Kirkland Arts Center Open House & Pottery Sale

Last weekend we had a great open house with art activities and demonstrations. Here’ s little look at what we did:

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Iron Potter: KAC’s take on the popular Iron Chef competition where two potters have 1 hour after the theme is revealed to make the best & most creative sculpture/pottery that fits within the theme. The theme for May 21, 2011 was Spring God/Goddess. Aaron Murray (with sous-potter Chris Franz) and Sandra Farmer (with sous-potter Betsy Smith) gave a good run. In the end Aaron & Chris took the cake with their creative & humorous “Spring God”. Look for our next Iron Potter competition at Kirkland Uncorked – arts & wine on the waterfront July 15 – 17, 2011.

Kids Activities: Several budding artists joined us in making some fantastic hand puppets. Paint, glue, crayons, colored paper galore, and glitter were used to make individual characters. We offer art classes for ages 3 and up every quarter.

Raku Firing: Have you seen the Raku firing process yet? This is a fascinating way to create very cool & organic decoration on your pottery. The pottery is fired until it’s glowing red (yes, literally glowing red pottery). The pottery is then picked up by metal tongs and placed into metal cans with newspapers and possibly a few KAC catalogs from last quarter and the lid is put on. As the pottery is smoked for 15 – 20 minutes beautiful things happen in that can. Check the photos to see the final effect. By the way, we will be doing our annual Pit Firing at the beach this summer. Sign up for the Pit Firing class with Paul Metivier.

Printmaking: Joan Mamelok and Mary Mac Dahlke were in the print studio with fun lino-cut blocks. Kids and adults were able to choose from an assortment of fun blocks or carve their own to make their very own bookmark or greeting card. We’ve got some great printmaking classes open for summer quarter (the quarter starts June 20).

Pottery Sale: The 2011 KAC Student Ceramics Sale returned after a few years’ absence, to universal acclaim. On May 20 through 22, several current students displayed and sold their work in the Kirkland Arts Center parking lot. Many of the visitors to the Education Open House bought pieces, as they explored the raku firing, children’s activities, and of course, the Iron Potter competition. Look for the sale next year, in late Spring or early Summer. A great thank you to the following participants and volunteers: Wayne Pennington, Robert Moreno, Barbara Hoftstetler, Julie Johnson, Kat Morrell, Chris Franz, Lisa Sorenaka, Marty Peterson, Anne-Marie Worden,Chris Barbee, Steve Tidwell, Kei Hirose, Ken Caldwell

Did you miss the sale? We have pottery (among other art forms like paintings, handmade greeting cards, garden art, prints, and other fun gifts) available for sale at our KAC Store in ParkPlace Center near the Kirkland movie theater. All artwork in the store is made by KAC members. Every purchase goes toward your local arts community.

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