Wearables
A ceramics intensive at Drawing Room
Ceramics at the scale of the body. Small enough to wear, small enough to hold.
Ceramics typically make us think of vessels, sculpture, things that sit still. This intensive takes clay in the opposite direction. Small enough to wear on your body, to hold in your hand, and to fit in a box.
Working at this scale requires a different perspective on clay: precision. An earring post has to fit, and there are two of them. A hair clip needs to hold. We focus on fit, finish, and careful surface work. What you leave with is a body of work made at intimate scale: a full set of ceramic wearables of your own design that you can keep or give, plus a box built to hold them.
An 8-week, beginner-friendly ceramics journey built around creating a collection of wearable ceramics of your choice (jewelry, buttons, buckles, hair clips, or charms) and a keepsake box to hold them.
Open to all levels, shared with a group of up to 16. Especially for people drawn to personal, wearable objects: jewelers curious about clay, ceramicists who want to work smaller, or anyone interested in making adornment by hand.
Now Enrolling for Winter
“Wearables”
4 installments of $230
(or $890 upfront)
8 weekly sessions. Mondays 6:30-9:30 pm from Nov 23 to Jan 25 at our Midtown location.
Exact dates: Nov 23, Nov 30, Dec 7, 14, Jan 4, Jan 11, Jan 18, Jan 25.
Enrollment closes 12pm on the day of the first session, or when the 16 available spots are all filled. Don’t wait to save your seat!
Sessions in this Intensive
Each session follows a loose theme, beginning with a short reflection, journaling, and group sharing to ground the work. We’ll demo techniques related to the session, which you’re welcome to use or adapt freely. One on one guidance is always available to support your own sacred objects.
Session 1
“First Handful”
We open with a shared warm-up build, a community project that gets your hands in the clay, introduces you to the studio, and establishes the handbuilding habits we'll return to all season. You'll leave with the fundamentals you need to start designing your own collection.
Session 2
“The Collection Takes Shape”
This week we design a mini wearables collection of your choice: jewelry, buttons, buckles, hair clips, or charms. You'll sketch concepts, choose techniques, and begin building your first pieces, focusing on scale, balance, and how a piece feels when it's on the body.
Session 3
“Under the Surface”
Small pieces reward small marks. This session focuses on surface: carving, texture, and preparing select work for metallic and specialty glazes. You'll keep producing pieces from your collection while experimenting with how a surface changes what an object communicates.
Session 4
“The Box”
We open a second project alongside the wearables: a box built from slab and coil. This session is about designing your box, starting your build, and continuing to refine works in progress. Two projects, one practice.
Session 5
“Fit”
The lid, the earring post, the clasp. Everything at this scale is about how one piece meets another. This session focuses on construction, alignment, and the strategies for fitting ceramic parts together cleanly. Whatever you're making has to actually work.
Session 6
“Finishing Touches”
The final refinement before glaze. We tighten edges, smooth surfaces, complete closures, and add the small details that carry a piece from finished to considered. Every wearable and every component of the box gets its final pass.
Session 7
“The Glaze”
Glaze week. We'll walk through glaze choices, run tests, and glaze both your wearables and your box with attention to intentional surface results. What a glaze does to a small object is different from what it does to a big one, and often more dramatic.
Session 8
“Assembly”
The final week. Assemble your wearables (attach findings, add clasps, string what needs stringing) and bring your box to completion. You'll leave with a full set of finished pieces: things you can wear, hold, keep, or give.
Showcase at Drawing Room Night
We invite all intensive participants to showcase their works at our seasonal event, Drawing Room Night! Open to members, friends, and the public, it’s an opportunity to show off your work to a large, engaged audience. We’ll have food, drinks, and cake!
What we’ll explore
Slab Roller
Slabs are an extremely versatile way of building all kinds of ceramic objects. You’ll unlock access to our slab roller and learn advanced techniques that will open new doors!
The kiln!
We have a ceramic kiln on-site! These kilns get up to 1000-2000 degrees(!), after which your pieces are safe to eat & drink from, as well as go into the microwave and even your oven. You’ll receive prepaid kiln firing credit in your account for pieces you want to make permanent and fire. Our team then loads them carefully into the kiln (twice!).
Personal supplies to use at your own pace
At the first session, you’ll receive A 12 lb. bag of white stoneware to use at your own pace. We have more for purchase if you run out!
Storage access is essential for larger, more complex ceramic work. Intensive participants have dedicated shelf space to store pieces between sessions and learn how to manage moisture so work stays viable over time. You’ll learn to control the full lifecycle of your ceramic pieces, using dryness as a tool to build bigger, stronger, more stable forms.
Full lifecycle, full control
Glazes
Glazes are a huge part of the ceramic process and an art in iteself. When fired, it creates the watertight, glossy protective layer that makes ceramics food-safe. You’ll learn how to apply it safely, having a hand in all aspects of your piece from start to finish.
What makes up an Intensive?
Dive deeper and build confidence
While Intensives are still open-level and beginner-friendly, we dig deeper and push ourselves to gain confidence, practice, and see improvement.
