CERAMICS

 

A Multitude of Pleasures

Wildfire Ceramic Showcase offers its visitors a variety of pleasures, from purely decorative to beautifully functional, from sculpture for pondering to pieces begging for everyday use, from historical to contemporary, from smooth and silky to rough and textural and much more.

What makes ceramics so unique and appealing to everyone? The answer is different for each individual. Ceramics can be wood fired, electric fired, gas fired, Raku fired, thrown on a wheel, hand built, made with a mold, sculpted, carved, painted, waxed, pinched — the variety is endless, only limited by the artist’s imagination.

Some people like the idea that each piece is handmade and one-of-a-kind. Others admire the hours of work involved in decorating an elaborate piece of pottery. All art from clay is three dimensional. In sculpture clay is shaped into animals, human forms, plants, buildings and limitless ideas from an artist’s mind to express the world and beyond.

Usually ceramic art is less expensive than other types of artwork and most everyone can afford a bowl or mug. Wheel-thrown items are made quicker than hand built forms.

It’s mind boggling to think about the longevity of ceramics. Who knows? The cup you are using today could be an artifact in a history museum a thousand years from now!

Some folks look for the mark of the fire curling around a wood fired vessel, while others appreciate the far away cultures that ceramics connects us with. Many people want to contemplate the high temperatures of over 2,000 degrees that pottery endures in the kiln to become vitrified and safe for our use with food. The hot temperatures produce amazing glazed colors and textures from ordinary earthly materials.

Join Central Oregon ceramic artists at Wildfire Showcase, the guild’s annual show and sale at Westside Magnet School (Kingston Elementary) on November 4 and 5. The event is on Saturday from 10am-5pm and Sunday from 10am-4pm. Discover the passion of all things clay and your reason for appreciating ceramic works of art.

The 13th Annual Show and Sale features more than 25 premier ceramic artists and offers clay demonstrations throughout each day, a children’s area with clay activities for kids and free raffles for $25 towards pottery purchase on both Saturday and Sunday.

Free admission and parking, Westside Village Magnet School at Kingston Elementary 1101 NW 12th St., Bend.

Wildfire is sponsored by The Clay Guild of The Cascades.

https://clayguildofthecascades.org

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