1–25 July | Latvia
A Deep Immersion into Ceramics, Craft & Conscious Living
This once-a-year summer immersion allows for depth, continuity, and personal guidance that is rarely possible in shorter courses.
This is not simply a pottery class.
It is an invitation into the full ecosystem of ceramic life — where skill, discipline, intuition, rhythm, and conscious living are inseparable.
For 25 days, you live and work alongside our team at LaimaCeramics, becoming part of the studio’s natural flow: making, refining, resting, learning, and integrating — allowing mastery to emerge through presence and repetition.
The Essence of the Course
During these weeks, you are offered:
Full access to our professional studio
On-site accommodation at our family home
Weekly group and individual guided sessions
Space, structure, and support to develop your own creative voice
This is our most comprehensive and intimate offering.
We share not only techniques, but also the lived knowledge behind them — the decisions, rhythms, efficiencies, and inner orientations that have shaped this studio over more than a decade.
Daily Rhythm
Each day follows a gentle yet well-held structure, balancing focused making with spaciousness and rest.
Most days include one or two guided studio sessions:
Once per week we schedule individual wheel sessions, offering personalised attention and concentrated skill refinement.
Outside of guided hours, participants have generous free time — to rest, walk the countryside, journal, integrate, connect with others, or continue independent studio practice.
This balance is intentional: learning settles more deeply when it is not forced.
From Forming to Finishing
As the weeks unfold, the focus gradually shifts from generating forms to completing and refining work. This phase includes:
Guided glazing and surface exploration
Kiln loading and firing preparation
A Raku firing day featuring the traditional Baltic Obvara technique
Support in preparing work for final presentation
You experience the full arc of ceramic creation — not fragments, but the whole.
Fridays & Community Rhythm
Fridays carry a softer, more communal tone.
We slow the pace, share a long lunch together, and allow space for conversation and digestion — both literal and creative. Some Fridays may also include optional evening experiences such as sound or guided relaxation sessions.
Saturdays — Optional Experiences
Saturdays offer curated, optional outings, such as:
Participation is always optional; rest is equally valued.
What You Will Learn
Wheel Practice
From solid foundations to advanced forms:
Preparing clay, centring, pulling cylinders
Shaping, trimming, refining proportion
Advanced throwing: porcelain (my personal favourite), teapots, spheres, and complex forms
Glazing & Surface
Matte, lava, metallic, natural, and special-effect glazes are central to our studio. You will learn both glaze development and diverse application methods, with an emphasis on surfaces that feel grounded, alive, and intentional. See some of our glazes here.
Dinnerware — Slab Techniques
You will learn how to create a cohesive, professional dinnerware set using slab-building methods — efficiently and elegantly.
Through thousands of plates and bowls made for restaurants worldwide, we have distilled processes that prioritise flow, consistency, and grace. Even experienced hand-builders often find this class transforms how they work.
Raku Firing — Baltic Obvara
You will experience the ancestral Baltic Obvara technique: red-hot ceramics plunged into a fermented organic mixture, producing smoky markings and rich earthen tones that are both unpredictable and deeply rooted in this land.
Horsemanship & Inter-Species Awareness
This is first and foremost a pottery course, but being here on our rural farm offers another dimension that you won’t find in a typical ceramics studio.
Alongside the pottery studio, you’ll share the space with our animals — including our dog, cats, ducks, and, very much, our horses. We don’t offer riding lessons, but there is an opportunity to meet our horses, spend time with them, and learn a little about their language and way of communicating.
We begin with simple observation and ground interaction — noticing body language, herd dynamics, and how horses respond to our own movement, breathing and attention. Working with them has taught us a great deal about slowing down, becoming present, and finding a more grounded state of mind.
These lessons naturally translate back into the pottery studio: how we use our hands, how we respond rather than force, how we notice subtle changes, and how being more centred can change the way we work with clay.
For us, the horses are not an activity added to the course, but part of the environment and philosophy of the studio — offering a quiet opportunity to step outside the usual pace of daily life and reconnect with body, breath and attention.
The Place
The studio is located in rural Zemgale, surrounded by open fields, an old apple orchard, and the horse sanctuary next door.
Bauska is 20 km away; Riga is approximately 70 km.
The renowned Rundāle Palace lies just minutes from the studio, alongside other beautiful day-trip destinations.
Participants usually share one rental car, though airport pickup can be arranged.
