Ceramics Festival in the Sierra Foothills

Whether you’ve been working in clay for years or you’ve never touched a potter’s wheel, the Clay Confluence ceramics event (May 23–25) has something for you.

This Memorial Day weekend we’re gathering again at Quyle Kilns, a historic Northern California pottery studio near Murphys, for the Third Annual Clay Confluence—three days of ceramic demonstrations, pottery techniques, hands-on art activities, and a lot of shared curiosity about what clay can do.

If you’re experienced, you’ll find plenty to dig into. There are demonstrations running through the day. You’ll find different approaches and techniques, and different ways of thinking through form and surface. Master Potter Don Hall will demonstrate how to build a large project from coiled clay, and watercolor artist Maggie Sloan will talk about painting on clay. Once again, mosaic artist Robin Modlin will lead the continuation of a mosaic project on the side of Quyle Kiln’s brick building.

Master Potter Don Hall will be demonstrating using clay coil technique to make a large project

It’s a chance to watch how other ceramic artists and potters solve problems and handle clay. Sometimes that’s all it takes to shift something in your own work.

If you’re newer to clay—or just clay-curious—you can step in without pressure. There are simple, hands-on pottery projects for beginners, a community mosaic, and space to try things without worrying about getting it right. You don’t have to know what you’re doing. Just enjoy playing with clay!

You can help create a community mosaic with Robin Modlin.

And then there’s the pottery throw down.

This ever popular event is part skill, part experiment, and part willingness to let things go sideways. From blindfolded throwing to musical wheels, to racing the clock to “throw off the hump,” it’s often chaotic and always hilarious.

The pottery throw down at the Clay Confluence is a hilarious event at Quyle Kilns in Murphys California

There will also be around fifteen ceramic vendors and local artists, along with other craft and fine artists, so you can see the range of what people are making—and take something home if it speaks to you. Food will be available.

People almost always tend to stay longer than they planned. 

It’s the atmosphere that makes it so much fun. People talk to each other. They ask questions. They share small discoveries. Someone sees a piece and realizes they want to try something new. Someone else recognizes a solution they’ve been searching for. That’s the real center of the weekend. The connections ceramic artists make with each other and with other artists and art lovers. 

Clay Confluence is starting to draw people from across the region—from Sacramento, the Sierra foothills, and the Bay Area—but it still feels local in the best way: open, curious, and grounded in the idea that we learn by being around each other.

If that sounds useful—or just like a good way to spend a day—I hope you’ll come.

Amanda and Pam invite you to join the Clay Confluence!

May 23–25 | 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Quyle Kilns, just off Highway 4 near Murphys, CA

More info: www.quylekilns.com