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MARCH, 2019 THE OFFICIAL CLAY ARTS GUILD NEWSLETTER
KILN’ TIME
Continued on page 3
You can now sign up to participate in the Annual CAG Pottery Sale May 3-5, 2019!
I will be sending out an invitation to participate in the sale from SignUp-Genius. Please watch for it to come and if you don’t get it, check your spam folder.
When signing up, please consider volunteering to do a hand building or wheel throwing demo. If you like to work with clay and don’t mind talking to people you are more than qualified! This is a great way to bring people into the studio, and adults and kids alike LOVE demos!
Everyone is encouraged to participate! Even if you don’t have enough inventory to sell this year, please consider signing up to help with the sale. And, everybody, please take a stack of postcards to distribute to your friends and neighbors.
CAG SPRING SALEMAY 3, 4 and 5
By Patricia Alger, Sales Chair
THE CLAY ARTS GUILD SPRING
SALE IS ON!MAY 3, 4 & 5, 2019
Studio E ~ Civic Park in Downtown Walnut Creek
• Ceramic Art for your Home, Patio & Garden
• Selection of Work from Many Clay Artists• Wheel & Hand-building Demos
• Free Raffle of Beautiful Handmade Pottery
Spring Pottery Sale
The Marriage of Form and Finish enticed 37 CAG entries for the spring clay contest held in the studio on Saturday, March 9.
The winners in each category are:• Best Wheel Thrown – Karen “Hilde” Hildebrand;• Best Handbuilt – Joan Ibarolle• Judge’s Choice (Best in Show) – Donna Cowan• Most Imaginative – Mimi Wild• Best Surface and People’s Choice – Melanie Walas (photo below)
Each winner received gift certifi-cates and a jar of underglaze.
Judge Malia Landis, a profes-sional potter, sculptor and teacher who lives in Crockett, said she was impressed by the quality of the work. “There are wonderful sur-faces and a lot of humor,” she said.
CAG Spring Contest
By Jeanie Wakeland
Continued on page 3
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Message from the CAG Prez ...
Kiln’ Time Newsletter
Published 5 or 6 times a year
Editor ~ Jane BurnsPlease submit all articles to Jane
Visit our website:www.wcclayartsguild.com
See the latest Kiln’ Times in full color!
MEMBERS of the BOARDPresident: Bette Sindzinski
[email protected] President: Pat Alger
[email protected]. Officer: Aletha Biederman-Wiens
[email protected]: Millie Robinson
[email protected]: Ann Henderson
[email protected]: Aletha Biederman-Wiens
[email protected] Media:Facebook:
Instagram: Etienne [email protected]
Hospitality: Betty [email protected]: Erika [email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Jane [email protected]
Layout Editor: Mary Leigh [email protected]
Curator: Florence [email protected]
Data Base Manager:Gary Guglielmino
[email protected] Master: Brad [email protected]
CAG Website: Colleen [email protected]
Educational/Social Event Coord:Donna Cowan
[email protected] Outreach:
Bette [email protected] Bowls: Mona [email protected]
I thought I would take this newsletter to update you on some meetings and some happenings within our CAG community.
On Feb 26, the CAG Board and several Com-munity Arts staff met to discuss the relationship (past, present, and future) of the CAG and the Community Arts organization. We looked at the
long history starting in 1965, moving to the current location in 1979, and continuing till present and discussed roles and responsibilities of both the studio management and Clay Arts Guild. We addressed what we can do to support each other, what is CAG involved in, etc.
CAG Roles Discussed:• Studio Community Building: teacher luncheons, Newsletter, Mem-
bership events, TA lectures, contests, teacher appreciation.• CAG Sales: planning, coordination and communication.• Fundraising: purchase of equipment for the studio, scholarships, and
bowls for Empty Bowls Contra Costa foodbank fundraiser.• Volunteers for Outreach: community events, eg: Adult Art After Dark,
The Family Arts Day, Empty Bowls Project, STEAM for Parkmead elementary school, Octoberfest and Pop Up Sales, at the park outside our studio.
• Studio responsibilities including studio monitors for open studio, and cleaning of the studio at the end of each session of classes.
• The Library.
Community Arts Roles Discussed: • Programming: new, innovative, classes and workshops; deciding
the capacity of the studio ie number of student and amount of ware produced.
