The classes have been going very well. We are starting to Bisque fire student work and test the new clay body with new glazes. The studio shelves are full of greenware so the next few weeks are going to be all about finishing touches. Here are just a few of the pieces being made.

Wednesdays are the best! That’s teen night when students from the Kansas School of the Blind come to visit at EPIC. The class is a hoot – they move me to laughter, to surprise and sometimes tears of joy. Its even better when a few of the local teens drop in for night of clay and some home spun human experiences. Last week our class was reduced to 2 students because of a scheduled ski trip to Snow Creek. Well, not to be out done by a ski trip, David came in to work with them one on one on the potters wheel. It was a great treat for both of them, David and me as well, they took on that spinning pear shaped mass of clay and created cups and bowls. It was amazing! Being new to the potter’s wheel myself, not to mention having struggled the last couple of weeks in imposing my will on clay, I was so impressed how both Mitchell and Tyler jumped right in and created vessels. We also experimented with hand building ideas – we made little bricks from clay and build shelters one brick at a time.

It’s not only Wednesdays that we are blessed to have young friends drop by. A couple of Saturdays ago my friends Rachel and Cecelia stopped by to take a little break from this busy world and a crowded school schedule. Rachel is a major fan of Horses. She even wore a shirt that clearly states her position “COWGIRL” right across the front of it. We spent the next 2 and a half hours talking, joking, working clay and in the end Rachel made the best “COWGIRL CUP” ever. What a reward, what a great opportunity for the artists of EPIC to work with these young folks. Good things are happening at EPIC!

One of the things we learned during the period that EPIC was open last fall was that “We have customers”. We were averaging 40-50 students a week through our classes, we consumed 400 lbs of clay, ran up a $700 a month utility bill, filled all storage spaces and needed a cleaning service just to see the floor -nothing like learning under fire. When the classes ended in December the first thing we did was to take a couple of days off. When we reconvened we knew we had to make some adjustments. So first up on the list was to push everything into the middle of the room and start prioritizing what was going to stay and what was going to go. If it didn’t have a direct correlation to working with Clay – it was removed.

 The next objective was to build shelves, a wedging table to reclaim scrap clay, organize racks to accommodate greenware, bisque fired product, glazed and finished pieces. We appointed a Kiln Operator, Bryan Lloyd our Artist Resident/Instructor as well as an Operations manager and Ceramics Technician, David Platter our Sculptor/Instructor.

Next we did a massive cleaning, rearranged the tables, lined up the wheels and put a logo on the door.  There were other changes as well and a few still remain but overall it was time and money well spent. The studio looks great and functions very nicely. We opened back up on the 24th of January  with some new system guidelines in place, new Spring workshops “Plate Bowl Cup” 2 nights a week. Teen night on Wednesdays for youth from the School of the Blind(KSSB) and others in our community. We are also adding a youth class on Saturdays for students from Associated Youth Services and are currently planning classes for Prepare House with Rachel Elits as the Artist/Instructor. We are also working on a weekly after school class with youth enrolled in El Centro’s program and a class for Seniors – all coming in the next month. Its been a very exciting experience and a great opportunity to work with local artists and community youth.

I look forward to Wednesday nights each week cause that is Teen Night. Teen Night is when the students from the Kansas State School of the Blind come to EPIC. We have a good group of 7 teens that arrive at the studio really to take on new discoveries with clay. We have a lot of fun just talking and kidding each other but they are very serious when it comes to producing new pieces each week. They finished their “containers to hold liquid” project. Glazed the cups, bowls and containers with brillent color in the spirit of the holiday season.

Then it was time to work on the “Anything that stands on two legs project”. We got a few extra lessons about the laws of physics and the importance of establishing a center of  balance that prevents gravity from pulling your project downward into the surface of the table. We saw some familiar themes and were introduced to some new ideas but most of all we got to work with clay and enjoy one anothers company.

Happy Holidays everyone from the Teen Night crew and from the EPIC Studio – see you next year!!

Hello everyone, this is Bryan (B.) Lloyd. I started volunteering at the EPIC space this summer and I now teach classes here twice a week. The Studio space has transformed from old barbecue into a functional clay studio that serves 50+ students of all ages, per month. I’ve seen 4 year olds come in and 84 year olds come in…and they LOVE it! We have only been open for a little over a month and we have had many, wonderful people come in and get their hands dirty. The experience of being involved here has been a dream come true. Here are some pictures of our students working on their art and pictures of ‘EPIC’ progress.

Love,

B. Lloyd

EPIC Clay Studio

EPIC has been open for a few weeks actually and entering our 3rd week of classes. We have come so far since July and we keep discovering little hints as to how far we have to go but the studio is shaping up nicely. students and teachers are getting to know each other and clay is being shaped, fired and glazed. Hope you can join us on the 3rd and just see how far we have come.

Things more fast-the Grand Opening is this week-hope to see you there.

Click to enlarge-

One of the issues that confronted us from the beginning was how we would deal with an old wooden floor that had seen better days and incorporated many flaws that could be a hazard to young children, students with guide canes and/or wheel chairs. Thanks to generous donations from Capitol Federal and CHWC we were able to have a concrete floor poured at EPIC. Local resident Joe Quinn worked with volunteers to make a soupy mixture of light weight concrete to  create a smooth flat surface. 

The idea of Epic studio was created out of ideas exchanged between two friends, Beth Sarver the then Program director at Accessible Arts and Steve Curtis the Community Organizer for Community Housing of Wyandotte County but today it became official. An agreement between CHWC and Accessible Arts has been approved and signed by Emily Vowiell, Executive Director of Accessible Arts and Donny Smith, Chief Operations Officer of CHWC. The agreement speaks to the join partnership of the two local non profits and spells out the details of an Advisory board appointed by each organization to govern EPIC operations.