Arts Center adds raku firings to its activities

Posted Aug. 13, 2012

In case you missed the Fire in the Hole Community Clay experience ….

We had a great time seeing raku artist and Continental Clay Glaze Chemist Mark Lusardi demonstrate a raku firing. What’s even better is everyone who wanted to glaze a piece and see it fired was able to see the magic happen. I loved seeing the same tile blanks come out looking entirely different based on each person’s unique choice of glaze and method of application.

What’s even better is Mark, the artist, found and retrofitted and old kiln for the Arts Center to keep so we can repeat the demonstration, have classes and expand our ceramic program to include raku. Yahoo!

This video on our blog (http://bit.ly/TzTVGe) shows our new kiln at work and a small bit of the action. We can’t thank Mark and his daughter Laura enough for their generosity. They made the long drive, brought all the equipment, the unglazed tiles, glazes, and the retrofitted kilns. They went out of their way to share their knowledge and time and this isn’t even the half of it — their efforts were well beyond expectations. We thank them immensely!

Deb Carlson and Karen Anderson of Devils Lake recommended Mark and they came down to assist. They also received a retrofitted kiln and I can see some great collaborations in the making with these two, energetic and enthusiastic women who teach at Lake Region State College and Devils Lake High School. A word of caution though, next time Karen better wear something other than flip-flops or her toes are going to be toast!

I can’t wait to try this again. We still have a few purchases to make like tongs, gloves, a pyrometer and if our friends in the fire department have any old fire jackets they could donate to keep us safe it would be most appreciated. So if this looks and sounds fun, give us a call and we’ll get busy on organizing a class.

Jeppson is the gallery

manager at the Arts

Center and blogs at

theartscenter.areavoices.com

Tags: diversions, arts