By Steven Adamo
Ceramic work created by students went on sale yesterday during the first ceramics sale since 2019.
The sale continues today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 8.p.m. at the F5 foyer.
Since there hasn’t been a ceramics sale since the campus shut down in March of 2020, many of the students work on sale was created over the past three years.
Most of the items available to purchase are practical household items like bowls, plates, mugs and vases, but there were a few ceramic art pieces available as well—all available for a reasonable price.
Ceramics professor Christopher Turk said that many of the items at the sale cost about one-third less than it would cost at a retail chain.
“A lot of the smaller equipment, and certainly a lot of the materials we’ve amassed over the years, is the result of these sales,” Turk said.
Because of the small class sizes over the past few semesters, Turk said that it’s almost like an entirely new program.
The creations are essentially an accumulation of three semesters’ worth of progress from that first semester back.
“A lot of the more sophisticated work you would have seen four years ago, you’re not seeing it now because these guys are all still pretty new to this,” Turk said.
The kilns on campus that are used by the department are capable of handling large ceramic pieces, but Turk said that many of the items were on the small-side because a lot of beginner ceramics students tend to start small.
Turk said that many of the advanced students enrolled in ceramics courses prior to 2020 didn’t return once the campus reopened.
This came despite ceramics being one of the first departments to have in-person classes on campus again according to Turk.
Regardless, he said that the new students have been finding their way and are working their way up to creating larger and more intricate pieces.
Students receive 80% of the sales, with 20% going back to the Ceramics Department’s ASU fund.
The department receives 100% of the proceeds on any items sold that are marked with “ELAC.”
Sylvia Quinteros said that she’s been involved with these sales for as long as she’s been involved with the ceramics classes, off and on for over 20 years.
Quinteros said she has a pottery wheel at home, though the motor needs to be repaired.
For more information about the sale, contact turkcj@elac.edu.