This was held in the Rossmoor Event Center the evening of August 23. As you can see, it was very popular with Carolyn's friends & family! Our own Mel Bricker interviewed Carolyn about her life as an artist. In addition to the many sculptures on display, there was a slideshow of other pieces, including some large public sculptures that Carolyn has created over the years - all of which was quite impressive. We had a nice selection of light refreshments, and a wonderful time was had by all who attended!

Just last week, on June 14, we had an inspiring demonstration on sculpting hands by Sandy Frank, a visiting Bay Area ceramic artist. It was extremely interesting to see how she formed the piece (of Navajo Wheel, a.k.a. Red Velvet clay) with an interior structure inside of a cylinder that she'd made with a slab. She then added to it with pinched moist clay as it was built upward and spread out into the shape of a larger-than-life hand. The fingers were all hollow, with the help of some wooden chopsticks extending out of each digit.

The 45+ members of our club who attended the meeting were quite receptive and appreciative of her skill. Sandy may be able to return to our studio to teach a workshop on figure sculpting at some point, which would be great!  Below are some pictures of her in the process of creating her sculpture of a hand.

Earlier, at the previous meeting in May, our own Carolyn Guerra demonstrated how she makes her wonderful hand-built pots with sculpted faces. Below are some pictures of finished vases she has made, and then some showing the process she uses to create them.

Since then several other CAC members have been inspired to make their own versions of ceramic planters with faces. 

Remembering our beloved Fred Chen (who passed away on January 9, 2022).

The Ceramic Club’s General Meeting on January 11, 2022 (held on Zoom) featured an informal session in honor of Fred Chen, who had passed away on January 9, 2022. Fred was such an important and well-loved member of our club! Included in this session were several of our members’ reminiscences and slideshows of Fred in our Ceramic Studio, as well as some photos of his wonderful pottery. A few photos of Fred are below. Also there's a video recording of the online memorial available for our members to view on YouTube. (Note: it’s about 31 minutes long.)
 LINK: https://youtu.be/3JdX3Up-CLo

This meeting also featured a wonderful Show & Tell session of all sorts of things made by our members in recent months – and not all of them are ceramic, since our studio is still closed. In addition to pottery and sculpture, there were handmade books, jewelry, and knitted hats & scarves, among other things! See below for some of the pictures. For a more complete version (and to see exactly who created which pieces), check out the video of this session, which is available for our members to view on YouTube – click on the link below. (Note: it’s about 30 minutes long.)
LINK: https://youtu.be/SsbEbEHn8mo

Good news about the the Ceramic Arts Club's Open Studio sale on December 5;, which was held outside of the studio's front door. CAC cleared $925 for our club in the 4 hours of the sale! The five CAC members with their own sale tables did well, too - and of course all of them contributed 10% of their sales total to the club. Unfortunately, due to changing COVID-19 conditions and new lockdown orders, the second day of the sale - which had been planned for December 9 - was canceled.

The Show & Tell session at last week’s CAC Zoom meeting (attended by over 40 CAC people on December 15), was amazingly varied and lots of fun to watch. If you missed it (or want to watch it again), you can view that part of the meeting on YouTube, thanks to Linda Mariano. (FYI: it’s private & can only be located via our link.) Here is the link to the video: ​https://youtu.be/dRVIqydOBh4

Below are some of the artworks that were shown during the last meeting's Show & Tell. First off, Amy Pitt's beautiful (and delicious) challah loaf, and Anne Shulenberger's second piece in the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle, which was created using various ceramic odd & ends as well as some cut-up images of her old artwork, all mounted on one of her own ceramic platters.

Hetta Malone, one of the people in our latest Orientation Class (which was interrupted by the pandemic/lockdown), shared some of her beautiful photographs.

Mary Ann Stanley shared her story of ceramic loss and redemption. Below left is a photo of a ceramic sculpture by the artist Barbara Sebastian, which she purchased several years ago at one of the CAC's Fall Bazaars. The center photo shows its downfall as the result of a small earthquake. On the right is Mary Ann's reconstruction of the piece into its current wabi-sabi incarnation. What drama - with an excellent ending!

Pat Hanscom's wonderful paper sculptures, below on the left & center, are made out of old/recycled paper that she had collected. The leftmost one is her "Green Man," and was created for the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle.

Shown below on the right, Patty Taylor shared 4 of her beautiful ceramic faces decorated with several different non-traditional materials, including "Buff & Rub" (metallic wax), acrylic paint, and fingernail polish. Her preferred methods are pit-fire, saggar or raku fire, but with the studio closed and all the usual materials/equipment unavailable, she has been experimenting - with amazing results. Can't keep a good artist down!

