SCCA Partners With Mountain Arts Community Center For Fall Festival

On Saturday, October 5, SCCA hosted a Raku firing and bowl-making experience in conjunction with Mountain Arts Community Center’s Fall Festival.

Empty Bowls Project

The bowl-making activity, benefiting the Empty Bowls Initiative, was enjoyed by festival attendees of all ages - most of whom had never even touched clay before. Participants were able to decorate their slab of clay by adding texture with different stamps before molding the clay into a bowl shape. While the clay was drying into its shape, participants decorated their bowls with different colored slip-paints. Whether working with their family or friend group or working solo, it was inspiring to see so many people get excited about the clay arts and giving back through the Empty Bowl Initiative. Over 60 bowls were created at the Fall Festival event! All bowls will be glazed and fired through SCCA and Lolly Durant over the next few weeks. Then, the bowls will be sold at a special event on the first Friday of February at SCCA with proceeds benefiting Family Promise. More details on this event to come!

Raku Firing

In addition to the bowl-making activities at the Fall Festival, SCCA also hosted a special Raku firing that SCCA members, instructors, and students got to participate in. Raku refers to a type of low-firing process that was inspired by traditional Japanese raku firing. Western-style raku usually involves removing pottery from the kiln while at bright red heat and placing it into containers with combustible materials. Once the materials ignite, the containers are closed. This produces an intense reduction atmosphere which affects the colors in glazes and clay bodies. It was wonderful to see the team effort that was needed to complete multiple Raku firings, and we know the festival attendees were excited to see this alternate way of firing pottery. To view the Raku firing in action, take a look at the video!