Ceramics Adults Summer School

For those who have had little or no experience of pottery, it can be a little daunting to work in the studio and learn to create hand built and thrown forms. This five day course introduces you to all the basic techniques: you will learn to coil, slab and throw pots and to sculpt in clay. You will try various decorative techniques, including sgraffito, slip-painting, underglazing and glazing.

Students can embrace the full range of techniques and cover as much ground as a full term at the Pottery. The classes of up to 8 people work from 10.00am - 5.00pm each day, with an hour's break for lunch - long enough to visit the various snack venues in Kinsale.

Techniques and materials used in the course include:

Coiling, Throwing and Turning, slab work, pinching

underglazing, glazing and on-glazing techniques.

glaze making and testing

smoke-firing, masking and resist

raku kiln building, raku glaze making and raku firing

use of earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, paper clay

Course Times

We offer a selection of five-day summer schools in pottery, drawing and creative writing for adults, plus summer camps in art, film animation, and drama for kids aged from 5 upwards. Adult courses run from 10-5 each day and childrens courses from 9.30-3.30 each day. students should bring packed lunches to the course.

Kinsale Pottery can recommend a range of local accommodation providers from simple B&B's to five star guest houses and hotels. ASk for a list when you book.

Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre provides arts and crafts courses for adults and children, specialising in pottery, art, drawing and painting, film animation, glass fusing and stained glass, jewellery-making, mixed media, book binding, and mosaic-making. 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 30 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.

Kinsale Pottery is situated just 20 minutes from Cork Airport, close to the centre of the beautiful historic harbour of Kinsale, famed for its restaurants and shops. The pottery is in the converted stables of the home farm for Ballinacurra House, and the gallery is in the eaves of its coach house, which dates back to 1795.

Since 2001, we have provided classes and courses to suit all levels of skill and experience ranging from the complete beginner through to exhibitor standard and the school has become the largest and most established centre of its kind in Ireland. We stock a wide selection of clays and glazes, our pottery courses cover the full range of ceramics and sculpting techniques.

Kinsale is internationally renowned for its cuisine, its cosmopolitan style and the beauty of its harbour. There are many excellent pubs and restaurants in the town, as well as a wide range of art and craft shops. What better place to learn a craft, or take a break.

Adrian Wistreich, Ceramic Artist.

After more than 20 years of corporate life in London, working as a publisher and research consultant, I left the rat-race to pursue my ambition of becoming an artist and teacher. I completed a diploma in Ceramics and Design at Hackney College of Art, London, 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.

I tend to be sculptural in my own work drawing on a love of form and texture through smoke-fired abstract ceramic pieces and studies of people. I have increasingly brought colour to my work developing my own stoneware glazes, which are available for students to try out. I want to break down the barriers between traditional craft skills and the apparent inaccessibility of fine art