workshops
2027 workshops are now sold out.
Workshops at Sarah Pike Pottery
Workshops at Sarah Pike Pottery are immersive five-day experiences designed for potters who love texture, form, and the endless possibilities of slab-built clay.
Each session welcomes a small group of makers to Sarah’s Fernie, BC studio for a week of learning, creativity, and connection.
Each workshop includes five days of hands-on instruction with Sarah Pike, a welcome dinner the evening before your workshop begins, five gluten-free lunches prepared by Red Seal Chef and Chopped Canada winner Barrie Elliott of Fernie Catering Co., and an optional Workshop + Stay program with 6 nights of shared accommodation in Fernie.
Registration for 2027 opens Friday, October 16, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Everything you need to choose your week and be ready on the day is on this page.
2027 Workshop Schedule
Four sessions, two seasons, one small mountain studio!
Slabbery: Form & Design - June 14-18, 2027
Texture Explorations - June 22-26, 2027
Slabbery: Form & Design - September 13-17, 2027
Texture Explorations - September 20-24, 2027
Registration opens Friday October 16, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time
Workshop Options & Pricing
All prices in USD + 5% Canadian Sales Tax (GST)
Workshop Only
Price: $2,400
Five days of hands-on instruction with Sarah Pike in her Fernie, BC studio. A warm, creative, and fully immersive experience.
Ten makers per session, in a light-filled studio built for focused making and creative exchange.
One Workshop Only place is available for each session.
Includes:
Five days in Sarah's studio, with demonstrations, guided studio time and one-on-one help
Welcome dinner on the evening before your workshop begins
Five gluten-free lunches prepared by Red Seal Chef and Chopped Canada winner Barrie Elliott of Fernie Catering Co.
All clay, materials, and shared studio tools
Glazing and firing two of your pieces after the workshop (shipping not included)
Evening studio time: the studio stays open to you until 8:00 p.m. on the first four evenings. Day five wraps up at 5:00 p.m.
Workshop + Stay
Price: $3,600
Everything in the Workshop Only option, plus six nights of shared accommodation through Sarah's Artist Retreat Initiative. Sarah hand-picks each home for her students: beautiful, full of character, in the heart of downtown Fernie with the Rockies at the door, chosen for how it feels to land there after a full day in the studio.
Nine Workshop + Stay spots are available per workshop.
Includes:
Six nights, extended from five in response to 2026 participant feedback
Your own private room in a shared home, walkable to downtown cafés and galleries
Shared living spaces where the week's community carries on after studio hours
Three residences in Fernie, each chosen by Sarah, with three students in each
Sharing a room: one shared room per workshop for two registered students. Add one Workshop + Stay and one Workshop Only to your cart and check out together; we adjust the second person’s stay after registration ($240 USD). Once the Workshop Only spot sells, so does the shared room. Details below.
2026 participants rated the Workshop + Stay 4.8/5, and every one of them would recommend it.
Slabbery: Form & Design
Sarah’s Slabbery is back: Five days of form, design, and slab-building techniques in her Fernie studio.
This five day workshop focuses on the form and design of slab-building. (slabbery) Slab-building has its own unique qualities and challenges: how do you transform a flat slab of clay into expressive, three dimensional functional forms?
Join Sarah in her home studio and learn from a maker obsessed with slab-building design and techniques, with years of experience shaping and refining this approach. Over the week, she’ll demonstrate a range of slab-building techniques and share her design thinking, blending structure with playful experimentation. Students will explore templates, bisque molds, and altering methods to build forms with proportion and personality.
Offered twice in 2027: June 14-18 and September 13-17.
Moments from the studio — learning, making, and the rhythm of slabbery with a maker obsessed with clay, design, and the hand-built form.
Texture Explorations
Sarah’s much loved Texture Explorations Workshop returns - five days of texture play, tool making, and surface design in her Fernie studio.
This five day hands-on workshop focuses on texture, tools, and surface pattern play. Before Sarah makes a slab form, she makes the texture tools, the behind-the-scenes part of her process. She has spent years researching and refining her surface design techniques, and will demonstrate just how she does it: from initial sketches on paper, to carving stamp and roller blanks, to testing and refining each tool.
Students will learn how to texture and stamp clay using both hand-carved and found tools, exploring the tactile process of pressing and impressing texture into clay. Through this, they’ll gain an understanding of repeated pattern design and how rhythm, depth, and mark making can completely transform a slab.
Sarah guides participants through every stage of her texturing process: carving stamps and rollers, creating cutouts, experimenting with pattern and repetition, while making simple cups, tiles, and plates as canvases for surface exploration.
Offered twice in 2027: June 22-26 and September 20-24.
