Our 3-hour ceramic
workshops
Learn new techniques or refine your craft. Our 3-hour workshops need no previous knowledge and thus can also joined by newcomers to the ceramic crafts or even family-members, friends and enthusiasts of ceramics.
Every workshop at PWS is fully customizable. Tell us what you want to learn, how long you have, and what you already know. We will build a program around that. The workshops below are starting points.
Forming and Shaping
Wheel Throwing (拉坯)
Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced workshops offered.
Learn to form clay on a potter’s wheel in 6 steps. This is a common technique for making ceramic mugs, bowls, plates, and teapots. We offer workshops for all skill levels, through introductory to advanced.
Hand Pinching (手捏)
Hand pinching is one of the basic techniques of ceramic art, and the best way to get familiar with clay. It will help you understand the consistency of clay and learn how to control it.
You can make various forms from small cups to big sculptures with just your hands.
Slab Building
Slab building is a hand-building technique where flat sheets of clay are rolled out and shaped to create structured, geometric, or sculptural ceramic forms.
Mould Making
Creating a reusable form that allows ceramic pieces to be consistently shaped by pouring or pressing clay or slip into it.
Slip Casting
A forming technique where liquid clay (slip) is poured into a plaster mould, allowing it to set into precise, repeatable shapes as the plaster absorbs moisture.
Press Moulding
Curious about the traditional figurine production method that once occupied Jingdezhen’s artware industry? Get an overview of the process, including making slabs with a wire and adding interior support structure.
Teapot Wheel Throwing
Learn how to design, throw, trim, and assemble a teapot. You will start from breaking down a teapot: what elements does a teapot consist of, what defines it, and how to maintain functionality while pursuing aesthetic goals.
Decoration
Qinghua Porcelain (青花)
One of the most distinguished traditional ceramic decoration techniques in China, Qinghua porcelain is also known as blue and white porcelain.
Overglaze Decoration
Overglaze decoration is the technique of applying painted designs or patterns onto a glazed and fired ceramic surface, then firing it again at a lower temperature to fuse the decoration permanently.
Dry Relief Carving (浅浮雕)
Drawing designs on bone dry porcelain body with pencil, followed by carving with sharp carving tools (wooden, bamboo or metal) and/or razor blades. You will be introduced to the techniques and tools, and
given design considerations.
Specialist Techniques
Ceramic Restoration
Ceramic restoration is the skilled process of repairing and reconstructing broken or damaged ceramic pieces to restore their original appearance, structure, and sometimes function.
Workshops offered:
• Crack Mending (补瓷)
• Curium Porcelain (锔瓷)
• Kintsugi (⾦缮)
Nerikomi (绞胎)
In Nerikomi, distinct patterned pieces are created through combining multiple colored clays. The outcome is diverse, from simple geometric patterns to much more complicated
motifs.
Raku (乐烧)
A technique with dramatic process and unpredictable results. Pots are taken out of the kiln while still glowing red hot, then placed in a chamber with organic materials like sawdust or charcoal, so that when burnt, an oxygen-deprived environment is created. The rapid cooling process and lack of oxygen results in the crackled glaze and unique color patterns that are typical of Raku pottery.
Flower Pinching
Traditionally for decorating sculptures (adding flowers and bees to flower baskets), Jingdezhen potters learnt to make delicate flower and insect accessories sizes as small as a fingernail.
How It Works
Workshops can be booked individually or as a planned series. These are open to resident artists and to visitors in the area. Whatever your situation, we will help you put together a programme that works for your time and goals.
All of our workshops have English translation services included.
Feel free to book through the application form below.
Visiting for a few days?
Many visitors spend two or three days taking back-to-back workshops, combining techniques like wheel throwing and Qinghua painting. We can plan for you based on how long you have and what you want to learn.
Staying as a resident?
Many residents weave workshops throughout their stay, picking up a new technique early on and returning to build on it later. Residents receive a discount on all workshops.
Plan your workshops
Already on WeChat?
Familiar with WeChat? Feel free to connect directly with the team through the QR codes below. Not on Wechat? No worries, info and bookings can be retrieved through the application form below.
Wechat official account
Add us on WeChat for more info and follow the stories of PWS in China.
WeChat Mini-program
Our mini-program where you can directly see available events around PWS.
Our residency team
General info
info@pws-hub.com
Maggie
residency@pws-hub.com
Adriel
adrieltong@pws-hub.com