Accommodation
You stay at our family home — a brick building from 1878, thoughtfully renovated in 2021.
Shared second floor for up to three guests
One twin room and one private single room
Shared kitchen and bathroom
One large en-suite room on the ground floor with private entrance and kitchenette
Bedding, towels, Wi-Fi, and a fully equipped kitchen are provided.
The horses graze just outside, and the studio is a two-minute walk away.
Practical Details
This course is for:
Potters with at least one year of experience, from early-stage beginners to intermediate makers.
You don’t need to be confident with every part of ceramics — you don’t need to know how to throw on the wheel or load a kiln. Gaps in your knowledge are absolutely fine. What matters is having some previous experience working with clay and being ready to build on it.
The course is suitable whether you want to keep pottery as a personal practice or hobby, or are interested in developing your skills towards a professional ceramic practice.
Investment:
€6,300 total
Payment plans are available and can be selected automatically during booking.
Included:
Studio access
Accommodation
30+ hours of guided instruction
Materials and firings*
Weekly Friday community lunches, welcome meal, and closing dinner
Further Details & Practical Information
For those who prefer to read more before reaching out, you’ll find additional clarity in the following pages:
You’re also welcome to follow along on Instagram @LaimaCeramics for a closer sense of the studio rhythm, materials, and day-to-day life behind this immersion.
Arrival
Arrival is scheduled for 1 July at 11:00, when we begin with orientation and settling in.
A welcome lunch will follow at 13:00.
Departure
Departure is on the afternoon of 25 July.
Our final working day together is 24 July, when we hold a small exhibition of the work created during the course, followed by a shared goodbye dinner in the evening — a moment to reflect, celebrate, and gently close this time together.
As many participants choose to pack their pieces into their luggage after the exhibition, we recommend allowing time the following morning for careful packing.
There are no additional activities planned for 25 July, allowing for a calm and unhurried departure.
Led by
Our guest tutor, with the workshop hosted and facilitated by the Laima Ceramics team throughout the experience. → Meet the team here
How to Apply
If this offering resonates, write to us and include a short introduction: where you are in your journey, and what you feel called to explore during this immersion.
After confirmation, you’ll be invited to reserve your place through the listing.
1–25 July | Latvia
A Deep Immersion into Ceramics, Craft & Conscious Living
This once-a-year summer immersion allows for depth, continuity, and personal guidance that is rarely possible in shorter courses.
This is not simply a pottery class.
It is an invitation into the full ecosystem of ceramic life — where skill, discipline, intuition, rhythm, and conscious living are inseparable.
For 25 days, you live and work alongside our team at LaimaCeramics, becoming part of the studio’s natural flow: making, refining, resting, learning, and integrating — allowing mastery to emerge through presence and repetition.
The Essence of the Course
During these weeks, you are offered:
Full access to our professional studio
On-site accommodation at our family home
Weekly group and individual guided sessions
Space, structure, and support to develop your own creative voice
This is our most comprehensive and intimate offering.
We share not only techniques, but also the lived knowledge behind them — the decisions, rhythms, efficiencies, and inner orientations that have shaped this studio over more than a decade.
Daily Rhythm
Each day follows a gentle yet well-held structure, balancing focused making with spaciousness and rest.
Most days include one or two guided studio sessions:
Once per week we schedule individual wheel sessions, offering personalised attention and concentrated skill refinement.
Outside of guided hours, participants have generous free time — to rest, walk the countryside, journal, integrate, connect with others, or continue independent studio practice.
This balance is intentional: learning settles more deeply when it is not forced.
From Forming to Finishing
As the weeks unfold, the focus gradually shifts from generating forms to completing and refining work. This phase includes:
Guided glazing and surface exploration
Kiln loading and firing preparation
A Raku firing day featuring the traditional Baltic Obvara technique
Support in preparing work for final presentation
You experience the full arc of ceramic creation — not fragments, but the whole.
Fridays & Community Rhythm
Fridays carry a softer, more communal tone.
We slow the pace, share a long lunch together, and allow space for conversation and digestion — both literal and creative. Some Fridays may also include optional evening experiences such as sound or guided relaxation sessions.
Saturdays — Optional Experiences
Saturdays offer curated, optional outings, such as:
Participation is always optional; rest is equally valued.
