(Pictured: Artist Photo of Jason Christian in Pratt's Hot Shop)
Check this page often for free, Pratt-hosted Master Artist talks & artist demonstrations throughout the year! All ages welcome, free parking is available on Pratt's campus, and RSVPs not required though highly encouraged. Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and 4Culture.
Master Glass Artist and Blacksmith, Max Grossman: Making, Modifying, and Maintaining Glassblowing Tools
Monday-Friday, October 6-10, 2025
Designed for intermediate / advanced glassblowers and metalworkers, this workshop focuses on how to make your own glass-blowing tools using simple materials, found objects, and equipment you might already have in your studio. Students will start with a simple forged caliper and finish with a project of their choice like a tag, tweezers, crimps, raking tools, etc. Along the way, students will also learn how to sharpen, clean, and modify existing tools to better fit their individual needs. Students can expect to learn basic forging, finishing, and metal fabrication techniques, focused around the needs of the glass studio. This workshop emphasizes the development of practical skills and encourages the creativity to use them by bringing new life to old objects and making useful tools from scratch and scraps.
The last day of class will involve time in the hot shop to try out your new tools.
Lunch will be provided on class days, please alert Pratt to any dietary needs or restrictions.
About Max Grossman:
Max Grossman is an LA based blacksmith, glass artist, resurrector of antique tools and machines, and maker of fine glassblowing tools.
Master Jeweler and Metal Worker, Jeff de Boer: Small Scale Fabrication, Secrets to Building Mouse Armor
Monday-Friday, October 6-10, 2025
Ever wonder how one makes a suit of armour for a mouse or a cat? Immerse yourself in this 5-day, in-person workshop with Master Artist Jeff De Boer as he passes decades worth of knowledge on how to effectively produce and reproduce small complex metal forms as well as create specialized tools to help. Students will start with clay models to develop forms and extract patterns to translate them into pancake dies in order to cut them out as repeatable units that can then be shaped over special custom stakes. Then students will learn how to join, grind and finish. Designed to incorporate a variety of hands-on demos and mentored studio time, students will walk away with plenty of chances to learn and practice new skills while working along side other students and the master artist himself.
Supply fee includes all equipment and materials needed for the week long workshop, as well as daily lunch provided from a selection of local restaurants. More information will be provided to participants closer to the start of the workshop. Please provide your own drinks and snacks for the duration of the workshop days.
Prerequisites: None
Supply Fee: $120
Workshop Size: min-6 max-10
Master Printmaker, Deborah Mersky: Printing from Clay; The Evolving Image
Friday-Saturday, October 10-12, 2025
Clay printing uses shaped and incised leather hard clay to print from. You will learn how to successfully work with this medium. Then you will further transform your prints with water media and collaged elements. Each day will start with loose, quick and spontaneous mark making, the prompts will encourage ease of drawing and exchange. We will observe, exaggerate, simplify, and pull imagery from thin air and our imaginations.
Among the artist ghosts present to influence this workshop are Bodys Isek Kingelez, Nikki de Sant Phalle, Joaquin Torres-Garcia, Mary Lee Bendolph, and Nancy Spero.
Deborah Mersky is credited with creating this relief process for folks with limited mobility so they could make prints.
No experience necessary
THERE IS A SUPPLY LIST FOR THIS WORKSHOP
ARTIST TALK Saturday 10/11 6pm in the Painting/Drawing Studio
Master Metalworker and Furniture Maker, Sophie Glenn: Fine Fabrication, Forming, and Finishes
Monday-Friday, October 13-17, 2025
In this class, we'll use the creation of small lidded boxes as a way to learn techniques for precise layout, sheet metal forming, and fine finish work. We'll start with making paper templates of our designs, and then we'll cut, score, and bend sheet steel to create our forms using a variety of tools. We'll then use MIG and TIG welders to join everything together, and use angle grinders and sanders to prep the surfaces for finish. Finally, we'll explore patinas and other finishes that we'll make our boxes uniquely our own.
Required Experience: None
Supply Fee: $100
Note: this class provides a lunch during class days
About Sophie Glenn:
Sophie is a metalworker and furniture maker currently based in Reading, PA. She makes classic furniture designs recreated out of steel to give voice to women in both the woodworking and metal fields, and she utilizes steel in the making of her work to explicitly expand upon the materials that are considered to be part of the fine furniture making field.
Sophie received her MFA in Furniture Design and Woodworking from San Diego State University, and BFA in Sculpture and Drawing from SUNY Purchase College. She has exhibited her work across the country, including Blue Spiral 1 Gallery (NC), the Center for Art in Wood (PA), and the Metal Museum (TN), and has been fortunate to receive several grants, fellowships, and residencies to help advance her career, including the John D. Mineck Fellowship in 2022. Sophie currently teaches at Kutztown University, and has taught workshops at A Workshop of Our Own, Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the Appalachian Center for Craft, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.