By Hand is Amfora's handbuilding program. We offer four and eight week courses with varied themes to inspire your creativity. All open to newcomers each term, with room for returning makers to take their work further and explore new ideas. Book now
From 14 July: Still Life
The theme is Still Life — building objects as a scene in clay. You'll think about how pieces relate to each other: scale, surface, arrangement, the space between things. It's an invitation to work sculpturally, with or without prior experience.
For anyone who wants to make something with intention, first-timers and returning makers alike. The theme gives you the inspiration and you'll have four solid weeks to develop your way around it.
Indicative outline:
Week 1 Explore your sources of inspiration within the theme. Learn a foundational handbuilding technique - pinching, coiling, or slab construction - and start to explore different clay bodies through inlay and nerikomi.
Week 2 Build on your new foundation to begin creating your hero pieces.
Week 3 Complete your hero pieces and make complementary work with a through line connecting the series.
Week 4 Glazing - making considered decisions about surface and finish to complete your body of work.
From 18 August: Mystical
If you're inspired by tarot, astrology, alien geometries, celestial forms, fungi, crystals, and the otherworldly this is your moment. You'll make objects with symbolic weight: think effigies, talismans, altar pieces, sculptural vessels, tea light and candle holders - finished with dark glazes, metallics, and atmospheric surfaces. For first-timers and returning makers alike.
Indicative outline:
Week 1 Explore your sources of inspiration — tarot, astrology, celestial forms, fungi, crystals, alien geometries. Learn a foundational handbuilding technique and begin your hero pieces: effigies, talismans, altar pieces, sculptural vessels, tea light or candle holders - or something else entirely.
Week 2 Continue building your hero pieces. Develop surface decoration using sgraffito, inlay, and texture.
Week 3 Complete your hero pieces and make complementary work, thinking about how the pieces relate - as a set, an altar arrangement, or a collection of charged objects.
Week 4 Glazing: dark glazes, metallics, and matte finishes to complete your body of work.
$650 · 8 × 2.5-hour classes Thursday mornings, 10am–12:30pm
Teacher: Chris Ellis
Level: For makers ready to go deeper. Some clay experience is helpful, but commitment and curiosity matter more.
Includes: All materials, tools and studio equipment. Firing at $15/kg. BYO apron.
From 16 July: Collections
The theme is Collections — create a series of related objects that belong together, helping you refine your personal style.
Eight weeks gives you room to develop a coherent body of work: to test, refine, change direction, and discover what you're actually drawn to make. For makers who want more time and more depth.
Indicative outline:
Week 1 Explore your sources of inspiration. Plan a body of work, develop motifs, and make stamps for use in future weeks.
Week 2 Design a series with a through line. Begin tests, samples or maquettes in preparation for your hero pieces. Explore surface decoration and clay bodies - slip, sgraffito, pressing, inlay, nerikomi, oxides.
Weeks 3–5 Create and refine your hero pieces, developing your through line across the series.
Week 6 See results from your surface tests and apply your favourite textures and treatments to the work.
Week 7 Final refinements. Complete the series and prepare pieces for glazing.
Week 8 Glazing - completing your body of work with considered surface and finish decisions.
