Jen Allen Visiting Artist Workshop

Join Jen Allen for a dynamic two-day workshop designed to spark inspiration and build confidence in your ceramic practice. Through in-depth demonstrations, Jen will guide you through her approach to creating surface interest with handmade texture stamps, inflating and altering slab forms to add volume, and transforming quick clay sketches into reliable, repeatable templates.

This is a primarily demo-based experience, but you'll also get a chance to roll up your sleeves during a short hands-on session. You’ll get to try out Jen’s new line of “Pottery Patterns” (template sets) and experiment with key techniques (like darting) without the pressure to produce polished work. 

Whether you handbuild or throw, Jen’s methods are adaptable and designed to enrich a wide range of making processes. Expect to leave with fresh ideas, practical tools, and the inspiration to keep pushing your work forward.

Cost: Free for Harvard College Undergraduates, $250 for Adult Community and Harvard Graduate students. Registration for this workshop opens Monday, July 28 at 10am.

Artist Bio

Jen Allen is a studio potter, educator, and mother based in Morgantown, West Virginia. She has been working with clay since 1995. Jen holds a BFA from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. She lives with her husband, Shoji Satake, a ceramic artist and professor at RISD, and their two children, Annelise and Finn. When she’s not making pottery, teaching, or designing templates, you’ll likely find her at a hockey rink, cheering on her kids’ teams. jenniferallenceramics.com