Ball State University students in search of holiday gifts can purchase one-of-a-kind student and faculty ceramic creations next to the staircase in the Atrium Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Ball State Department of Art's ceramics students will sell between 400 and 500 pieces of artwork to students and community members with a large portion of proceeds going back to the student artists, Ted Neal, assistant professor of art, said. The rest will go to the Ceramics Guild's fund, which brings artists to campus, he said. Prices range from $6 to $60.
The sale is hosted biannually, with the first sale in the winter and the second sale in the spring, Neal said. The pottery sales are planned for those times because the department anticipates people buying Christmas and Mother's Day gifts, he said.
Most of the work produced has been created for classes, so the pieces for sale show what students have learned in their classes and the talents they have developed, Neal said.
In addition to providing students with financial compensation, the sale serves as a tool to help students learn the type of pieces the public is interested in, he said. Graduate student Stephanie Gorman agrees with Neal.
"I've been in quite a few [pottery] sales," she said. "I like it because it gives you the experience of selling pottery so you know what sells."
Another benefit of the pottery sale, graduate student John Gibson said, is the chance to educate the public.
"The sale provides the public an opportunity to ask questions about throwing and firing procedures and things like where clay comes from," he said. "Some people don't know that."
Because clay is a universal medium, the look of each piece depends on the creativity of the person making it, Gibson said.
The properties of clay help determine the overall look of a piece, Neal said.
"Clay is limitless in its form," Neal said. "The piece transitions through processes, from conception and molding to firing it. Every time you open a kiln it's like Christmas."
Neal will include pieces created for class demonstrations to assist the Ceramics Guild in bringing visiting artists to campus.
Visiting artists benefit students by teaching workshops, Neal said. They help students by exposing them to a wide range of artistic methods, Gorman said.
"It's nice to have people outside the department coming in and showing us new techniques that [Ball State teachers] don't use," she said.
Gibson said visiting artists have ideas students might not have seen before, and they might open a student's eyes to creative possibilities.
The primary difficulty in bringing visiting artists to campus involves scheduling, Neal said. Some artists might have solid bookings for two years, which limits the pool of artists available to come.
The Ceramics Guild is not relying entirely on profits from the sale to fund visiting artists, Neal said. The Guild is applying to receive money from the Student Government Association, he said.
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