July Pottery Wellness Course 2026
This July we welcomed another wonderful group of potters — Natalie, Claire and Gaby from the USA, and Claire from the UK — for an immersive 25 day pottery journey in the Latvian countryside.
Over the weeks, they experienced the full spectrum of ceramic art: from shaping dinnerware using slab rolling, to developing their skills on the pottery wheel, and exploring hand-building techniques in both porcelain and stoneware.
One of the things that makes the July course so special is having enough time to experience the entire ceramic process from beginning to end. The participants created their own pieces, loading the kilns, explored glazing, and glazing their work themselves with our guidance. There is something incredibly rewarding about following a piece all the way from a lump of clay to the final kiln opening.
As a final touch, we organised a BALTIC RAKU FIRING. The Obvara firing process originated in the Baltics around the 12th century and involves scalding the surface of the pottery to seal the porous clay. Similar to the raku pottery process, a bisque-fired pot is heated — in this case to around 899°C (1650°F) — and removed while still glowing hot. The piece is then dipped into a fermented yeast mixture before being dunked in water to rapidly cool it. The resulting surfaces are beautifully unpredictable, with every piece carrying its own marks from the firing.
By the end of the course, each participant had created a collection of beautiful and functional pieces — but making pottery is only one part of this experience.
A huge part of this course is connecting with like-minded people, slowing down, living alongside the rhythms of the studio, and experiencing the untamed Latvian countryside.
We concluded the course by gathering all of their finished work on the studio tables for a small exhibition — a moment to step back, see just how much had been created, celebrate the learning journey, and take portraits surrounded by their own work.
This course is an immersion into the creative sanctuary we have built here in the middle of nowhere — a place that became somewhere.
Photographs capturing these memorable moments were kindly taken by my husband, Krišjānis Piliņš.