What You Will Learn
Wheel Practice
From solid foundations to advanced forms:
Preparing clay, centring, pulling cylinders
Shaping, trimming, refining proportion
Advanced throwing: porcelain (my personal favourite), teapots, spheres, and complex forms
Glazing & Surface
Matte, lava, metallic, natural, and special-effect glazes are central to our studio. You will learn both glaze development and diverse application methods, with an emphasis on surfaces that feel grounded, alive, and intentional. See some of our glazes here.
Dinnerware — Slab Techniques
You will learn how to create a cohesive, professional dinnerware set using slab-building methods — efficiently and elegantly.
Through thousands of plates and bowls made for restaurants worldwide, we have distilled processes that prioritise flow, consistency, and grace. Even experienced hand-builders often find this class transforms how they work.
Raku Firing — Baltic Obvara
You will experience the ancestral Baltic Obvara technique: red-hot ceramics plunged into a fermented organic mixture, producing smoky markings and rich earthen tones that are both unpredictable and deeply rooted in this land.
Horsemanship & Inter-Species Awareness
This is first and foremost a pottery course, but being here on our rural farm offers another dimension that you won’t find in a typical ceramics studio.
Alongside the pottery studio, you’ll share the space with our animals — including our dog, cats, ducks, and, very much, our horses. We don’t offer riding lessons, but there is an opportunity to meet our horses, spend time with them, and learn a little about their language and way of communicating.
We begin with simple observation and ground interaction — noticing body language, herd dynamics, and how horses respond to our own movement, breathing and attention. Working with them has taught us a great deal about slowing down, becoming present, and finding a more grounded state of mind.
These lessons naturally translate back into the pottery studio: how we use our hands, how we respond rather than force, how we notice subtle changes, and how being more centred can change the way we work with clay.
For us, the horses are not an activity added to the course, but part of the environment and philosophy of the studio — offering a quiet opportunity to step outside the usual pace of daily life and reconnect with body, breath and attention.
The Place
The studio is located in rural Zemgale, surrounded by open fields, an old apple orchard, and the horse sanctuary next door.
Bauska is 20 km away; Riga is approximately 70 km.
The renowned Rundāle Palace lies just minutes from the studio, alongside other beautiful day-trip destinations.
Participants usually share one rental car, though airport pickup can be arranged.
Accommodation
You stay at our family home — a brick building from 1878, thoughtfully renovated in 2021.
Shared second floor for up to three guests
One twin room and one private single room
Shared kitchen and bathroom
One large en-suite room on the ground floor with private entrance and kitchenette
Bedding, towels, Wi-Fi, and a fully equipped kitchen are provided.
The horses graze just outside, and the studio is a two-minute walk away.
Practical Details
This course is for:
Potters with at least one year of experience, from early-stage beginners to intermediate makers.
You don’t need to be confident with every part of ceramics — you don’t need to know how to throw on the wheel or load a kiln. Gaps in your knowledge are absolutely fine. What matters is having some previous experience working with clay and being ready to build on it.
The course is suitable whether you want to keep pottery as a personal practice or hobby, or are interested in developing your skills towards a professional ceramic practice.
Investment:
€6,300 total
Payment plans are available and can be selected automatically during booking.
Included:
Studio access
Accommodation
30+ hours of guided instruction
Materials and firings*
Weekly Friday community lunches, welcome meal, and closing dinner
Further Details & Practical Information
For those who prefer to read more before reaching out, you’ll find additional clarity in the following pages:
You’re also welcome to follow along on Instagram @LaimaCeramics for a closer sense of the studio rhythm, materials, and day-to-day life behind this immersion.
Arrival
Arrival is scheduled for 1 July at 11:00, when we begin with orientation and settling in.
A welcome lunch will follow at 13:00.
Departure
Departure is on the afternoon of 25 July.
Our final working day together is 24 July, when we hold a small exhibition of the work created during the course, followed by a shared goodbye dinner in the evening — a moment to reflect, celebrate, and gently close this time together.
As many participants choose to pack their pieces into their luggage after the exhibition, we recommend allowing time the following morning for careful packing.
There are no additional activities planned for 25 July, allowing for a calm and unhurried departure.
Led by
Our guest tutor, with the workshop hosted and facilitated by the Laima Ceramics team throughout the experience. → Meet the team here
How to Apply
If this offering resonates, write to us and include a short introduction: where you are in your journey, and what you feel called to explore during this immersion.
After confirmation, you’ll be invited to reserve your place through the listing.
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