Moments from the studio — carving, pressing, and exploring the surface stories of clay, shaped by a maker whose lifelong exploration of texture has inspired so many to play.
After our 2025 workshops, students told us something was missing at the end of the day. Class ended and everyone scattered to different corners of town, and the best conversations ended at the studio door.
Sarah’s Artist Retreat Initiative was created in 2026 to keep them going: a shared home where the day carries on, with dinners cooked together, conversations that run late, and friendships that have had students asking to room together again at their next workshop.
More of you asked for it in 2026 than we had places for. The experience confirmed what we had hoped: that bringing students together beyond the studio creates something special. For 2027, each workshop will offer nine Workshop + Stay places, continuing to build the kind of community that made the first year so memorable.
Workshop + Stay: Artist Retreat Initiative
Three shared residences, three students in each
For each workshop, we host nine students in three residences in downtown Fernie. Each residence is shared by three students from your workshop. If the shared room sells, one residence hosts four.
Sarah has hand picked every one. No two are alike, and all three meet the same standard: some of the best places to stay in downtown Fernie.
Yours alone:
Your own bedroom
Your own bathroom
Shared with your two fellow students:
A full kitchen
A living room
We did our homework on where to stay in Fernie, and for a week like this, a residence beats a hotel room. You have space to spread out, a kitchen for your morning coffee, and good company at the end of a studio day. Your registration reserves your place, and every detail is handled for you. There’s nothing to book and nothing to coordinate.
Six nights, and one shared room
Six nights, up from five. We asked our Stay guests whether a final night to wind down before heading home would have appealed. Of the 16 who answered, 14 said yes. Your stay now runs from the evening of the welcome dinner through the night of your last studio day. No more checking out before class on the final morning.
One shared room per workshop. Coming with a friend or partner who is also taking the workshop? Share a room for $1,440 USD for six nights ($720 each) instead of $1,200 each for a room of your own. You share a bedroom and bathroom. Everything else stays the same.
How it works:
Add one Workshop + Stay and one Workshop Only to your cart and check out together, in one transaction
The person who checks out receives the intake form. Name your roommate on it and we'll be in touch with them
The Workshop + Stay seat covers $1,200 of the room. We invoice the person who checked out the remaining $240 USD plus GST after registration
Pair total: $6,240 USD plus GST
The shared room uses the one Workshop Only spot in each workshop. Once that spot sells, the shared room is gone for that week. Both people must be registered; the room is not available to a non-registered guest.
Moments in the making - a new chapter of shared space and connection, surrounded by the mountains and creative spirit of Fernie.
Food & Nourishment
All workshops include catering by Red Seal Chef and Chopped Canada winner Barrie Elliott of Fernie Catering Co., who returns for 2027.
Her seasonal, locally sourced menus are prepared entirely gluten-free, featuring a welcome dinner and five nourishing lunches. Barrie’s fresh, thoughtful food keeps makers inspired throughout the week. A celebration of care, creativity, and community shared around the table.
Moments shared — meals served in Sarah’s handmade ceramics, where food and form come together in celebration of craft and community.
The Studio & Fernie
Workshops take place at Sarah Pike’s home studio, located on an acre of land on the edge of Fernie, British Columbia. The property backs onto a beaver pond and the Elk River, so don’t be surprised if you spot moose or beavers during your visit.
The studio is a bright, welcoming space designed with makers in mind. With multiple solid worktables, two electric kilns, a small glaze kitchen, and plenty of natural light, it’s the perfect place to settle into the rhythm of clay work. When the weather allows, the covered outdoor area offers even more room to spread out and explore. Class sizes are intentionally small, giving each participant ample space and support.
Fernie itself is a small mountain town of about five thousand people, tucked into the Elk Valley of the Canadian Rockies. It’s as creative as it is outdoorsy, full of hiking trails, mountain bike paths, coffee shops, art galleries, and local restaurants. Downtown is just a few minutes away, making it easy to enjoy both studio time and mountain life.
Moments rooted — a place to work, rest, and find inspiration in Fernie’s mountain light.
How to Register
Registration opens Friday, October 16, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time. At 2:00 p.m. a Register button will appear on this page and on the shop page. It is not visible before then.
Each workshop has ten spots: nine Workshop + Stay and one Workshop Only. Last season sold out very quickly. A few steps we recommend, so Friday goes smoothly:
Decide on your workshop and your option before Friday, and have a second choice in mind in case your first sells out
Choose carefully. Once you register, the cancellation policy is in effect, and a change to another workshop is handled under it
Create an account on our website before Friday. Click the account icon at the top right of any page and follow the prompts. Add your payment details to your account while you are there, so checkout is quick on Friday
Registering from the US? Let your credit card company know before Friday. In past years a few people lost their place when the charge was flagged as fraud
Log in before 2:00 p.m.
