Event Detail

Container for Grief, A Special Session with Gratitude Ceramics
Sunday, April 19
1-4PM
Beginner Friendly/All Levels Welcome
For Adults (16 )
Teaching Artist: Jesse Brinkerhoff of Gratitude Ceramics

Price: $70 nonmembers / $65 for members

12 People maximum may enroll

This session takes place in our ANNEX classroom: 1110 Hawthorne St Unit C - make sure you come to the Annex and not the main classroom.

Transform grief into gratitude by hand-building a keepsake urn for a loved one, a cherished pet, or an old version of yourself you're ready to release.

Join ceramic artist Jesse Brinkerhoff of Gratitude Ceramics for a deeply intentional afternoon of creation. In this three-hour workshop, you'll hand-build a keepsake urn using traditional techniques—coil, slab, pinch, and sculpt — to hold the ashes of a departed loved one, a cherished pet, or an old version of yourself you're ready to release. Working with clay is a profoundly supportive pathway for processing grief. As your hands move through coiling and shaping, you'll have space to remember, reflect, and honor what needs to pass while creating something beautiful to carry forward.

Bring objects to stamp meaningful patterns into your clay, or come ready to carve symbols, words, or images that celebrate your beloved's unique essence. Whether you're grieving a recent loss or honoring someone who passed years ago, all hearts and skill levels are welcome. Some clay experience is helpful but not required—come as you are, leave with a sacred vessel that honors your love and your loss.

What's Included:

All clay, glaze, and tools are provided

Guided coil/slab/pinch building instruction with a teaching artist

A safe space to work and process with as much or as little help as you want.

A few resources for grief & art making

Urns will be fired with a semi-glossy, white Maiolica-style glaze and will be available to pick up at the CSOM roughly one month after the

workshop. Pick-up slips with information will be provided so participants will know when their projects are ready to pick up.

About the Artist: Jesse Brinkerhoff - Gratitude Ceramics

When my brother and his wife passed in 2020, I knew they needed personalized cremation urns that celebrated who they were. That knowing cracked something open in me. I quit my stable career, dove fully into clay, and drew on my B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Montana to discover what I hadn't yet known — that my own experiences with grief and gratitude would find their way into the work.

It was my first summer at farmers markets where I discovered how deeply people desired their loved ones commemorated in clay. Five complete strangers reached out asking for custom urns. I said yes to them all. I had never made a single one before.

Reflective of my own healing from childhood trauma, addiction, and grief, my work has evolved from earthy, grounded, even heavy pieces to something lighter and more embodied. I believe that if we can stay out of the way just enough, the work evolves alongside us.

Named for what rebuilt me through grief, Gratitude Ceramics has become a place that holds the complexities of love and loss. Specializing in hand-building techniques and commemorative vessels, I operate a full-time studio practice in East Missoula, MT with my partner and my big doodle pup. It is here where I hold what could not be broken down, and where, just for today, I try to remain grateful for all of it.

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