• Need to set programs, classes, workshops, calendar.• Instructors: hiring, communication.• Marketing – promoting events.• Set safety standards so the studio is a safe place for all.• Studio Manager’s role in the following areas: • Management of studio, i.e. supplies, function, firings, etc.• Three-year plan for studio needs.• Management of the instructors: communication, accountability,
scheduling, feed back.• Manage ment of studio needs, i.e. conferences, Master Potters, Shows
(Davis). Continued on page 6
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continued from front pageCAG SPRING SALE
Here are a few key dates and information to keep in mind:
INVENTORYInventories are due on Friday, April 19, at end of day.
Email completed inventory to: [email protected] PRICE TAGS
Available at the studio on Friday, April 26.RAFFLE
We will once again have a raffle of a few donated pieces. If you would like to donate, please leave it in the library with “CAG Sale Raffle” and YOUR NAME marked on it. Donating a piece of your beautiful collection will encourage people to shop longer, and will entice people to seek out your table!
ARTIST CHECK-INThursday, May 2, 1 pm to 7 pm
Friday, May 3, 1 pm to 4 pmPlease bring your signed sale agreement and a self addressed stamped envelope. Come in any time during check-in hours to set up your space. Spaces are assigned by lottery. Tables will be covered by grey tablecloths.
WORK SHIFTSPlease sign up for shifts according to your expected inventory:
One shift for 1-20 itemsTwo shifts for 21 items and up
AFTER SALEEveryone is required to help clean-up the sale and put the studio back to the original configuration. Please plan on 2 hours after sale, but last sale it only took us an hour!
You will be mailed a check for your sales (minus 25%, which goes to CAG) approximately two weeks after the sale.
Thanks, Patricia Alger
Many workshift slots have filled, but there is still plenty of room on Saturday evening or Sunday morning if you would like to participate this year.
We will have a $10 and under shelf, so please make sure to include those items in your inventory as well as the pieces you will place on your table.
If you didn’t receive the sign-up link from SignUpGenius or need it to be resent, let Pat know. Email her at:
The winning entries will be dis-played in the studio window throughout March.
Many thanks to Donna Cowan for organizing the event and to Mary Ellen Brownell for setting up the window display.
CONTEST, continued from front page
Most Imaginative
BestWheel
Thrown
BestHandbuilt
Judge’s Choice
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Bette
The Mud FairyWho is this wonderful person?
Studio members keep asking me about this “mud fairy” coupon that shows up in lockers. These “coupons” say they are good for a bag of clay and are to be redeemed by any teacher. For the last year and a half or so, these coupons have appeared throughout the quarter in different peo-ples lockers. Some members thought they were coupons given out to students who had been at the studio for a long period of time. However, about 6 months ago, a student who was brand new to the studio asked me about the coupon he found in his locker.
So, It seems that there is some impish fun loving person at work. Even thought it would have been a good idea for the CAG Board members to do this, we in fact have nothing to do with it. For a long time people thought the coupons came from Gregory, but alas, he is no longer here and they keep showing up.
It seems that the coupons show up randomly, hav-ing the locker number and the name of the person who has that locker on the coupon. SO, it is a real tease and puzzle.
If you know the name of the Mud Fairy, I would love to know so we could thank them. Although I have not gotten a coupon, I think it is a fun and very positive thing. It has not been my idea, al-though I do wish I would have thought of it.
If you are the “Mud Fairy”, please let me know and I will BUY YOU two bags of clay just for your kindness. And I
promise not to post your name in the newsletter.
by Clarice Judah
Clarice received a free bag of clay for her Hot Tip. Now it is your turn! You need to try out your hot tip, write about it and send to Ann Henderson, [email protected]. If you learned about it from someone else, read it in a book or on the internet, please give credit where credit is due, but the free bag of clay is yours if published. An accompanying photo is always welcome.
The goal of this tip is to trim your pieces of pottery by creating your own chuck with wet clay without allowing the sides of your leather hard piece to touch the wet clay. First, choose a lump of clay appropriate to undertake this procedure. Center the wet clay and form a hole into which your piece fits. Find the ap-proximate depth and width your piece will need to nest, hold it securely and expose the portion that needs trimming.
Place a thin sheet of plastic (such as a dry clean-er’s plastic bag) into the hole you have created in the lump of clay. Place your piece inside the open-ing and double-check that it’s centered inside your home-made chuck. Trim as usual.
