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2023/03/09 - Guild Meeting - Walking Teapot with Rebecca DeGroot

Walking Teapot with Rebecca DeGroot
  • Thursday March 9th
  • Format will be an interactive IRD
  • Zoom call opens a 6:15 for socializing
  • Meeting begins at 6:45 PM
  • Demonstration begins at 7 PM
Ready to let your imagination go?  Then we have the demo for you.  Join us for a fun filled evening with Rebecca DeGroot as she walks us through her process of making her whimsical "Walking Teapots".  

In this demonstration, Rebecca will take us through her process of creating the unique and whimsical walking teapot!   Being a teacher by day, Rebecca uses her teaching skills to present, in a very understandable, step by step way, what she is doing and why.  This approach makes it easy for all skill levels to understand her process and will help open the door to other projects of your own creation.   

After a discussion about form, aesthetics, proportions, movement and hypothetical functionality, Rebecca will go over the required tools and materials for this project.
RDG teapot 1

RDG - walking teapot 2

During this demonstration, Rebecca will discuss: 

  ●turning the body and fitted lid of the teapot

  ●where extra material will be needed and why

  ●two unique methods of creating the legs for the teapot

  ●creating the split-hollowed teapot spout

  ●creating handles for both the teapot and the lid
  ●final assembly

  ●finishing techniques and options

We hope you will join us Thursday evening March 9th for this fun and informative demonstration of Rebecca's Walking Teapots.


About our Demonstrator:

Rebecca started woodturning with her father at a very young age. Dad’s rule was simple, if she could stand on the bucket and reach the lathe, he would teach her how to turn. That is exactly what he did, and at five years old Rebecca spent her evenings in the shop turning honey dippers with her father. 

Although she knew from a young age that art was her passion, it was during middle school that she realized that this fascination and enthusiasm could be pursued as a career in teaching.


After graduating high school Rebecca decided to go to college to turn her dream of teaching into a reality.  While attending Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Rebecca found herself back in the school’s basement woodshop. Fifteen years had passed since she had spent any significant time in a woodshop, and she took back to it like reuniting with an old friend.

Since graduating in 2014 with two bachelor’s degrees in Art Education and Sculpture and Functional Art, Rebecca has spent the past seven years juggling her full-time career as an art educator and her passion for woodworking. The balance of real life and anyone’s true passion is always difficult and while Rebecca’s career in education is time consuming, she always finds time to make her way to the lathe. After a difficult day in the classroom she can’t think of a better way to relax and let off some steam. 

Rebecca finds her inspiration in various living things and objects that she interacts with regularly. Simple things like insects or even coffee cups can send her scrambling for her notepad to transform her imagination into possible projects. She’s never far from sketching strange creatures or making lists of ideas she is longing to try. Her days of teaching Art 1, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewelry, and AP 3D Studio Art are fulfilling and the passion she shares with her 
students is the same fuel that keeps her in her shop late into the evenings letting her imagination run wild. 

Follow Rebecca on Instagram here.  


RDG - Bio Shot