Ghost Ranch Workshop
2025 NMPCA Workshop at Ghost Ranch:
Sarah Wells Rolland
** August 22-24, 2025 **
| Workshop Description: -Lectures, discussion, demonstrations and hands-on instruction with artist Sarah Wells Rolland -Evenings socializing with fellow potters and clay artists. -Three days spent ensconced in the magnificent natural and historical setting that is Ghost Ranch. Topics: Demonstration and Hands-on: Altered Wheel-thrown and Hand-built Forms
Lecture: My Process, My Work and The Village Potters Clay Center: Our Evolution, The Flood and Rising Again
Lecture: Building the Kazegama Kiln, Fostering the Community, Wood and Soda Pots |
Sarah Wells Rolland is well known for her work and her teaching method. She is inspiring and shares her techniques for honing skills and pushing the limits of clay to make unique and original work. Sarah will share her process, her purpose an her aesthetic. Throwing pots that inspire creativity and challenge ceramic artists and potters to take risks and push the limits of the clay is one of her passions as a teacher.
Techniques she will share:
1. Techniques for using all the clay
2. Altering
3. Darting
4. Shaving
5. Handles that complement the form, pulled and wheel thrown.
6. Sculpting and adding clay to pots.
7. Spouts and how to make them function well
Sarah loves to demonstrate her Closed Form Pitcher which incorporates all the techniques mentioned above. Sarah shares openly and delights in lively discussion. She will share how she makes her aesthetic decisions and creates line and movement to her forms. She will share the process of pushing clay to its limit.
Sarah Wells Rolland Artist Statement and Bio
Clay has been captivating me for over 30 years. Pushing clay to its limit and making pots that challenge me are my happy place. I create pots with the understanding that each piece I make is created for someone else. The work has a home and a legacy far beyond me.
Clay is a wonderful bridge to connect with others, too. At this point in my career, I dedicate much of my time to teaching and mentoring, working with potters, sharing techniques and sharing dreams. There is a form of collaboration that takes place when mentoring that influences me when I am at work in my studio. As I mentor the next generation of artists, I see my work with a fresh perspective, and new ideas are born every day.
My role as an artist is constantly growing and changing at The Village and I love that. I am so blessed to teach and mentor emerging artists in our shared creative lives. I am living the dream!
I spent the first 20 years of my career working from my home studio on the mountain below my home. During that season of my career I sold my work primarily to galleries. Being a studio potter was perfect for my life at that time as my husband and I raised our daughter. The solitude in my studio was a wonderful season for me and I honed so many skills as a production potter. As I began teaching and hosting workshops, I discovered my love for teaching and this sparked in me a desire for more. These experiences birthed the idea of The Village Potters Clay Center.
In 2011, my husband and I founded The Village Potters Clay Center in The River Arts District of Asheville NC. I asked a small group of accomplished potter friends who also have a passion for teaching and a desire for community to join me and they did.
As a team, we created something greater than any one of us. We all left our home studios and came together to make the wonderful creative community that is The Village Potters.
Our 14,000 sq foot facility houses a gallery with 4 showrooms, 7 permanent resident studios, 3 fully equipped educational studios, 8 incubator studios for emerging ceramic artists, and we are a Laguna and Standard Ceramics Clay Supply Company.
On Sept 27th 2024 our beloved facility was flooded with 26 feet of water. After the initial shock, we began working tirelessly toward reestablishing a new facility in Asheville NC. We and many volunteers have been restoring equipment, and raising money to help with our full recovery. We are raising funds on our GoFundMe page and I am traveling and teaching, where the proceeds go to our costs to rise up and begin again.
We are confident we are coming back. We believe we will continue our mission of nurturing creativity through experience, education and relationships where we have the privilege to mentor and support the next generation of potters in our area.
***If you would like to support us in our recovery just click on the link below***
GoFundMe Link: https://gofund.me/83668441
Owner of The Village Potters Clay Center www.TheVillagePotters.com Connect with me https://linktr.ee/sarahwellsrollandpottery
Sarah’s work is in collections across the US and in the permanent Corsaw Collection at Alfred University
Individual Member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild since 1991 Education Member of The Southern Highland Craft Guild since 2016
Sarah Wells Rolland Ghost Ranch Workshop Schedule, August 22-24, 2025:
Fri. 22 3:00 - Registration and Check into Rooms 4:00 - Welcome, Introductions, Demonstration and Instruction 5:30 - Dinner 6:30 - Evening Social Hour & Slide Show | Sat. 23 7:30 - Breakfast 8:30 - Demonstration and Instruction 12:00 - Lunch 1:00 - 5:00 Demonstration and Instruction 5:30 - Dinner 6:30 - Evening Social Hour & Slide Show | Sun. 24 7:30 - Breakfast 8:30 - Check Out of Rooms (Ghost Ranch requires guests to vacate rooms by 10am.) 9:00 - Demonstration and Instruction 12:00 - Lunch 1:00 - Demonstration and Instruction 2:00 - Studio Clean-up 3:00 - Goodbyes |
Click below to see descriptions of past NMPCA workshops:
2024 Ghost Ranch Workshop: New Mexico Connections
2023 Ghost Ranch Workshop: James Watkins
2022 Ghost Ranch Workshop New Mexico Connections
2021Ghost Ranch Workshop: Sharon Brush
2020 Ghost Ranch Workshop: New Mexico Connections
NMPCA holds annual workshops at Ghost Ranch Retreat and Conference Center near Abiquiu, NM. NMPCA's 50-year-long relationship Ghost Ranch provides the organization access to a unique facility for ceramics workshops in "Pinon Pottery Studio."
We call ourselves the NMPCA!
