The Experience
A Week of Clay by the Atlantic
Shaped by the Coast is a hand-building ceramics retreat for people who already work in clay. It runs for a week on the Portuguese coast in late September, led by Clara Rêgo, a ceramicist from Porto whose pieces look like they were found on a rock at low tide. There is no wheel. You build by hand, at a larger scale than you would usually attempt, and you take your forms from what is around you.
Each morning starts with a walk. You collect what catches your eye: a shell, a piece of bark, a stone worn smooth by the sea. Back in the studio you work from those textures, and Clara works alongside you on the things that separate a competent piece from a living one: structure at scale, surface, the decision to stop. The week is meant to move your practice, not to introduce it.
The coast does the designing. Your hands do the rest.
The Timetable
Dates & Duration
- Dates — late September 2027, to be confirmed
- Season — early autumn
- Duration — 7 Days / 6 Nights
- Group Size — 6–8 guests
- Level — intermediate and advanced, for makers with an existing clay practice
- From — €4,350 per person, final price with the venue
- Status — Coming soon, booking opens later this year
The Creation
What You’ll Carry Home
You go home with two or three finished sculptural pieces, fired and glazed, wrapped for the flight. At least one of them will be bigger and stranger than what you make at home. You also take home a painted tile from the azulejo day, a set of texture tests you can keep working from, and a clearer sense of where your own work wants to go next.
- Daily studio sessions with Clara, in a group of eight at most
- Clara’s methods for structure, surface and texture at scale, shared one on one as your piece needs them
- A day of Portuguese tile painting, the one gesture of the week that is purely local
- Your pieces fired and glazed before you leave, with a glazing session on the last studio day and Clara’s own glaze tests to draw on
A note on level. This week assumes you already know your way around clay. You should be comfortable building a hollow form by hand and have some experience with glazing. If you are just starting out, our other retreats are a better first step, and so are Clara’s beginner workshops in Lisbon.
The Sanctuary
Where You’ll Stay
We are choosing the house now. It will be on the Atlantic coast of Portugal, within walking distance of the sea, with a studio space where the clay can stay out all week and a kiln nearby for the firings. Private rooms, meals cooked on site, and enough quiet around the house to sit with a piece and think. We will announce the venue here and by email as soon as it is confirmed.
- Region — Atlantic coast of Portugal, venue to be announced
- Rooms — private rooms for every guest
- Dining — breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dietary requirements catered for
- Getting there — Lisbon or Porto, depending on the venue
Guided by People Who Care
Clara Rêgo — Ceramicist
Clara is a visual artist from Porto who works in ceramics and tiles. She builds her pieces by hand, without a wheel, and takes her shapes from corals, rocks, minerals and fungi, and from the strange geometry of things seen under a microscope. She thinks of them as small totems, each with a presence of its own. Her work has been shown in Lisbon and Porto and she is a member of the Homo Faber Guide and of Portugal Manual.
She trained in fine art in London and in ceramics and illustration in Porto and Guimarães. She has taught hand-building to small groups for years, and she leads community tile murals with towns and libraries in the north of Portugal. She teaches beginners in her own studio, but this week is built for makers who already have a practice and want to take it somewhere new.
Hosted by TerraGo. Our retreats are fully curated with dedicated concierge hosts on site, taking care of all scheduling details, food setups, and translation support.
Inclusions
What the ceramics retreat in Portugal includes
Included
- Six nights in a private room
- All studio sessions with Clara throughout the week
- Clay, tools, glazes, tiles and all firings
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Morning walks along the coast
- Packing materials for your finished pieces
- Dedicated TerraGo concierge support
Not included
- Airfare to and from Portugal
- Transfers between the airport and the venue
- Comprehensive personal travel insurance
- Any optional activities outside the specified itinerary
The Journey
The Rhythm of The Week
The exact schedule will follow once the venue is confirmed. Each day has the same shape: a walk after breakfast, a long studio session before lunch, free time in the afternoon, and a shorter session before dinner for those who want to keep going. Clay needs drying time between steps, so the week has a natural pace built in.
The week is built around long stretches at the table. You build by hand, at a scale that needs time, with Clara alongside for the parts that decide whether a piece survives the kiln. One day goes to painting azulejo, and the afternoons leave room for the coast, which is where the textures come from.
The venue is not confirmed yet, so the details of the week may still change. What will not change is the shape: mornings and afternoons of making, one day away from the table, and a last evening with the glazed work out on the table together.
- Mornings — Hand building with Clara, long sessions with breaks.
- Afternoons — More time at the table, or out on the coast gathering textures.
- Evenings — Dinner together, and the kiln to talk about.
The full week will be published once the venue is confirmed.
Pricing
Pricing & Payment
- Guide price — from €4,350 per person, not final yet
Further Reading
Before You Come
- Portugal for Makers, a Complete Travel Guide. How to get here and what to plan around your week.
- Craft Retreats in Europe in 2027 for Makers Traveling from the US. What the trip looks like if you are flying in from the US.
- What Actually Happens at a Knitting Retreat. The rhythm of a TerraGo week, told through our knitting retreats.
Other Retreats
- The Poetic Life. A beginner’s poetry retreat in the Douro Valley, spring 2027.
- Colourwork Knitting Retreat in the Algarve. A week of colour by the Atlantic at Carrapateira, May 2027.
- Knit the Landscape. A week of colour in the dunes outside Bergen, September 2027.
Before You Book
What to Know First
This one is not for beginners. It asks for an existing practice, because the work is sculptural and built at scale.
- Experience — Intermediate and advanced makers, with a clay practice of your own.
- What you make — Sculptural hand built pieces, plus one day of Portuguese tile painting.
- Places — Six to eight guests.
- Where things stand — We are still choosing the house and shaping the week with Clara.
- Booking — Opens once the venue is confirmed. People on the list hear first.
- From — €4,350 per person, the final price to be set with the venue.
Want to be told first? Leave your email and we will write to you when booking opens.
