As the height of summer approaches, Hocking Makers Network is supporting local entrepreneurs by providing a space and classes that help participants find their passion.
Whitney Goller, art and design program manager for Hocking Makers who has worked with the network the past three years, said they have all sorts of summer courses lined up including ceramics, woodworking and full moon painting parties.
“The Makers Network goal is to get people creating in an entrepreneurial setting, so we exist to support entrepreneurs,” Goller said. “Our workshops are really an introduction to our space and to skills. We're very interested in just supporting this community and its entrepreneurs.”
On Saturday, there is a landscape painting class where participants will create an oil-painting in the outdoors taught by Goller, who also said they plan to host a moonlit landscape painting course on July 23.
“We're going to actually be painting while the moon is full that night,” Goller said. “It's similar to the landscape painting where we're painting outdoors – we're viewing the landscape in the moon.”
In August, Goller said Hocking Makers is planning to start running featured artists workshops each month. A Hocking College alumna and self-employed ceramic artist, Quinn Schmalenberg, is planning to teach one of these workshops.
“Participants will form their piece using a mold so we won't be doing anything super complicated like wheel throwing or hand building,” Schmalenberg said. “The focus is going to be how to apply the underglaze transfers. What the underglaze transfers are is an illustration that has been printed on to rice paper using something called underglaze.”
Schmalenberg said she only discovered underglaze transfers over the past six months and has been experimenting and trying different techniques with them.
“I'm excited to share it with other people because I get a lot of questions about how I make the transfer pieces,” Schmalenberg said. “I feel like I give the same little spiel to so many people when I'm at market. I'm excited to actually be able to show some people who are signing up for the class this whole process and show them from start to finish how they can do it.”
Also on June 25 there will be an introduction to woodturning class that will also be available on August 21. Chris Hedges, who is the program manager of Cabinetmaking and Architectural Millwork program at Hocking College, works with Hocking Makers Network as a secondary leisure learning program. He said they’re running their part of the program like a standard woodworking club.
“As members want access to the machinery, they use it for their own personal needs – they'll have to go through a fairly rigorous testing program,” Hedges said. “(They’ll have to) establish that they're capable of using that machinery without hurting themselves or other people.”
As of now, Hedges said he is still looking for more instructors for the wood lab classes such as introduction to turning and bowl turning.
“I had to design this entire program, and have it all approved by the Department of Education and the Higher Learning Commission,” Hedges said. “Everything we're doing right now wood related is all brand new for Hocking College.”
Many of the clases offer four to eight spots, while those taking place outdoors are able to include a larger group. Goller said when classes fill up, it's likely they will run the class again during a different season.
“When we do fill a class, then we hope to run it once a season,” Goller said. “We would run that again in the fall, the winter (and) again in the spring.”
For those interested in taking one or more of these classes, visit Hocking Makers Network website for additional details.
