Purple Sage Classes
Fall/Winter 2008/2009
Purple Sage Pottery offers classes for all ages taught by teachers as committed to teaching as they are to pottery. While grounded in the fundamentals of hand-building, throwing and glazing, we strive to nurture your creative spirit. Classes are small, having at most 10 students.
You can take full advantage of our well-equipped studios, including electric wheels, slab rollers, extruders and various tools. We recycle your clay, a great benefit, which assures that you will always have clay in good working condition, giving you more time to create. Our extensive selection of beautiful reduction-fired glazes will practically guarantee the success of your work. It is handled with great care, and we pride ourselves on the exceptional results we get from our 70 cubic foot gas fired kiln.
Classes for Adults
Brochure for all classes (printable PDF)
Tuesday night advanced:
Benefit from Karen Orsillo’s depth of knowledge to boost your clay work to the next level.
Tuesday night beginner:
Anni Melancon introduces the joys of working with clay, giving you basic skills for hand-building and wheel throwing.
Fall Session/6 weeks - $170.
Standard Winter Session.
Wednesday morning intermediate:
Purple Sage Pottery owner Iris Minc helps you refine current skills and learn more advanced techniques.
Wednesday night intermediate:
Beth Bell helps you express your creativity with clay through hand-building and throwing.
Fall Session/8 weeks - $225.
Standard Winter Session.
Thursday morning beginner & beyond:
Lisa Victoria will guide you through various hand-building and throwing techniquesl.
Thursday night beyond beginner:
Beth Bell reinforces basic skills and helps you materialize your visions in clay.
Fall Session/8 weeks - $225.
Standard Winter Session.
Tuition and class times
10 week Adult Sessions cost $280
- Fall Classes start the week of September 8, 2008.
- Winter Classes start the week of January 5, 2009
- Morning sessions are 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
- Evening sessions are 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Saturday Open Studio
9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
The only way to make real progress is practice, practice, practice. That is what Saturday Open Studio time is all about. We keep the price very affordable because we want you to get good and make beautiful pots. Saturday Open Studio time is available to former and present students. No instruction is offered during this time period. Current students may get additional studio time between classes and former students may work independently. Either may bring a guest under their guidance. First-time guests may attend free-of-charge.
Fee: Former students and guests: $75 a month or $22 per Saturday or $10 per hour.
Current students: an additional $75 will cover students for the duration of the class. This fee is kept low to encourage students to practice. Current students may, however, pay $19 per Saturday or $8 per hour.
Kids & Clay
Thursday class for 8 to 12 year olds:
3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. with Beth McKinney.
Friday class for 12 to 18 year olds:
4:00pm to 6:00pm with Meryl Goldsmith.
Kids will learn hand-building techniques and the potter’s wheel, if they choose. They can decorate their pots with colorful low-fire under-glazes or use our high fire glazes that are fired in the gas kiln.
Tuition and class times
Kids classes last 10 weeks and cost $230
- Fall Classes start the week of September 8, 2008
- Winter Classes start the week of January 5, 2009.
Ten pounds of finished pieces are included in the price of 10 week classes. $5.50 per pound will be charged thereafter.
Studio Rental Info
For the potter who is ready to work independently, studio access is available. $140 per month will allow you to use the studio anytime.
You'll need to purchase your own clay. Firing fees are charged by the kiln load for bisque firings and electric kiln glaze firings. Use of the gas kiln is figured by the cubic inch or by the kiln load for the more productive potters.
You will have your own storage shelf for tools and clay, as well as use of the studio racks and damp closet to keep works in progress. You will have control of your own pots through the various stages, including loading your own bisque kilns and helping load your pots into the gas kiln. Learning about gas firing your own pots is encouraged. You may use most of the studio glazes or mix your own. Support and instruction is offered to help emerging potters acquire the tools to become successful at making pottery on their own.
Purple Sage Profiles
Iris Minc founded Purple Sage Pottery 14 years ago to create her own work and share her love of pottery with students and fellow potters. Iris has been developing her own unique style since graduating from college in 1981, designing her own molds, stamps and other tools to make her work truly one-of-a-kind. Her independent style and easy-going nature carries into her classes, where she helps her students materialize their ideas and concepts into clay.
Beth Bell’s journey with clay began 18 years ago at the Worcester Center for Crafts, where she developed her unique, playful style. Still a student of clay, Beth finds that learning and teaching are two sides of the same coin. Her combination of passion and patience helps her students find their own voice in clay whether they are hand-building or throwing.
Karen Orsillo's clay career started 30 years ago, mostly making wheel-thrown functional ware. For the past 15 years, however, her main focus has been hand building with colored porcelain. Karen teaches part time at the NH Institute of Art as well as giving workshops on colored clay throughout the region.
Lisa Victoria unearths great joy in the ancient art of creating with clay. She’s on a passionate quest to share her enthusiasm and knowledge of this soulful medium with her students. Lisa graduated from the Maine College of Art.
Anni Melancon has been a studio potter in Gloucester since 1978. She generously shares with her students her broad experience with clay and glaze techniques.
Meryl Goldsmith has been teaching pottery classes at Purple Sage for the past 12 years, inspiring her teens to take their creative energy to the next level.
Beth McKinney’s love of nature provides great inspiration for her pottery. She seeks to share her skill and joy with her students.
Directions to Studio
From Rte 495 take Exit 53/Broad St. to
Rte 110 W. Take first right onto Liberty St., take first left onto Mechanic St.
To Register
Please mail one-half of the tuition fee to Purple Sage Pottery, 3 Mechanic St., Studio D, Merrimac, MA 01860. Make check payable to the instructor teaching the class or Purple Sage Pottery. Registration fee is refundable up to one week prior to the start of class. Please indicate the desired class, and include your home and work phone numbers.