Refresh this page or the shop page at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time sharp
Registering with a friend for the shared room? Add one Workshop + Stay and one Workshop Only to the same cart and check out together. We invoice the remaining $240 USD plus GST for the room after registration. Details in the Stay section
Once you register, you will receive an email confirming your spot. We will send an intake form within 10 days of registration. If your workshop sells out, join the waitlist. Cancellations do happen, and we work through the list in order of submission.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register for back-to-back workshops? Absolutely. Just put both in your cart. Several students did this last season. If you choose Workshop + Stay for both, there are a few nights between the two stays, depending on the combination. We hope to help with those nights, and we'll be in touch after you register to see what we can do.
Can I register for more than one spot? Absolutely. You can buy more than one spot in the same workshop, for example for a friend. Many students did this last season. We collect each person's details on the participant forms after you register, so it's seamless.
What if the workshop I want sells out? Join the waitlist. Cancellations do happen, so we highly recommend adding your name. We work through the list in order of submission and will email you if a spot opens. Join the waitlist
Is my spot held while I check out? No. Your spot is confirmed only once your payment has gone through. Adding a workshop to your cart does not hold it. Have your account and payment details ready before 2:00 p.m.
Can I switch to a different workshop after I register? Please choose your workshop with care before Friday. Once you register, the cancellation policy is in effect, and a change to another workshop is handled under it. Changes take real work behind the scenes, and we want your week to be the one you chose.
What is the cancellation policy? It is here: Workshop cancellation policy. You will be asked to confirm you have read it at checkout, so please read it before Friday. Spots are limited and the policy is firm.
Do I need experience? Yes. Our workshops are built for people who already work with clay and want to go deeper. Most of our students describe themselves as intermediate, and some as advanced. The few who called themselves beginners had all taken classes before. If you feel you need more experience, Sarah recommends taking some classes at a local pottery studio first. There is time between now and your workshop.
Where is Fernie, and how do I get there? Fernie is in southeast British Columbia, surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. You can fly into Cranbrook (about a 75-minute drive), Calgary (about 3.5 hours) or Kalispell, Montana (about 2.5 hours). Tourism Fernie's Getting Here page has the details. You will need a car from any of the three airports.
Can my partner or a friend who is not taking the workshop stay with me? Workshop + Stay rooms are for registered students only. Partners and friends are welcome in Fernie, but they will need their own accommodation. A good option if you are travelling together: register for Workshop Only, if it is still available, and book your own place in Fernie for the two of you.
What about dietary needs? All lunches are gluten-free. There is a surcharge for vegan meals. The intake form asks about allergies and dietary needs in detail, so Chef Barrie can plan for you.
Can I bring my dog? We love dogs, and Enzo, the studio dog, will be there to greet you. The studio and accommodations only have room for one dog, so we ask that yours sits this trip out.
What should I bring? Your favourite tool and a notebook, if you like. Neither is necessary. Everything you need is provided in the studio.
What happens to the pieces I make? Two of your pieces are glazed and fired after the workshop and shipped to you. Shipping is not included.
What People Are Saying
“This was more than a pottery workshop. Every detail of this experience was thoughtfully designed to build friendships, community, wellbeing and a true love for clay and our craft. Beyond the incredible techniques and skills that I will take back to my work at home, I now have a deeper understanding and appreciation for clay and the craft. And, making the things to make the things!”
- Texture Explorations
“Sarah is so normal…in the best possible way. She made us feel like we were all friends, so genuine, so kind… AMAZING!”
— Slabbery: Form & Design
“Sarah is warm, friendly and a lovely human. She pays incredible attention to detail and refinement. There are so many improvements I have made to both my work and my teaching because of her instruction and methods. Highly recommend learning from Sarah from courses and workshops”
— Slabbery: Form & Design
“Very cool getting to work side by side with the ‘MASTER’ potter + technician. I have a lot of external stress with my regular routine - so the workshop was a much needed mental respite. The workshop time went by so fast, and I so enjoyed my other classmates and hope we can stay in touch”
— Texture Explorations
“The week was amazing! I honestly feel like it could not be a better experience. I loved every minute.”
— Slabbery: Form & Design
“Workshop exceeded my expectations - Sarah was very helpful + patient with me. Loved personal touch with help trying new techniques and processes. Loved all the pro tips, suggestions, and family interactions. Could not have had a better time doing anything else”
— Texture Explorations
“Could not be better! The lunches served in your pottery were beautiful and delicious! Not having to pack a lunch or leave to pick up was decadent”
— Texture Explorations
“Any other workshops will have a hard time living up to yours, I really enjoyed it”
— Texture Explorations
Moments remembered — reflections from those who’ve shared a week of clay, community, and Fernie.
