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FEATURES
Senior Elyse Makar creates pottery and other clay-based art in her free time. BY JENNA BARACKMAN MANAGING WEB EDITOR
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pending hours alone in a basement fashioning a lump of clay into mugs and figurines can be physically exhausting. One false move of her fingers or her tools and her clay creation is ruined. She’s learned, however, from a young age and with a long history of pottery, how to keep her
hands steady. For senior Elyse Makar, working with clay is a stress reliever and a relaxing end of the day activity. “I always feel really relaxed, and I just use it as a time to disassociate and make something I’m excited about,” Makar said. “Usually after a long day at work or school, it’s nice to be able to just exist on my own and do something for myself.” Almost every night, Makar sits in her “home pottery studio” and creates mugs with monster features like teeth and spikes, planters and “ooglies,” which are clay monsters with interchangeable features. “The monster mugs are definitely my favorite things to make,” Makar said. “They usually only
take me 30 minutes to make and none of them look the same.” On as many Fridays as she can, Makar attends an event night hosted by KC Clay Guild in Brookside with friends, where she can use any pottery wheels and supplies for $5. Senior Peyton Wade goes with Makar when she can. “It’s definitely a relaxing and fun time for both of us,” Wade said. “I’ll look over at her work, and it’s just amazing- she’s totally in the zone.” Makar has been doing pottery on and off since eighth grade on her own, and has been working with clay since she was very young. Her mother, Christie Makar, enjoys seeing her work improve and watching her creatively branch out with the clay creations. “Since Elyse was young, we have been painting pottery or making things with clay,” Christie said. “Lately she had been doing some interesting hand-building projects, which are really fun and creative.” Makar plans to begin selling her products soon and is even considering setting up an Etsy account to sell her clay concoctions. Wade plans to assist her with this, as well as purchase products as soon as they are for sale. “I love watching her work, and I genuinely love what she makes,” Wade said. “You don’t see a lot of mugs or planters like the kind she makes, and I think the passion she puts into it will make her a lot of money.”
Elyse's CreationS
(All photos by Jenna Barackman)
How to Make a Mug
ROLL OUT & WEDGE
BEGIN TO SHAPE
PUT CLAY ON THE WHEEL AND WET
CENTER
INDENT
SHAPE MUG TO YOUR LIKING
FEBRUARY 2020
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