Expressive & Dynamic Ceramic Animals
with James Ort
Nov 30 - Dec 13, 2025
Take a deep dive into learning how to make clay animals with James Ort. Using a contemporary technique that is loose, expressive and breaks all the rules, this will be an intense, and yet, intensely fun course! Heralding from the United Kingdom, James Ort has been teaching for years now. He specializes in a form of contemporary clay modelling which pushes clay to its limits. The technique is fast, easy to learn and adaptable.
Over the duration of the course, you will typically make one sculpture each day – this is to ensure you do not get too precious or tight, for it is the spontaneity and looseness that brings the life! To give you the best understanding and skills, James will show you how to make a range of animals in a range of forms, including wall-mounted portrait heads, four-legged standing mammals, dynamic, seated and two legged standing mammals, as well as birds and fish. James will be given a series of demonstrations that show you the key stages and principles of the technique.
The rest of the time will be spent making your own pieces, with James offering guidance and support every step of the way. Once completed, your masterpieces will be dried out and bisqued. The final firing will bring your pieces to life with colour, by the use of an array of oxides, underglazes, and a tiny bit of transparent glaze for the eyes.
TUITION: USD $2200 inclusive of all studio materials, glazes and firings, catered lunches, welcome dinner, and excursions around the island. We will assist in making recommendations for bookings for nearby hotels, bungalows or home-stays in convenient proximity to Gaya studio (accommodation is not included in tuition).
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE - Expressive & Dynamic Ceramic Animals
Sunday, November 30
6:00pm Welcome dinner. Getting to know each other over a delicious plant-based meal. With our bellies full and our heart's content, we can spend time getting to know each person’s creative background and what our expectations are for the course ahead.
Monday, December 1:
We will start the day with a brief presentation by James Ort about his work and career, both as wildlife artist and tutor. James will give an overview of the technique and we will do a bit of sketching to get to know our chosen subjects of the day a bit better. No drawing skills are necessary at all, and the results do not matter. The class will begin learning to sculpt wall-mounted bird or mammal heads. James will give a series of demonstrations to help you on your way, plus individual guidance wherever needed. 12:30 Lunch family style
The rest of the day will be spent with you working on your pieces, with James on hand to prod you in the right direction where needed.
Tuesday, December 2:
Taking what we have learnt on day one, we will use our newfound knowledge to make dynamic wall-mounted mammal poses – think anything like swimming otters, leaping tigers, running hares or jumping monkeys! We will focus on understanding what is happening with the anatomy and contorting our forms to create a greater sense of movement and energy.
12:30 Lunch family style
The rest of the day will be spent with you working on your pieces, with James on hand to prod you in the right direction where needed.
Wednesday, December 3:
Using our knowledge of creating loose expressive sculpture, we will examine the benefits (and indeed, limitations) of producing more complex armatures to create our forms. Each student will make a four-legged standing mammal pose (NB, with all four feet on the ground), with James providing demonstrations of the key stages along the way.
12:30 Lunch family style
We will continue with our pieces after lunch, with James providing demonstrations when needed.
Thursday, December 4:
Now we know how to make expressive forms and how to use armatures, we will use this day to make seated or upright-standing mammals. We will take elements of our learnings from each day and appropriately apply them to our chosen pieces. Learning to weigh up how much armature you need is key to creating better sculptures. James will give various demonstrations to illustrate this.
12:30 Lunch family style
The rest of the day will be spent with you working on your pieces, with James on hand to prod you in the right direction.
Friday, December 5:
Making birds is all about observation. Though they may look easier forms to capture in clay than mammals, this is not the case. Proportion and tight observations are the keys to stopping your hawk from becoming a pigeon!
James will show how to construct in a refined way, that doesn’t look over labored. As always, demonstrations along the way with plenty of time to make your pieces.
NB – James would prefer it if students made perched birds. Birds in flight can be done, but given that we just have a day, these birds will need to be relatively small in size. Rest assured; James will talk through how to make larger wingspans so that you can make them at home if desired.
12:30 Lunch family style
The afternoon will be spent with you working on your pieces and James will show students how to create the wire feet that will be glued in place, post final firing.
Saturday, December 6:
Ideally, students will have finished each piece on the day of making. I know this sounds like a daunting prospect but have faith - this is a fast technique, and pretty much everyone will have finished them on the day of starting!
However, in the eventuality of students not finishing their work, then this morning is when you can do so. The morning will be spent preparing pieces for firing where needed and will give students a chance to reflect on what everyone has made.
12:30 Lunch family style
Loading kiln for bisque. Teaching specifics of kiln loading of the standing animals.
The afternoon will be spent loading all of the artwork into the kilns. We will look at how to optimize space in the kiln and support more fragile, delicate pieces where needed.
Sunday, December 7:
(Free day)
Monday, December 8:
The waiting is over! We can now see whether the kiln Gods have shone down upon us. The morning will be spent unloading the kiln, and repairing any broken bits with glue so that they are ready to have colour added to them.
James will give a detailed demonstration and talk about how to best apply underglaze in a way that is both loose and expressive.
12:30 Lunch family style
The rest of the day will be spent with you glazing on your pieces, with James on hand to prod you in the right direction where needed.
Tuesday, December 9:
With five pieces to glaze, we will almost certainly need another full day to finish bringing our pieces alive with colour!
12:30 Lunch family style
You guessed it, carry on glazing!
Wednesday, December 10:
We will see where everyone is this morning, but I am guessing that glazing should largely be finished by now.
If there is the desire from the class, James could use the morning to demonstrate making a sculpture from start to finish, without the need to rush his demos. The idea is that by not being under any time constraints, students will observe some of the unconscious decisions James makes while creating a sculpture. Students can ask questions along the way.
12:30 Lunch family style
By now, everyone will probably be tired. Depending on the popular vote, we can either take it easy, come up with a fun, creative activity or a game to play, watch some ceramic videos or do some sketching preparation in readiness for our wildlife-themed excursion the next day!
Thursday, December 11:
Excursion day
Friday, December 12:
The pieces will have gone through their final firing by now. In the morning we will open the kiln and be introduced to our finished pieces. Some of our pieces may need to be repaired if anything is broken. James will give a detailed demonstration of how he repairs sculptures, showing how to best conceal breaks and touch up pieces where needed.
Our work will need to be safely wrapped and boxed up, ready to be sent home.
12:30 Lunch family style
This is your chance to reflect on the past few days as a group. We can have conversations about what we have learnt, what we could refine/make our own going forward and take a look at how the course has helped with our creative practice. This is your chance to ask James any further questions and discuss as a group what our goals and plans for the future are.
Saturday, December 13:
Departure Day, no activities, studio closed
**Details of schedule may be subject to change, but overall content will remain constant.