Emily Smucker-Beidler said that she doesn't know if she prefers teaching art or being an artist.

The West Hempfield Township resident will be able to do both during the hands-on Redware Ornaments Workshop, which will be held Saturday, Jan. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon in the Mennonite Life Community Room, 2215 Millstream Road, Lancaster. The event is for people 13 years old and up.

There is a fee to participate; Mennonite Life members receive a discount on tickets. The cost of materials is included. Anyone who wishes to take part must register at https://mennonitelife.org/events by Thursday, Jan. 15.

Guests will make their own redware ornaments that they can pick up at Mennonite Life four weeks after the activity.

"Redware refers to the kind of clay which was used by the early American potters," Smucker-Beidler said. "Many of them were farmers, and they would find a vein of clay in their field. The legend is that they would walk around the field, and wherever it didn't make a footprint they knew that there was clay underneath there. They'd dig up that clay and process it and make it into functional items. This was something that was brought over from Europe, but it's a very early American craft. They needed functional items to use. They started making pottery, and the potters would make it and then sell it."

Smucker-Beidler explained how the process works. "In my workshops, everyone has a prepared slab of clay," she said. "The slab has been rolled out, smoothed, painted with the white slip (which is watered-down clay), and gotten to a point where it is what we call cheddar cheese-hard or leather-hard. That means that it's not floppy, it's not wet, but it's not so hard that it's going to break off in chunks. It's that sweet spot where you can take the cookie cutters and cut out the shapes that you want for your ornaments."

Attendees may use their own design or choose one of Smucker-Beidler's suggestions. "I have handouts of traditional Pennsylvania German designs that were used on actual pottery in the 1700s, and I show how to transfer those designs and start carving them," she said. "I think it's important when you're learning these traditional crafts that you go back to the source, so I made an image collection, and these are all images from the 1700s and 1800s. I have just a little talk that goes along with these, so people can understand the history and what was involved in it and just how amazing some of these early American redware potters were."

If you select one of the designs found in the books, Smucker-Beidler encourages adding some personal touches. "We talk about how to take those traditional designs that I've copied from some of them and how to make them your own," she said. "The first step in a folk art is learning what has come before us, but the real step where you're really showing your individuality is when you take that and make it your own in some way. I'm amazed at how different all of the ornaments look after people take my class, and I get ideas as an artist as well."

Smucker-Beidler is retired after a 33-year teaching career, which included stints at Landisville Primary Center and York Suburban High School. "I had access to all of the supplies, and as I've just really delved into the Pennsylvania German traditions and folk arts and especially the visual imagery," she said. "All of that media was there for me to play with, to see how it translated, and I wanted to learn the history to teach my students the history of what they were doing."

Smucker-Beidler now holds a variety of workshops, with 11 scheduled between now and March 14. "I've had some great experiences with a grandparent bringing a grandchild and the two of them doing a workshop together, (as well as) mothers and daughters," Smucker-Beidler said. "I love that intergenerational feel of having a lot of people learning things together, that it's an experience that they've shared. Not only does it teach them something new, but it builds their relationship."

For more information about those seminars, go to @emilyfraktur on Instagram, search for "Emily_Smucker_Beidler" on Facebook, or email emilysbart@gmail.com.

"I've been able to teach learners from all different ages," she said. "There are some things that are different about each age, but there are some things that are the same."

Smucker-Beidler is aiming to stop the stereotypes. "One of the things that I find with the adults that come to my workshops is we all have these preconceived notions of what an artist is and whether we consider ourselves an artist or not," she said. "I like to break through that and create a supportive learning environment where people can come and just learn a little history and create something that they didn't even know was in them. That's the joy for it for me."