Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre provides arts and crafts courses for adults and children, as well as courses in creative writing. We specialise in pottery, art, drawing and painting, glass fusing and stained glass, jewellery-making and mosaic-making. In 2009 we will be adding creative book making and binding, mixed media workshops, and film animation workshops for both adults and children. We run weekly morning and evening classes, weekend breaks, summer schools and tailor-made workshops for corporate groups and private parties.

We can accommodate up to 20 people in one class and up to 50 in a group, or as few as two or three at a time. All our courses suit beginners, enthusiasts and professionals, using a wide range of facilities and techniques. The pottery includes electric and raku kilns, stoneware and earthenware clays, and we teach throwing, hand-building and all varieties of glazing.

"After more than 20 years of corporate life in London, I left the rat-race to pursue my ambition of becoming an artist and teacher, moved to Kinsale with my family and set-up the Kinsale Pottery and Art School. My desire to teach comes from my experience as a communicator - I have learned to find and stimulate the artist in us all, regardless of our experience of art." Adrian Wistreich, Ceramic Artist

Courses

Pottery
Our adult pottery courses cover building techniques such as coiling, slabbing, throwing and sculpting in clay. Decorative techniques, including sgraffito, slip-painting, underglazing and glazing are taught and we concentrate on three-dimensional art, with an emphasis on technical skills development and artistic exploration. Courses for adults and teenagers are available: weekly 3 hour classes in 6 week terms, five-day intensive summer courses and two-day weekend workshops throughout the year.

Corporate & Tailor Made Courses
We offer short courses, tailor-made, to suit corporate and private parties. These include pottery and painting classes and by arrangement, other crafts such as mosaics and stained glass. Class sizes are from 4 to 18 people and two classes can be run concurrently, so that parties of up to 30-40 can be catered for.

Craft Weekends
We offer a series of weekend two-day workshops, directed at amateurs and craftspeople wanting to develop their skills in a particular art form, or to try their hand at a new one. As well as an introduction to ceramics, we also offer a range of other applied arts, each taught by a specialist. These include:

• Introduction to Ceramics: for those with little or no experience of pottery, this course introduces the techniques of making â“ coiling, slabbing and throwing, plus underglaze and glaze decoration. You will make 5-6 pieces during the weekend.
• Stained glass: design and make up panels or 3D pieces using the copper foil technique.
• Glass fusing: cut, assemble and shape coloured glass forms, which are then fused in the kiln and used to make pendants, small bowls, coasters and tiles.
• Drawing & Life Drawing: over the course of the weekend, you will work through a combination of experimental and traditional exercises. You'll learn to manipulate materials including pencil, charcoal and ink as well as less conventional materials such as bleach and sand. During life drawing sessions you'll get the chance to do a range of exercises and poses of varying length, working towards finished pieces.
• Mosaic making: Odette Norman works with broken tile, mirror, stain glass, shells and other found objects to create mosaic panels, mosaic furniture or mirror surrounds. During these two days, you will have a chance to design and make your own pieces and learn various mounting and grouting techniques
• Jewellery-making: The jewellery-making weekend workshop, with established West Cork fashion-designer and jeweller Flicky Howe, covers all the basic skills of designing, threading, knotting, fitting crimps and finishing and allows participants to develop and make their own style of work, to take home.
• Film Animation: During this weekend, we will word together as a group to create a short film.  The course covers an introduction to the basic principles of animation: short script development, how to make and animate a claymation puppet, and the creation and application of sound effects.
• Creative Writing - Facing The Blank Page: This workshop will focus on the core elements of creative writing for students who wish to gain experience in writing skills, whether or not they have any experience. The workshop will offer a wide variety of exercises to help students discover their written voices. Form, plot, character, dialogue, aspects of style and other elements of the craft are emphasized so that students can incorporate basic storytelling principles into their own writing. The major goals of the class are to get students to discover and use the power of their individual voices, heighten their imaginative seeing, and develop their overall sense of story structure and movement. Students will also criticise and edit their own work. By the end of the workshop, they should have a clearer idea of what they want to do and how they want to do it. Afric Hamilton has been facilitating creative writing workshops all over West Cork for eight years. She works for the Writer's Consultancy as an editor, and is the author of two works of non-fiction. She is a freelance journalist with several newspapers and magazines, including the Irish Independent and Munster Interiors, and is a regular book and theatre reviewer for the Irish Examiner. She has produced three collections of poetry, and has also been published in Poetry Ireland, Southword, Women's Works, Kinsale Anthology and the SHOp. She is currently working on a novel.
• Mixed Media - Mail Art: Through the study of the surrealist movement, this workshop allows students to develop a series of ornate envelopes, using a wide variety of techniques (eg ink, stencils)
• Mixed Media - Land Art: This workshop will investigate the Land Art movement (Art and Nature). It will involve making a range of drawings, from small scale to large, introducing dried flowers/plants and found objects from nature.
• Mixed Media - Architecture in Art: We will study different building designs and styles from around the world...and study the city landscape. In this workshop, mix media activities will include silhouettes of imaginary/real landscapes, drawings and paper cutting techniques.
• A Book of your Own – creative book making and binding: Learn a range of different simple book making skills. Apply these skills to your creative style and develop your own artists’ books. This is not a traditional bookbinders course; it is a more creative version! You will not need to use advanced bookbinder materials, the books you will learn to make can also be made at home. There is some delicate stitching required, so a steady hand would be useful. If you are a poet, writer, painter, photographer, printmaker or textile artist this is a good course for you! Over the weekend you will learn to make: A Staple Book, An Accordion Book, A Japanese Stab bound book, Paste Paper End Papers, A Case Bound Note book., A Tunnel Book and a French Stitched Book. You might like to bring some of your own, such as papers (lots of different colours and sizes), and decorative items such as ribbon and fancy (wrapping) papers for making book covers. Basic materials and tools will be provided.
• Childrens Art Classes: Designed to give children experience of pottery techniques, painting and drawing, and a range of craft skills (eg painting murals, collage, mask making, glass painting and mosaics). At least 50% of the classes focus on pottery. Classes are tailored to suit from 5 to 14 year olds. Weekly classes run for 6 weeks (Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings). The ever popular Children's Summer Camps run for 5 half-days or full days.
• Arty Parties: The pottery offers childrens parties for those aged 5 plus in groups of up to 20 children - themed parties, film animation fun and loads more - further details from Adrian on 0879696901