Teaching beginning and seasoned wheel throwers - good habits, best practices and trouble shooting

This year, I began teaching wheel throwing sessions. For the past couple of years I have helped fellow students upon request when they needed to trouble shoot or fine tune their throwing habits or simply establish best practices when throwing in an effort to accelerate their skills. 

This is something I really enjoy doing. I use my intuitive skills when I teach. I can almost feel what you are doing when I stand next to you and observe and listen to what you are doing. I can often then pretty quickly give you the tools to re-work your routine to achieve a better throwing result. 

Sometimes it helps to just go over all the steps in the process. I have developed a curated list of my favorite steps in the throwing process that I share with my students and this helps them get better at a technical level which in turn accelerates their progress.

The results before and after a session are often quite dramatic and that brings me so much joy. I love to help people improve their skills and experiencing their satisfaction in having a achieved a new or improved skill level. 

And yes, we work on not only wedging which is central to success, we also quite often take a critical look at the result by cutting through the work to further examine and find clues to future improvements. There is no crying in ceramics.

Sometimes my students come to me soon after beginning their journey, being able to throw only an inch tall vessel. In just a few short sessions - below you see someone, who after just one lesson, is able to throw a quite handsome bowl. 

I tailor my teaching style to the learning style of the student in front of me and therefore no two sessions are alike. It is always personalized to you. 

These sweet ladies came in throwing 1-2 inch vessels, then left having thrown these four gorgeous bowls.

Here are some testimonials from past sessions. Feel free to reach out if you would like to hear about getting a private lesson.

In 30 minutes, I learned more about how to throw from Katja, than I learned from the entire 10-week course I just took somewhere else, Jeanette -March 2023

I have made ceramics for 26 years and Katja finally taught me how to center, Olga 90 - June 2023

I cannot express enough gratitude to my new friend and ceramics mentor who has truly been a valuable resource. As a beginner potter, I was intimidated by the craft, but her guidance and tips made it a lot easier. She shared her depth of knowledge and skills with me without hesitation, which made me feel less intimidated and more comfortable. Through her tips and suggestions, I was able to create my first few pots successfully. Her patience and positive attitude truly made all the difference. I highly recommend her as a mentor to anyone hoping to dive into the art of ceramics. Thank you, Katja for your guidance and kindness, Rachael - June 2023

Katja was extremely patient and thorough in explaining the foundations of pottery such as wedging, centering, and bringing up walls. I had no prior knowledge of how to throw pottery and walked away from her lesson with a solid foundation and confidence in throwing. She is an extremely skilled communicator and teacher. I would without a doubt recommend her to anyone, Jordan - Nov 2023

Katja's lesson on pottery fundamentals was super helpful for me as a beginner. She gave tips and methods that immediately improved my throwing process that I can continue to practice and improve further, Chloe - Nov 2023

Katja is so knowledgeable in all things clay and is very generous with sharing what she knows. Katja is patient and kind with all the best tips and suggestions, Alice - Feb 2024.