On the left below are two views of Kathy Jepson's intriguing ceramic sculptures: a tree and a portrait bust (both unfinished).

And from Theresa Kuo: "Here's my contribution to the Show and Tell on the 15th.  I felted the slippers from rovings that were left over from spinning wool.  The felting is not as tight as it should be, but at least they fit, unlike the first pair.  The first pair would have been perfect if I had one foot size 9 and the other size 4.  The soles are from leather scraps a friend gave me years ago.  Being a pack rat has its advantages!" 

Theresa is such a versatile artist/craftswoman!

Terri Snyder shared two paintings and a hanging sculpture, all of them created as Art Tag projects. Both of the paintings are on the earlier subject "Shelter," while the sculptural piece is for the current "Trashformations" Art Tag cycle. Love what she's doing!

Carolyn Tertes, a member of our latest Orientation Class (which was interrupted by the pandemic/lockdown), shared an intriguing wall installation that she's been working on during the lockdown. The long view of it is below on the left - you can see more detail by going to the video of the Show & Tell session (the link to that is above, in the 2nd paragraph from the top).

Jim Anderson contributed the photo of his darts hitting the bullseye, below right. During normal times he likes to compete with others in local pubs, but since March he has been honing his skills at home. Looks like it's paying off, too!

Sue Wetzler shared two images during the online Show & Tell: a beautiful photo taken on a hike in the mountains, and a charming little sgrafitto plaque she made, which was recently bisque-fired.

It's been a busy winter & spring! We've recently had another Orientation Class and welcomed 14 new members. Several local clay artists from outside of Rossmoor have demonstrated interesting techniques at our club meetings. There have been two Beginning Wheel classes of 4 sessions each (today is the last day).

In addition, many of our members have made beautiful bowls to donate for the upcoming Empty Bowls fundraiser coming next month (April 18). Also lots of pottery and a number of beautiful and/or quirky sculptures have been created in our studio. Last but not least, some of our folks have brought their pieces to share at our monthly Show & Tell sessions. See below for just a taste of it!

We have a new crop of folks taking the Orientation class at present, see below. Plenty of enthusiasm! The club is ready to welcome them when they join at the last session - next week, August 26 to be exact. (NOTE: the blonde in the pink sweater is Linda M., our Orientation teacher.)

We've also just finished having a sculpture class taught by our own Darryla and Patty (they are shown together in the first photo below). In addition to the sculpting of figures and heads, they've been demonstrating very interesting ways to decorate the surface of the pieces. Another such class will be offered in the future, but the dates are still to be determined.

We should have a really cool Show at Tell next week - sculptures as well as pottery! By the way, it'll be from 3 to 4 on August 26, rather than our usual time of 11 to 12:30 (this is because the Orientation Class's last session is from 10 to 2 that same day).

Three carloads of CAC members (11 of us) went to Davis last weekend to see the annual Ceramic Arts Conference's shows. There were literally dozens of galleries and other venues with special displays of ceramic sculpture and pottery - very inspiring! Below is a link to view a really wide selection of over 170 photos taken during this expedition by Jean C. & Anne S. (just click on it).

DAVIS PIX

Lots of interesting things happening in the CAC studio lately - see below. Folks have been sculpting, learning to throw on the wheel, sharing their work in Show & Tell, finding out  how to glaze for raku firing, etc. We always have a lot of fun in the studio!

Bob Pool gave us an interesting demonstration of using ceramic stamps and inlaid slip to make beautiful designs on pottery last week. He also showed how to cut facets into a round wheel-thrown vase, making squared sides. In the process Bob shared some fascinating Asian ceramic techniques and history he's gleaned from the working trips he takes to Korea (and sometimes Japan or China) on an annual basis. Below are photos of two of his finished pots, as well as the one he was working on while he was with us (that's the one on the right - shown when it's dry and has been sanded, but hasn't been fired yet). He does beautiful work!

We have welcomed a new crop of Orientation students to the CAC studio this month. Their final session will be next week (Thursday, Feb 4 - from 10 am to 2 pm), at which point they may join the club if they wish! As you can see from the photos below, Linda has done a good job of teaching them about working with clay. Next week, they'll find out about the glazing process. They are an excellent group, and we're glad to have them with us!

Some interesting sculptures have been created by our members recently, as you can see by these photos of Elaine and Estelle with their artwork.