Intensives are great for when you know you’re really interested in pushing yourself in a particular area. It’s an opportunity to actively create and discuss the philosophy of creativity—exploring how we can weave the practices into our daily lives with intention and purpose.
Unique program design at a great value
Each Intensive is designed with intention and care for the Drawing Room community by professional working artists that reflect their own practice.
We focus on learning and deepening new skills while also connecting with the group over food, drink, and conversation.
Recurring schedule and accountability
Intensives are recurring on the same day for 8 weeks, made up of the same group of up to 16 people.
Build connections with your classmates over the entire Intensive program, see each other grow, and hold yourself accountable to your commitments.
Drawing Room as your campus
Intensive enrollment includes the Creative Flow Membership, giving you access to the Art Library and Open Hours. Just show your digital member card to drop by anytime the space is open—whether to keep practicing, co-work, or connect with friends.
Get 15% off everything else with the membership, too.
Workshop materials and supplies
All materials and supplies needed for your workshops are provided on-site and you take home the pieces you create.
Depending on the intensive, you’ll also receive storage space or take-home kits to work on your projects between sessions!
Office Hours with Instructors
Intensive students and alumni have the ability to schedule time with Instructors to receive additional support, access to class equipment, and ask questions as you work on independent projects during Open Hours.
Your Instructor
Ivy has been making ceramics for over a decade. She’s inspired by the natural world around - from the smallest mushroom on the forest floor to the largest canyon in the American West - and inspired by historical clay techniques like Agateware, Nerikomi and Inlay pottery.
Why join a Journey at Drawing Room?
Learn new skills
Experiment with and try new mediums! Deepen skills in mediums you’ve tried. Stretch your creative brain. Become your best creative self this year.
Be a part of something bigger
Our Cohort Program is all about learning and growing, with an emphasis on community-building. Participating is supporting our mission for strengthening community in NYC, and celebrating creativity in its many forms!
Structure & accountability
Need a little accountability? Join the cohort for that extra push! Doing things with other people who have the same goals is always more fun.
Get the best value
Because you’re buying in bulk, you know you’re getting the best deal! Not only are you getting the steepest discounts, but the cohort program structure offers so much more, too!
Treat (and care for) yourself!
Creativity is self-care; being creative regularly can help you solve problems more openly and effectively, relieve stress and anxiety, and even improve cognitive function. The only downside is having too much fun!
Join the mailing list!
Want to be the first to know about an upcoming season of this Journey? Join this mailing list and we’ll send you an email before everyone else so you get first dibs.
Latest from The Journal
FAQs
-
Yes, of course!
If you are already a member with a payment method on file, please use the same exact email we have on file for your membership.
Since the Creative Flow Membership is included for all Journey participants, you’ll be prorated for any days not covered by the journey, and these days will be added back at the end of the journey. This means you will not be charged again until you’ve used all the days you’ve paid for last, before signing up for a journey. (Don’t worry, we do the math for you).
Please reach out to our team at info@nycdrawingroom.com with any questions, or for help enrolling
-
If you aren’t able to make one of the dates, we will be able to share the lesson plan for the day with you and encourage you to complete the assignment so that you will be prepared for the discussions in the subsequent session.
Unlike the Cohort Program, each session builds on the last, so it’s important to try to make each one! There are currently no make-up days available due to the nature of our programming availability.
-
Yes! We offer interest-free payment plans via Klarna. Simply select that option on the payment page.
-
Intensive workshops are not open to the public and are exclusive to your group.
You can expect to see the familiar faces of your Intensive members in each of these classes, and you'll get first dibs and get to sign up for any future journeys at Drawing Room.
-
All enrollments are final. Please double check your calendar.
However, if you find you are unable to join us for the program for whatever reason after booking, you can let us know at least 7 days before the first session to get credits for a future program date. The credits cannot be individually transferred to events, they must be used in one go for the same program at a future date.
-
Absolutely!
There’s so much to learn each time you participate in an Intensive, and they’re open level, so you are encouraged to work with the instructors to push yourself.
Plus, each Intensive is a new opportunity to make new friends and share an experience with a tight knit group of people!
If after an Intensive (or two) you find you’re ready to explore other mediums or want to dive deep into another medium, you can explore our other journeys – you’ll get first dibs!
-
We’d recommend you take them one at a time! Each of our journeys are designed to be a comprehensive experience. While participating in multiple (Cohort Program AND an Intensive, for example) is not impossible, you may find yourself at Drawing Room a LOT!! Which, we’d love, but may be intense!
For context, through the Cohort Program you can expect to be at Drawing Room and average of 1-2 times per week, and the Intensive is an average of once per week.
-
All levels are welcome and will find these sessions applicable! Whether you’re:
Super new to clay or have never even touched it
Just starting out, have maybe taken one Claydate or similar workshops elsewhere
More experienced and already have a practice
Intensives are designed to both be a great entry point but also offer a repeatable structure that emphasizes community and growth in skills among fellow creatives who love the medium. See you here soon!