Clay Play In These Interesting Times

Making art in times of stress and uncertainty can be therapeutic as well as a great way to keep little hands busy - and big hands too! While we do have options now for adults wanting to work in the studio, we do still encourage and want to support those of you with kids and/or who want to just play around on your own at home. 

Experienced clay people and previous students/members: Click here to go to a new page with information more pertinent to you. 

Are you new to clay, or do you have kids who need something to do?
We have new 25-pound bags of clay for $13 (plus sales tax) that you can take home to play with. Click here to go to our online store to see what types of clay are available. You may purchase online and schedule a contactless pick-up appointment or you may come in to the store to purchase during our Retail Hours.  Click here to download a document on some of the basic Do's & Don'ts of a safe home studio. ​

Whether you purchase clay through Burnish or received a free Quarantine Clay Kit from Blue Water Pottery (Jeremy & Megan Noet) you can bring the finished and dry creations back to Burnish to be bisque fired. Price of the firing will depend on the number and size of pieces, but as a rough ballpark I would plan on $1 per piece for the initial firing assuming the pieces are about the size of an adult fist. 

• Picking up clay or dropping off finished pieces: You may drop off pieces during our Retail Hours without an appointment. You may either cary the pieces in through the front door, or if you need a contactless service, you can call the studio upon arrival and I will open the back gate for you to bring pieces in to the kiln yard and leave on a shelf out there. 
  • The studio address is 2006 N State St, Bellingham WA 98225. The easiest way to access the parking lot is from Ohio St, turn in to the alley / driveway by Rodda Paint. Burnish is at the other end of the building - look for the wood fence with the red roof.
  • Please wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.
• Finishing Pieces: The next step in pottery after a piece has been bisque fired typically is to apply the glaze and then fire it in the kiln again. Given the current situation, we are offering 3 options:
  1. Pick up the fired pieces and take home to apply acrylic paint or finish using whatever medium you choose to experiment with. This will NOT make the piece water tight or food safe.
  2. When you drop off the pieces initially, you pick one of 11 studio glazes to have us apply to your piece and then fired. This will make your finished piece water tight and food safe. The price of this will depend on the number and size of pieces, but most likely around $3-5 per piece assuming each piece is around the size of an adult fist. 
  3. Come back when we re-open to take a short glaze class - a good option if you want to paint a design or have multiple colors on your finished piece. 

The 4th option is to not keep or fire any of the finished pieces. Playing with clay can be just about play and the experience itself and not necessarily on creating a permanent thing. A fun/interesting experiment is to place the dry pieces in the garden and then see how many rain storms it takes to dissolve the sculptures. It can be a good lesson on the temporary nature of life and the resilience and power of mother nature... Or you can throw the clay into the city compost bin or trash.