hese classes offer kids, ages 5-17, the chance to explore and build skill, learning different hand-building techniques and how to throw on the potter's wheel. They also learn how to finish work through different glazing techniques.  

Instructors Jacob Grant and Kyla Cadwell co-teach this course.  

Jacob started Wheel Art Pottery Studio in 2010. He has 25 years of experience working in clay, an M.F.A. in Ceramics from Bradley University, and 20 years of experience teaching ceramics.  He began teaching pottery to homeschool children at The Peoria Art Guild in 2005.

Kyla is a working artist with 15 years of experience in art education. She has taught art to children in many settings, including Montessori School of Peoria, Peoria Lakeview Museum, the 21st Century Program, Cornerstone Academy of Performing Arts and most recently at Wheel Art Pottery Studios.

Jacob and Kyla share a teaching philosophy that creativity is best learned through independent experimentation/trial and error.

Their teaching process involves detailed lectures on materials used in ceramics, the firing process, and its historic and technological impact on human civilization. Demonstrations are given of techniques on how to manipulate clay through hand-building and wheel-throwing methods to create a variety of functional and sculptural forms. Children are then allowed to "play in the clay." They are encouraged to fail and learn through their failures. Students will be instructed on being responsible for their workspace and tools, and mindful of the materials they use.

Wheel-thrown Projects: Students are instructed on the basics of creating pots on a pottery wheel.  They are then given opportunity to spin clay (throw) by themselves, while instructors are only observing.  After working on the wheel independently for a period of time, instructors will give assistance and more instruction, as needed.

Hand-building Projects: Students will learn pinch-pot, and slab techniques for the upcoming fall session.  Focus on fall-time creations: slab-built leaf trays, pinch-pot pumpkins (can be carved decoratively like jack-o-lanterns), and slab spiders (used from carving patterns of their hands).

Students learn to finish their own pieces by applying glaze, underglaze, and/or other ceramic mediums before they go into a kiln and fire on for a permanent finish.

Children in both classes follow individual paths in clay. With guidance from the instructor, they are allowed to develop their own unique voice in clay. 

All kid's classes work with stoneware clay and glazes that are food-safe, water-tight, oven-proof, microwave/dishwasher-safe.

No experience necessary

Ages 5-17

$165/student, includes materials & firings

Next Session: 7 Consecutive Thursdays, August 29-October 10, 4:30-6pm

To register: https://sites.google.com/site/wheelartpotterystudio/classes/kid-s-clay-classes