Event
Pop-Culture & PotteryWith Summer Whiteside
October 24–26, 2025
10am–4pm
Adult Workshops
Adult Fall 2025
Taking Surface Decoration to the Next Level
w/Summer Whiteside
A three (3) day workshop
Looking to increase your confidence with underglazes, experiment with new application techniques and add some modern flair to an ancient artform? This intermediate-level surface decoration workshop offers the chance to expand your knowledge and push the boundaries of what can be achieved using underglaze and a handful of other basic supplies.
Each day will consist of hands-on demonstrations and in-depth explanations of Summer’s techniques; followed by free time to work on your individual designs during which everyone will receive one on one instruction, feedback and guidance.
This workshop focuses on helping you become bold & brave with your underglaze application while also aiming to challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone and stretch the limits of what was previously considered possible with surface decoration.
Summer’s techniques can be applicable for a wide range of art styles, so even if you’ve never worked with pop-culture imagery like she does, this workshop can still expand your skill set!
This is technically an intermediate course but don’t let that intimidate you. You must be able to bring 3 leatherhard pieces with you to work on, but your underglaze knowledge can be at a beginner level! Prior painting and/or drawing experience and a basic understanding of color theory would be helpful but not required.
Topics that will be covered in the workshop-
-A precise and simple image transfer method
-Clean brushstrokes & the power of lineweight
-Liquid latex and its many uses
-Heavily layering underglaze
-Creating both subtle & dramatic textures using sgraffito
-Negative space/utilizing exposed clay as part of your designs
-Using your underglaze in new ways (cross-hatching, stippling, dry brushing, splattering)
-Breaking down an overwhelming design until it is a manageable step-by-step process
-General tips and tricks for getting the best results with your underglaze
-Glazing; while we won’t have time to glaze during this workshop, Summer will dedicate some time towards the end of class on Sunday to discuss how she glazes her work and what options you guys have for your pieces! She will also encourage you guys to contact her if you have any questions or concerns down the road when it’s time for your work to be glazed.
Artist Bio
Summer Whiteside is a full-time potter working out of her home studio in rural Eastern North Carolina. She has been working with clay for approximately 7 years, but she was “discovered” in 2021 through a handful of popular videos on social media. She is most well known for her porcelain (mugs featuring carved bottoms, tripedal feet, hand painted pop culture designs, high contrast backgrounds and intentionally exposed raw porcelain. She has an Associate’s degree in Fine Arts, and began her career with watercolor painting before she made the transition to clay. She almost exclusively sells & displays her work online but also occasionally participates in an exhibition or brand collaboration when invited. She has always had a passion for fantasy, emotionally charged compositions, and character design – all of which she is determined to incorporate into her ceramic work.
“I strive for my designs to be captivating enough that even if you have never engaged with this type of media, the image grabs your attention and evokes an emotional connection.”
-Summer
Materials:
Students will need to bring the following-
3 leatherhard mugs or cups- these need to be trimmed/cleaned up and ready for decorating. Be mindful of the surface area you have to work with in relation to your reference images; tall design = tall mug/cup, short design = short mug/cup, so on and so forth. Summer suggests planning to use 2 for designs, and the 3rd one is in case you happen to damage one, finish a design, want to start over, try multiple techniques, etc. They absolutely do not have to be the same shape/size; 3 unique forms are perfectly fine.
Summer recommends using a light-colored clay body for the strongest underglaze vibrancy but has no objections if you love your dark clay too much to part with it! Her techniques work best on leatherhard clay so try your best to maintain that moisture level up until the starting point of the workshop!
Printed reference images- 2-3 images printed out on standard paper that you can trace onto your clay forms. We may not end up needing more than 1, but it’s always good to have extra options. These printed images need to be measured to fit on your desired item! Example: if you have 4 inches of vertical design space available, make sure your printed image will fit appropriately in that space. You don’t need any fancy software for this; you can simply open a google doc, insert an image (or multiple), adjust the sizing, print the document and then use scissors to cut out the image/s. (Generic printer paper, ink can be color or black & white so long as you can see your image well enough)
Your reference images can be pretty much whatever you want as long as you steer clear of realism. Summer recommends picking something 2D and/or illustrative. Things that are good options: characters from a show or movie, storybook illustrations, manga/comic book drawings, stylized images of flowers/food/words.
(Lunch- we will have a 45-minute lunch break on Saturday and Sunday from 1pm-1:45pm, so bring something to eat if you need/want to!