Tip for Centering Small to Medium-Sized Items without
a Pre-Made Chuck.
HOT TIP!
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Library Notes By Librarian, Aletha Wiens
Valentine’s day was a special day for Jean Calicura, the most senior member of the Clay Arts Guild. Since it was also her birthday, her class surprised her with a cake, chocolate of course – her favorite. Everyone in the class enjoyed the sweet treat celebration.
Jean has been a valued member of CAG for over 20 years. A multi-talented artist, Jean was a singer in her youth and came from a family interested in the arts. Her brother, a sculptor, once had one of his pieces right outside the studio door. We have been fortunate to engage the interest of her husband, Rick, who set up the database for our membership and donated a MAC computer the Guild used to use.
To Jean, our long t ime classmate and CAG member, we say Happy Birthday!
Jean Calicura’sBirthday!
The World of Japanese Ceramicsby Herbert H Sanders, 1967
“The hundreds of photos in this book speak thousands of words. It’s a complete resource for a wide audience. The text provides a flow-ing documentary and informative overview of the historical and modern Japanese ceramic world. The technical information for the pot-
ter, including glaze formulas, glaze color chart, firing temperature, and the American equivalents of Japanese glaze compositions is extensive. Students of art history will find valuable material concern-ing the production techniques of ancient Oriental wares. This book is the most extensive and complete, with the most photos, of any book I’ve found so far on Japanese ceramics.”
That is a very polite Amazon review for a 52 year old book. No wonder the CAG library has 4 or 5 copies of this book. However, it is not set up in a modern format, since the color plates are all together, and the black and white photographs are often difficult to interpret.
I quote from the “To Students of Pottery” by Shoji Hamada, which opens the book:
“…The rapid increase of students in the United States aspir-ing to become potters in the last decade or more is amazing. However, to be quite frank, the advances made in the field of pottery techniques in general, to my regret, are not as rapid. One reason for this, I feel, is the recent overly heavy emphasis on design, and the lack of experience and work in basic pottery techniques. Of course, a lack of technique makes the produc-tion of radical variations in ceramic form and color easier, but too often this lack results in the creative intention ending in destruction….
“In Japan, an artist …has been trained in basic pottery tech-niques….Although the Japanese potter may be committed to creating abstract forms, he is bound to the conventional techniques and is not able to veer radically away from them. In Japan, therefore, the potter must take care not to remain sub-merged in empty repetitions of traditional techniques.”
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Colleen Whitman was born just down the road at Kaiser Walnut Creek, but grew up in beautiful Sonoma County. Her pas-sions for travel and culture drew her to Switzerland where she earned a BA in International Relations.
After earning her MA in International Conflict Anal-ysis and working in the nonprofit sector she followed her heart to Madrid, Spain where she married her Spanish husband and their two children were born.
Two years ago, they relocated to the East Bay to be closer to her family. Colleen has put her profes-sional career on hold to be a full-time mom to her two young children, Zoe and Tomas. In her free time, she enjoys cooking traditional Spanish dishes, gardening, and rediscovering the Bay Area as an adult. She also loves to discuss the virtues of extra virgin olive oil, after becoming a certified EVOO analyst and taster (similar to a wine sommelier).
Colleen is new to making ceramics but has always appreciated beautiful pottery, collecting pieces from her travels in Spain, Italy and Morocco. She is excited to get more involved with CAG by keeping the website up to date.
Meet COLLEEN WHITMAN
CAG’s Website CoordinatorThe Center for Community Arts asked CAG for vol-unteers to help with their Arts After Dark event on March 8, 2019. We had six volunteers, who offered hand building with clay and staffed a booth selling CAG pottery donations (CAG made approximately $125 in sales). We took this opportunity to make people aware of CAG’s spring sale and to offer class catalogs.
This was the third Arts After Dark, and attendance has grown each time. Participants found these events to be a nice alternative to the usual “night out”. Some were old friends spending an evening together, couples on dates, and at least one larger group who all wanted to enjoy an art experience together – Laura Taylor, for example, had a crowd all making animals! The four of us who helped with hand building were kept very busy.
There were other arts activities offered in different parts of the Shadelands main building, as well as food (nachos and tamales), drink (both alcoholic and non), and Karaoke in the courtyard. At closing time some participants didn’t want to leave. One young man commented, “It’s so sad this only hap-pens twice a year – it will be a whole different sea-son before I can come again!”
