Wilderness Arts
Join Wilderness Arts Teacher Elliot Cluba for
Birch Bark Basketry
August 2, 3rd 1-4pm
Mad Arts Garden and Gallery
Elliot Cluba is the owner of Herbs and Arrows. He is an herbalist, wilderness and traditional skills educator, martial arts instructor, and holistic health consultant. He has been an educator for 15 years, is originally from Montgomery, VT and currently lives in Enosburg with his wife and two teenage daughters.
He teaches a wealth of skills in Bird Language, Herbal Alchemy, Acorn Processing and Propagation, Winter Tracking, Reading the landscape, Natural Navigation, Wildcrafting Wild Edibles, Culinary Herbology, and Youth Fire Skills.
Wild Clay
Forage your own pottery!
July 26th
Material Cost: $20, or pay what you can.
Location: Lareau Park
Time: 9 am- 12 pm
Join us on Saturday, July 26th, for an immersive experience where you learn to forage wild clay from the beautiful landscape of the Mad River Valley. Learn where to find, how to sustainably harvest, and how to test local clay sources. Then, you’ll be guided through a step-by-step process to temper and prepare your clay for making pottery.
Once our clay is ready, we’ll make a wide assortment of pottery, using both ancestral techniques and more modern approaches. Because of the workshop time frame, most people will make several smaller pieces as opposed to one larger ceramic piece. We will have examples and suggestions on hand so you can try your hand at a range of fun projects!
Due to the drying time for clay, we will not be firing out art pieces on the day of the workshop. However, there are a few options for you to consider. We will be hosting a fire at the Valley Arts on Saturday, August 2nd, where we intend to fire all of the pottery produced in the workshop. Stop by to see the firing in process and take home your work at the end of the day. Alternatively, you are always welcome to take your clay with you with directions for how you can fire at home.
This is an immersive workshop and an exercise in making art from the natural world.
*Participants are welcome to bring samples of clay that they've dug, whether processed or not. We will give it a shot and see if it has what it takes to make ceramics.
