Dates: Thursdays, March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 and April 7
Time: 6-8pm New York City time (3 pm - 5 pm California time, 11 pm-1 am London time, 12 am-2 am Paris/Amsterdam time)
$145 / $125 (Patreon Members $5/mo and above)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.

In this class, participants will learn about the history of reliquaries and relics, create their own personal reliquary using clay, and present their creation to the class as a final project. The first hour of the class will be image rich lecture, while the second hour of each class will be shared studio time so that Katie may address technical issues with the clay and demonstrate techniques as requested.

Over the course of the class, we will explore the history of reliquaries and how they can be a vehicle to explore our own personal relationship with death. In this class, we will explore the origin of the relic and the development of the reliquary as a sacred container for hair, bones, teeth, skin, and cloth. This will include the cult of the hero as well as Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu reliquaries. We will explore the different types of reliquaries historically created, and we will delve into the idea that the reliquary can be a container that both holds a physical part of our corporeal body, but that can also be a vessel that holds our own personal histories. While Catholic reliquaries are traditionally made from precious metals and stones we will make them from clay, a richly physical, democratic, and ubiquitous material available to all humans who have walked upon this earth.

Please note: the Instructor will help you find clay locally and provide information for ordering. She will also help you locate a community clay studio where you can fire your work and glaze it upon completion.
SUPPLY LIST

• Tools from Amazon: A good assortment for general use.

• If you are in New York City, you can purchase clay from Brooklyn Clay. This is pick up only. Order on website then pick up in person. The teacher recommend at least 25 pounds of the white stoneware.

• You can also fire your pieces at Brooklyn Clay. I will offer instructions on how to contact them and set this up.

• If you do not live in Brooklyn I will help you locate a clay studio in your area where you can either purchase clay or fire your work.

• If you prefer to order your clay and tools I recommend ordering at least 25 pounds of the Standard Stoneware Clay.

• If you prefer a more gritty and sturdy clay that is more forgiving and easier to work with order at least 25 pounds of The Sculpture Clay.

Katie Croft is a multi-media artist, art educator, and a candidate for her MPS in Creative Art Therapy from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 2022. Her current research is focused on clay and its ability to respond to the maker, offering bio feedback and acting as a stand in for the body. Her current work explores this idea with intuitive ceramic sculpture and offers a nod of respect to the first female abstract painters who practiced as spiritualists and mystics. Katie has had her work exhibited at SuperDutchess Gallery, NY; New York Academy of Art, NY; San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, and Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL as an AXA Art Prize Finalist. Her work was included in the 2020 New American Paintings, No. 147, and the inaugural issue of AllSheMakes contemporary art and culture magazine curated by ArtGirlRising. Her work is currently being exhibited at Winston Wachter Fine Art Gallery in New York; Odyssey Gallery in Asheville, NC; and at RiseArt, London.