In this hands-on workshop with ceramic artist and lamp maker Charlie Dumais, you’ll spend the first few days exploring slab-building techniques to create simple test forms, experimenting with rolled patterns, perforations, additions, and alterations. These exercises will build toward designing and constructing your own lamp base or lantern, with Charlie guiding you step by step and demonstrating how to wire it. Along the way, you’ll develop maquettes, refine your ideas, and gain confidence in translating clay experiments into functional, sculptural lighting. Each participant will receive a lamp kit to finish their piece at home once it’s fired and shipped, with the option to join a follow-up Zoom session for additional support. The week balances structured lessons with plenty of open studio time and the chance to explore the beauty of Fogo Island in summer.
Charlie Dumais is a ceramic artist based in Litchfield, Connecticut,specializing in handmade lamps, objects, and accessories. Founded in 2017, the studio began as a hobby, a small series of lamps conceived by Charlie outside his work as lighting designer. Inspired by modernist sculpture and rendered in muted colors and natural textures, these simple, straightforward pieces explored the rituals around living with light.
Over the past eight years, Dumais Made has grown and evolved. A team of six now produces lamps, pendants, sconces, tables, mirrors and other accessories. And, while styles have become more playful and techniques more refined—a reflection of this artistic collective—each piece (overseen by Charlie from start to finish) remains true to the first: a tactile object that reveals its character the longer you live with it.
