Clay Making: Creative Classes

Join multidisciplinary artist Pixel Heller for a beginner-friendly clay-making class designed for adults aged 30+. This workshop offers an opportunity to explore clay as a medium for creativity, self-expression and community connection.

Participants will learn foundational hand-building techniques while creating their own decorative, Jebena-inspired clay piece.

The class will also explore the history and cultural significance of Ethiopian Jebena coffee culture, examining how coffee ceremonies have long served as spaces for hospitality, storytelling and community across generations.

Through guided instruction and creative exploration, participants will gain an appreciation for the artistic and cultural practices surrounding this tradition while developing introductory clay-making skills in a welcoming, artist-led environment.

No previous experience is required. All materials will be provided.

What to Expect:

• An introduction to clay and foundational hand-building techniques.
• An exploration of Ethiopian Jebena coffee culture and its cultural significance.
• Guided instruction to create a decorative, Jebena-inspired clay piece.
• An opportunity to connect with others through a shared creative experience.

Important Registration Information

Clay-making classes will be offered on November 18 and November 25. Each date is an individual class, and participants only need to register for one.

With the purchase of either the November 18th or November 25th clay-making class, you will also be automatically registered for the December 2 painting class at no additional cost.

Please Note: Participants will not be creating a functional ceramic coffee vessel. Each participant will leave with a decorative clay piece inspired by their creative exploration, along with a deeper appreciation of Ethiopian cultural heritage.

About the Facilitator: Pixel Heller

Pixel Heller is a multidisciplinary artist, international performer, and Moko Jumbie based in Toronto. Her work explores Afro-Caribbean identity through performance, visual art, and movement. As the founder of Northern Jumbies, she brings the spirit of the Moko Jumbie to life through stilt-walking workshops, performances, and community engagement rooted in ancestral tradition and contemporary expression. She graduated from OCAD University in 2024 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cross-Disciplinary Studies with a specialization in Life Studies. 

Pixel’s work reimagines ancestral narratives within a contemporary framework, bridging past and present. Through masquerade, she explores the resilience and evolution of Black culture, shaping costume, sculpture, and performance into reflections of history and acts of resistance. Her practice serves as both an homage and a reinvention, an ongoing dialogue that honours the endurance of Black identity while inviting new possibilities for the future. Pixel has exhibited at The Robert McLauchlin Gallery, Gallery 44, MCA Gallery, Meridian Arts Center, Gallery 1313 and internationally at the Black Brazil Art Biennial. She has artwork in The Wedge Collection and won the OCAD U Medal for Cross-Disciplinary Art. Pixel has done performances at the ROM, Artist Project, BMO Field, Waterloo Region Museum and internationally with Walking Tall in Kingston, Jamaica and Kaisokah Moko Jumbie in Trinidad.