Date: 8 Wednesdays, Jan 7 - Feb 25, 2026
Time: 12:00-2:30 PM or 6:30-9:00 PM
Instructor: Monica Hewryk (noon), Elyse Cote (evening)
Level: All (Minimum Age: 18)
Location: FVAC Annex 8D at 8 Canal Court, Unit D, Avon, CT 06001, across from FVAC campus
Materials fee for 25 lbs stoneware clay: $33
Tuition: $365 includes glazes and firing, Members save 10%
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Class Description

Experience the rewarding process of working with clay and creating unique pieces! Beginner students will learn fundamental hand-building techniques like pinch, coil, and slab methods. Advanced students explore more complex forms, both functional and sculptural. Applied textures, colored slips, and glazing applications will be demonstrated as well.
Tuition includes the use of the ceramic studio during an active session. Reserve Time Slot in Ceramic Studio

Materials
Download materials list here

About the Instructors

Monica Hewryk graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a Master in Fine Arts in ceramics in 2021. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Central Connecticut State University with a concentration in ceramics in 2014. Monica previously worked as the University Assistant at Central Connecticut State University, the intern at Wesleyan Potters, and a Resident Potter at Guilford Art Center. She has been exhibiting work in juried exhibitions and group shows since 2013. Monica maintains a private studio at home and continues to exhibit her work nationally. Combining personal narratives about time and the human condition, Monica’s most recent work illustrates ideas of imperfection, inevitability, and disease. She intentionally leaves portions of the work visible underneath the grotesque textured surfaces on her ceramic pieces to portray what used to be. Visit Monica's website.

Connecticut native Elyse Cote began creating art in the ballet studio, co-founding and co-directing CONNetic Dance Company. She eventually found her way to painting and ceramics and completed a BFA at the University of Hartford. Since then she has been a Resident Artist at the Wellsville Creative Art Center and taught ceramics at several local studios as well as The University of Hartford. Elyse has shown her work in many juried shows as well as group exhibitions. Although she no longer dances she continues to bring that physicality to her delicate hand-built objects and the painted canvas, combining the aesthetic of her choreography with faceted vessels and gestural abstraction.