Blog Posts - the Rossmoor Ceramic arts club

The Ceramic Arts Cub's Holiday Party - 2019!

12/19/2019

We had a lovely Holiday Party at the Event Center on December 10 - many thanks are due to Susan Kline, Judy Russell, CAC President Mary Ann Stanley, and many many others who volunteered their time and energy to make it so much fun!

We dressed up, we ate (and drank) very well, we played a game (Bingo!), sang (and acted out) holiday songs, were treated to to a unique & marvelous folk concert (by CAC member Doc King & cohorts) and had a raffle (with lots of prizes, big & small).

Each CAC member received a special booklet as the CAC's gift, with 8 pages of wonderful essays about ceramics and life by Mel Bricker, our Club Correspondent to the Rossmoor News. (Note: the photos below, mostly taken by Patty Taylor, plus several taken by Barbara Wightman, are in no particular order.)

Pit Fire 2019 part 2 - the pieces that emerged from the flames

5/29/2019

The photos in this first slideshow were taken the day we unloaded our pieces - May 16. Lots of beautiful pots and sculptures came out of the fire! After unloading, sorting & cleaning up, we had a wonderful potluck lunch right there in the studio, among our new treasures.

Here are more photos of our new crop of pit-fired ceramic pieces, taken after the day they were unloaded. Some of these pieces have been featured in the display window that was installed on May 20, the Monday following the firing. They will be there through June 9 - come down and see them if you can!

PIT FIRE 2019 - it was a great one!

5/27/2019

The scheduled day was changed due to rain in the forecast - we loaded & fired a day early, on May 14. See the preparation of the pit and the loading of our pieces (many of them wrapped in newspaper) into it in the slideshow below.

Here's another slideshow of the Pit Fire Team (led by Patty and her assistants, John T. & Judy R.) as they are sprinkling it all with salt and copper carbonate, putting on cow patties and seaweed, adding crumpled newspaper & kindling wood, then stacking firewood logs on top of everything.

With everything loaded & ready, here they are placing metal pipes over the pit - and then we had our ceremonial blessing of the pit (led by Darryla).

Now comes the lighting of the pit, the fire blazing up & then subsiding into smoldering embers, and finally the whole pit is covered with metal sheets. Everything is left that way for 2 days. (See our next post for results of the Pit Fire.)

January Featured artist - Photos from our December 2018 Holiday party

1/11/2019

We have a wonderful new window display for January, including a new Featured Artist, Caralee Cowen - come down and see!

Here's a slideshow of photos from our party in December, which was a great success!

Sculpture class - new Featured Artist display in the window

9/27/2018

Here are a few photos from our recent Portrait Sculpture class, taught by Jia Jun Lu. It was a great experience, and quite a lot of good sculpture was the result! Most of them have not been fired and finished yet (ceramic art takes time and patience), so check back here for more images in a future post. To be continued...

The very talented Linda Mariano is currently our Featured Artist. Below is the Rossmoor News article about her. Linda's beautiful ceramic artwork will be in the window through October 7 - come on down and see it!

what's happening - new Featured Artist - new group of Orientation students - ceramic artists at Show & Tell, etc

8/26/2018

The bright and whimsical creations of Judy Johnson grace our "Featured Artist" windows this month - see the Rossmoor News article just below. They'll be on view through September 9, so be sure to come on down to the Gateway Plaza and take a look at the Ceramic Studio's display windows!

Here are a few more photos of people & things happening around the studio, in a slideshow format. Included are some of our members showing their work, looking at one another's art, and playing in clay with grandchildren, as well as a new crop of Orientation students being shown the ropes. We now have 16 new members!

(NOTE: some of the thumbnail images underneath may appear to be upside down or sideways, but when you click on one or start the slideshow they will all be right side up.)

Two CAC Featured Artists - for June, July and August

7/21/2018

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Above is the Rossmoor News article about the current CAC Featured Artist, Janet Welch. Below is the article about our previous Featured Artist, Diana St, James. We are very lucky to have such talented people in the Ceramic Club! Keep an eye on our display windows; the next time the display will change is August 13 - and there will be a new Featured Artist then.

Featured artist for May/June 2018 - more Pit Fire photos

5/31/2018

John Terlip is currently the CAC member with a Featured Artist display in one of our studio's windows. The pots are beautiful and unique and have sparked a lot of interest. They will be there through June 10, when all of the window displays are to be changed. Hope you have the chance to see them!

Shown here - the pit on Friday May 11, when it was about to be unloaded. [Thanks are due to Ralph Atkins, a friend of CAC, who took all of the pictures below.]

And here are some photos of what came out of that pit - interesting things, beautiful colors! (See our previous post for more photos from this year's Pit Fire.)

Pit Fire 2018 - a really good one!

5/16/2018

It was great! Wednesday May 9 was a beautiful day and the loading of the pit went very well.. see below. (Note: the photos are NOT in chronological order.)

Be sure to keep on scrolling down for pictures of the firing. then the unloading, plus some of the results of the Pit Fire. Also, more of the pieces will be shown in a future post, so stay tuned!

Okay - the firing of the pit was next. This is always dramatic! It happened around noon to 1:30 pm.

Unloading of the pit was done two days later, on Friday May 11 (first picture below). It was like an excellent archeological dig! And here are some of the results, right after everything was unloaded. Lots of nice color, and most people were quite happy!

another Featured Artist article

5/7/2018

Here's the Rossmoor News article about Anne Shulenberger, the artist whose sculpture is currently in the studio's window. It will be changed next Monday (May 14), to feature the beautiful pottery of John Terlip. So stay tuned!