“»The clay becomes your master«: demonstrate, then let go — a workshop that doesn't merely tolerate imperfection but makes it the method.”
Teaching at Loam in Moabit works differently from most course studios: Jana Marlene Lippert demonstrates the fundamental techniques — pinch, coil, slab — and then steps back. She intervenes when a piece is about to fail structurally; everything else belongs to the learner’s hands. »The clay becomes your master« is the motto of a practice shaped as much by Shiatsu as by design school: Lippert is a certified Shiatsu therapist, and the attention to body and material shows in the teaching.
Her own work sets the direction: large coil-built vessels in stoneware and porcelain, raw and unglazed, bodily forms — a visual language that takes imperfection seriously instead of covering it up. The training behind it is thorough: a BA in product design at FH Potsdam, an MA at ECAL in Lausanne, studies at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, and the co-founding of Loam in 2021. The city press has profiled the studio.
If you want to keep practising after the course, you buy open-session bundles for the Monday and Friday slots — with a teacher in the room. Summer courses for children and teens exist; the adult programme — intro to hand-building (€89), six-week course (€319), Vases & Carafes (€119) — remains the core.
Course · 6 sessions · 15 hrs total · €319 · Materials included · For beginners
Taster · 1 session · 4 hrs total · €119 · Materials included · Open to all levels
Taster · 1 session · 3 hrs total · €89 · Materials included · For beginners
Demonstrate, then let go: intervention only when a piece fails structurally — the rest belongs to the learner's hands, because the clay is the real master.
