Guides
Five Scholarship Seats at the Material Lab
Three of the five classes are already sold out. The foundry week in January, the glass casting weekend in February and the one-day welding class in April all read sold out to anyone trying to pay for a spot. Each still holds one seat that money can't buy. Yucca Valley Material Lab is giving five full scholarships for its spring 2027 workshops, one in each of five named classes, and the applications are due Thursday, November 12, at 5 p.m.
That structure decides how you apply. Each scholarship is a seat in one particular class, with one particular teacher, on particular dates. Pick the class first. Then write the application for that class.
Applications due
Thursday, November 12, 2026, 5 p.m. Pacific. One full scholarship seat per class below
Jan. 15–19, 2027
Foundry Metal Casting in Bronze and Aluminum, with Chris Collins. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Listed $725; ordinary registration sold out
Feb. 19–21, 2027
Introduction to Kiln-Formed Glass Casting, with Heidi Schwegler. Listed $450; ordinary registration sold out
Apr. 9, 2027
Building Armatures: Introduction to MIG Welding, with Ethan Primason. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Listed $140; ordinary registration sold out
May 7–9, 2027
Introduction to Stone Carving, with Cara Chan. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Listed $395; bring your own stone
May 21–23, 2027
Sand Casting in Aluminum, with Paul Erschen. 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Listed $375; the May 25–27 session has no scholarship seat
The five classes
Foundry, January 15–19. Chris Collins runs five full days of metal casting, Friday through Tuesday. You make a wax model, build a ceramic shell around it, burn the wax out and pour bronze or aluminum into the space it left. Then you cut off the vents, grind, polish and patina what came out. At $725 it's the longest and most expensive class on the list, and it's sold out.
Glass, February 19–21. Heidi Schwegler, who founded the lab, teaches kiln-formed glass casting over a three-day weekend: lost-wax molds, found objects remade in glass, the arithmetic of firing schedules. Also sold out.
Steel, April 9. Ethan Primason's armature class is a single Friday. You bend and weld steel rod into a three-dimensional frame that can become sculpture or a lampshade or the skeleton for something else. No welding experience required. It's the cheapest class of the five, and it sold out anyway.
Stone, May 7–9. Cara Chan's three days with alabaster use hammers, chisels, rasps and files, and you leave with a finished carving. The lab supplies the tools. You bring your own stone. Ordinary registration is still open.
Sand casting, May 21–23. Paul Erschen teaches you to pack foundry sand around an object you bring, pull it out and fill the hollow with molten aluminum. He teaches it again May 25–27, but only the earlier session carries the scholarship seat. Ordinary registration for both sessions is still open.
Where to aim
If you're choosing on strategy, aim for a seat you can't buy. For the foundry, the glass weekend and the armature class, the scholarship is the only door left open. For stone and sand casting, you can still pay your way in if the scholarship goes to someone else. High Desert locals get 10 percent off most workshops, too.
The application is the APPLY link under the scholarship list on the workshops page at yuccavalleymaterial.org, open since October 12. Read the whole form before you apply and consider passing along the opportunity if you don't qualify yourself. We love everything going on at the Yucca Valley Material Lab and this scholarship program is no exception. A special thank you from the Pioneertown Gazette for making art accessible and keeping the workshops flowing.