Sculpture Series with Michael Gerber
Explore sculpture techniques with Michael through costume mask-making, polymer clay miniatures, found-object sculpture, and nature-based earth sculptures. All classes are beginner friendly! Most supplies are included unless specifically noted.
This class:
Making Faces
$35 per person
Saturday, 2/20/27 from 1:00PM to 4:00PM
Art Lab’s 3D Lab
Skill level: Any
Audience: 12-adult
Description:
Ever wonder how animators make a face out of clay look alive? In this class, you’ll sculpt your very own character face, inspired by the expressive, larger-than-life style of stop-motion and animated films (such as Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas, Wallace & Gromit). We’re not talking realistic portraits. We mean big eyes, exaggerated features, and faces that leap out at you with personality.
You’ll learn just enough real facial anatomy to know which rules to break (and why it works). You’ll be sculpting a face of pure emotion: Giddy, grumpy, heart-broken, love-struck, you name it. Just bring your imagination and let your sculpture make a face at the world!
Other classes in the series:
Costume Mask Making Saturday, October 17th & 24th from 1:00PM-4:00PM
Found Sculpture: Thrift Store Edition, Saturday, 12/5/26 from 1:00-4:00PM
Sticks and Stones (Nature Sculpture) Saturday, 1/16/27 from 1:00PM-5:00PM
Making Faces, Saturday, 2/20/27 from 1:00PM-4:00PM
3D Character Sculpture Saturday, 3/20/27 from 1:00PM to 4:00PM
About the Instructor:
Michael Gerber has over 30 years of sculpting experience and more than 15 years of experience in pyrography, working across a range of media from character sculpture to burned wood pieces. He owned and operated Mikey Burns Things, a commission-based studio for pyrography and sculpture, and has a particular affinity for character creation, having studied film and stop-motion animation and applied that knowledge to designing and building sculpted characters.
Michael holds an MFA in Theatre from Ohio University and a BA from Western Oregon University, and brings additional experience as a writer, director, and performer, including a role as Artistic Director of Barter Youth Academy at Barter Theatre, and as owner/operator of Appalachian Performing Arts Academy. That background in performance and timing informs how he approaches character, form, and storytelling in his sculptural work.
At the Art Lab, Michael draws on this range of experience to help students build technical skill and find their own voice in sculpture and pyrography. He lives with his two cats, Chetney and Zeke, surrounded by sculptures and pyrography pieces, in a house that always smells vaguely like a campfire.