Many thanks to the great team who worked this event: Hand builders: Ann-Marie Hannawacker, Barbara Moreland, and Laura Taylor; CAG Pottery Sales: Millie Robinson; and a special thanks to For-rest Lowe who helped with EVERYTHING.
ARTS AFTER DARKBy Robin Moore
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE continued from page 2
Interim Manager: As you all know, Takemi has been working extremely hard to help improve the studio. I have heard so many positive comments about our students’ respect for him. The city’s process for hiring a manager is complex and takes time. As many of you remember, after Pete left, Roger was interim manager for nine months as the city went about its hiring process. So, it does not happen overnight. Takemi has agreed to be interim manager until the hiring process is complete. Many of the members do hope that he is the permanent manager. It was an excellent beginning and we appreciate the open discussion by Maile, Takemi and Rana. Bette
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The Manager’s OfficeC
LAY
ART
S
GUILD • WALNUT CREEK • CA
www.c layart sg i ld.co
m
u
Takemi
Greetings All,
As we wrap up another great quarter here at Community Arts, I’d like to thank everyone for making it a great place to work. It’s been a wild ride for me over the last couple months and I’m starting to feel like my feet are gaining traction. The kilns are starting to get dialed in and Rana and I are figuring out how to manage the cycles. The amount of artwork doesn’t allow the kilns to ever rest (nor the staff) hahaha!
A couple notes about the studio:
• The damp room is moving forward, even though it doesn’t seem like it. There’s a lot of research of materials and planning that needs to happen in order to complete the job correctly so we don’t run into the same issues again.
• The blue-black glaze is back! After lots of time and research, Rana and I figured out what was wrong. We will also be mixing and testing a couple color variations of the glaze (yellow and light blue)
• New Instructor: Jennifer Smith - Let’s please all welcome Jennifer to the studio with open arms. She brings decades of art and ceramics experi-ence with her and is really excited about joining our program. She’ll be teaching Monday afternoons and at Shadelands on Saturday mornings.
• CCACA – Davis, CA – Please con-sider submitting work for this year’s exhibition in Davis. The confer-ence runs from May 3 to May 5. Even if you don’t submit work, I
would encourage all of you to attend the event. Friday night is the big ‘Art Stroll’ in downtown Davis and is a ton of fun with hundreds of ce-ramicists from all over the state (and country). Please attend if you can.
Lastly, please remember the studio policies and protocols and continue to make this studio a special place for all of us. Please be mind-ful of others and considerate of the communal space that it is.
Thank you again for all the support.
Important Dates• Spring Sale – May 3, 4 & 5 No classes or Open Studio April 29 through May 5
• Summer quarter registra-tion opens – May 13, 9 am
• No classes, Monday, May 29 (Memorial Day)
• End of quarter – June 8
• Studio Clean-up – June 9 from 10 am-noon
• First day of summer quar-ter classes begins Sunday, June 16
• Summer quarter Open Studio begins Sunday, June 16, 1 pm.
A BIG thank you to everyone who participated in the winter quarter clean-up!
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CLAYARTSGUILDCivic Arts Education of
Walnut Creek
PO Box 8039Walnut Creek, CA 94596
What’s Happening in the Clay World
To view the CAG Newsletter in full color, go to our website: www.wcclayartsguild.com
CALL to ARTISTSLeslie’s Ceramic Supplies, Richmond. Sign up:work [email protected] or phone at 510-524-7363.
Hand building Functional Ce-ramics with Josie Jurezenia. April 27 2019.
Lantern Making with Scott Jen-nings. May 18, 2019.
WORKSHOPSTrax Gallery. 1812 5th St, Berkeley. Spring Exhibition March 8-31, 2019.“Minimalist Makers” Mark Goudy, Birdie Boone, Tom Jaszczak, and Lisa Riddle. Online viewing be-gins March 9.
Trax is open for walk- ins on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 12-5.30 pm and by appt. through the end of April.Appts: [email protected] or phone at 510-540 8729.
GALLERIESStrictly Functional Pottery Na-tional, Lancaster Pa. Deadline to enter: June 1, 2019. Juror: Malcolm Mobutu Smith.
Schaller Gallery. Sushi, Sake, Tea Themed Exhi-bition. Early April 2019.Bandana Pottery. Mid April 2019.
ONLINE EXHIBITIONS
