FLORAL DESIGN / CERAMICS: a practice of connection
FLORAL DESIGN / CERAMICS: a practice of connection
Monday August 31 - Sunday September 6, 2026
Worlds End School | Esperance, NY
Price for the week: $1,400-$1,904 (depending on lodging choice)
Instructors: Sarah Ryhanen & Katie James
The height of summer is one of the most beautiful times on the farm. Flowers are in abundance and every corner of the farm is in full expression. Come spend the week in the flower gardens and clay studio, paying close attention to the colors, textures and forms of the natural world that provide the spark for all of our creative endeavors.
Arranging flowers starts with the vase/shaping clay starts with an understanding of what it may hold. This is a class about two elements that relate to each other, and together contribute to a larger sense of cohesion. This week we’ll look closely at how elements of size, scale, quantity and quality give form to a floral composition and how those same fundamentals translate to clay.
Sounds like a lot of nonsense! Think again. Having one perfectly imperfect garden dahlia, with an uncanny wiggle or curvature to its stem and a lovely slight discoloration is a ONE STEM composition that requires a specific container to highlight its uniqueness. Having a 25 regular straight and clear dahlias asks for a different kind of arrangement with a different vessel. Having a bucket of mixed dahlias, cardiosperum, cherry caramel phlox, amaranthus, quinoa, quickfire hydrangea and black scabiosa requires yet another clay form to highlight a mixed composition (and also a timemachine back to Saipua c. 2015?)
Regardless, mornings will be spent in the cutting gardens and flower studio led by Sarah. Afternoons will be spent with Katie molding, forming, and shaping clay with the flowers in mind. Interstitial time spent in the classrooms of the library, kitchen, swimming pond and hiking trails conversing with the cohort or processing lessons in alone time.
This course is designed for flower novices and professional florists alike. Gardeners, lovers of beauty, those who have always wanted to work with their hands; clay and flowers: this is for you!
Students will recycle all their work but get one piece fired and shipped to them after class is over.
PREPARATIONS / CONSIDERATIONS
SCHEDULE
Day 1 ✴︎ Arrival
Students arrive after noon on Monday, are settled in and are then asked to be at dinner at 7:30pm. We typically eat together in the large breezeway of the barn. This first meal is prepared by the teachers for the students. Intention setting and organizing meals/schedule. General getting acquainted.
Day 2-6 ✴︎ Instruction
The week will be structured around garden walks and spending the mornings translating the season into floral arrangements in the studio. Coffee/Breakfast on your own; class begins promptly at 9am. Break for lunch at noon. Afternoon sessions (generally 2-4pm) will be spent in the ceramics studio with Katie, molding and shaping clay with the morning’s flowers as a guide. Free time to revisit the lesson of the day, dissociate in the hammock, schedule time with a farmer, drive to town, request a cocktail from Susan, etc followed by dinner either together with the cohort or on your own in the communal kitchen.
Day 7 ✴︎ Departure
Students are welcome to end the week with lunch at coyotecafe, the farm’s monthly drop-in cafe, leaving by 4pm. Extra credit will be given to students who participate in designing the florals for the day’s cafe experience :)
learning through iteration
we will learn to try things in the vase quickly and intuitively without being attached to a pre-conceived outcome. through many iterations we hone our attention and ultimately our skill and unique style
WHAT TO EXPECT
Worlds End School’s campus is nestled within a diversified, handscale working farm. We raise Icelandic sheep and chickens in addition to growing vegetables and flowers.
If you reserve a bedroom in the communal barn we will provide all the bedding and blankets you need.
LODGING
LODGING OPTIONS ARE FIRST COME/FIRST SERVED
1) COMMUNAL BARN - with three shared bathrooms and full electricity. There are 3 private bedrooms each with one double bed and 2 single beds in bunk-house style loft room.
2) CAMPING - there is a flat camping area in a field 5 minute walk from the COMMUNAL BARN. Bring your own tents, tarps, gear.
3) Stay OFFSITE and COMMUTE to Worlds End Farm. There is a Quality Inn & Suites 10 minutes away in Central Bridge, NY or a handful of airBnB rentals within 30min driving time.
All students will have access to shared bathrooms and our communal kitchen. There is wifi and excellent cell phone service for most networks.
COST
$1,904 includes instruction, access to the communal kitchen and lodging in a private bedroom, shared bathrooms, and NY state sales tax.
$1,400 includes instruction, access to the communal kitchen and students will camp or arrange their own lodging offsite
Payment plans available upon request; please write admin@saipua.com.
Instructors
Katie James
Katie has been crafting her language of textural tableware from a small privately shared studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Using slab built methods mixed with her unique experimentational style with utilizing collected objects, she creates humble yet substantial sculptures and vessels for everyday adornment. Working in this exploratory manner gives her the space to develop new ideas in form and function.
Sarah Ryhanen
Sarah Ryhanen is a farmer, florist, and educator working at the intersection of beauty and utility. In 2006, she opened the first Saipua studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn, selling her mother’s olive oil soap and developing a self-taught floral practice.
Over the following decade, Saipua became internationally known for its event design, helping inspire a generation of florists to work with seasonal, local, and foraged materials in asymmetrical forms.
In 2011, Ryhanen purchased Worlds End Farm to grow flowers for Saipua and to house her floristry teaching programs. By 2022, the farm had evolved into a campus supporting students engaged in land-based work, from shepherding to soapmaking.
Ryhanen now lives and works primarily at Worlds End alongside her parents and an evolving cohort of artists and farmers.