass enthusiasts in her home studio and showroom in Clinton. Participants will have three days of exposure and experience working in a professional studio on a stained-glass project of their choice.
On Friday, April 8, through Sunday, April 10, Robert and Mary Patrick will offer students a chance to work in the couple’s studio in Everton, where the Patricks live and work. They will offer a limited number of participants a chance to stay there as well. Mary will present her class Ozark Gizzard Baskets at the same time that Bob will present his Basic Blacksmithing class.
Also on Friday, April 8, through Sunday, April 10, wildlife woodcarver Gerry Chisholm, who will be in residence at the Arkansas Craft School, will offer a beginning- to intermediate-level woodcarving class. Students can learn how to carve a songbird, half-life size, so it can be finished in three days. Students may also choose other projects, with permission of the instructor. Class lessons will include sharpening tools; choosing and working with wood; practicing the carving process; making legs and feet; and painting, finishing and mounting a carving.
Branching out into the field of mixed media, Little Rock artist Lugene Woods will present a one-day workshop Saturday, April 23, titled Found Object Boxes. The workshop will show students what to do with those small knick-knacks and whatnots that have been cluttering up drawers in their homes.
Also on Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24, award-winning Fayetteville ceramic artist Don Nibert will offer potters an opportunity to explore his unusual techniques for throwing extreme, bellied-out forms and to experiment with his firing techniques in the Craft School’s new raku kiln in a class titled Extreme Raku.
Finishing up the month, Ozark Woodturners President James Pruitt will offer the course Introduction to Woodturning on Friday, April 29, through Sunday, May 1, at the Arkansas Craft School. The class will cover the equipment, tools, safety and techniques used in the art of woodturning. Students will come away from the hands-on class with the firm foundation needed to begin turning wood safely, as well as small projects created while learning the skills.