RE-LIGHTING THE KILN

Kelley Chang The Advocate

With the COVID pandemic finally easing up, the MHCC Clay Club is back in full production again this year for its annual holiday ceramics sale, coming during the last week of Fall Term classes.

Headed by Mt. Hood’s ceramics director, John Hasegawa, club members can boast collective pottery experience of 50 years or more. The goods they make are top-notch and often very intricate, and part of the sales proceeds go back to the club to assist young ceramics students, as well as those art students who have an interest and are invited to participate in arranged workshops that are free to all, he said.

The Clay Club sale runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Dec. 5-8 (Monday through Thursday), in the Visual Arts Gallery (Building 19).

Hasegawa, who has led Mt. Hood’s ceramics program for five years and teaching the craft for about 17 years, noted the Clay Club is student-run.

“Everyone is welcomed to participate in the (holiday) sale and in what we do,” he said. “Part of the reason we have the is club is to keep our students interested” with the workshops and such, he added.

The sales proceeds help with hiring a few highly regarded artists to teach techniques and tricks to newer members, Hasegawa said. An example is Martha Grover, a well-respected ceramics artist from Massachusetts. She specializes in intricately created porcelain pieces she sells on her website.

Another share of the sale proceeds goes to buying new and updated equipment for the final process of producing students’ finished pieces, such as purchasing wood for their wood-fueled kiln.

Things we as a society take for granted – such as standard plates and other dishes bought from our local supermarket – take a lot of passion and labor, when done manually. Clay is something that’s inanimate but is also highly shapeable and at times has a mind and/or life of its own. Tricks and techniques are key to manipulating the clay to shape and mold to one’s liking.

There are at least three steps to the finished ceramics product: The shaping, or what the Clay Club members call “throwing”; then, the drying, painting or glazing stage; and finally, the kiln or “firing” stage.

Club member Donna Dish explained the process of the last stage of pottery.

There are three types of kiln: electric, gas, and wood. Dish said electric kilns are the most commonly used (which are fired by oxidation, and so oxygen is present, which produces a consistent product). There are gas kilns, in which there’s no oxidation and so an inconsistent product might result. Then there are wood-burning kilns, a technique that’s been used for thousands of years and that has a certain effect from their smoke which makes each piece of pottery unique.

“What goes in is mud and what comes out is vitrified glass,” said Dish. “You can’t control everything in the kiln, you have to let things unfold on its own. That’s where the magic happens.”

Dish has retired from fighting real fires for a living and has been doing pottery most of her adult life. She began at age 17 and has been throwing right up to today. Dish is one of the veteran throwers in the current MHCC ceramics class and is more than willing to teach other students the tricks and her knowledge of the craft. She said she decided to take ceramics at Mt. Hood because of its notable instructors and people surrounding the program.

“It’s prestigious and an honor to be a part of this program,” Dish said.

Among other members of the club that do exceptionally well are the Aho sisters, Ellie and Aubrie. With less than a year of throwing their pieces, their work appears at the level of someone who’s been doing it for years.

Both sisters have 4.0 grade point averages, with Aubrie majoring in welding technology and Ellie majoring in business management. They plan on moving on next fall to Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon (on the Oregon-Idaho border, about 50 miles from Boise). TVCC is a well-accredited farm and avionics school, where Aubrie plans on getting her commercial pilot’s license while Ellie plans on getting her degree in equine management. All told, the sisters demonstrate many talents and little-to-no flaws. Much like, one could say, a wellcrafted ceramic piece.