=?iso-8859-1?q?Katie=20Ellis?= on mon 28 apr 03
Dave~
I already emailed Lee Burningham off list telling him
how jealous I am that I'm not one of his students...
Our high school pottery/ceramics class (singular,
there is only one generic semester class...) is fully
equipped with three magnificent electric kilns (and
two of them actually function!), and a raku kiln. We
have 8 or 10 top'o'the line electric wheels (top'o'the
line 10 years ago, that is!), but have found no need
for a pug mill, slab roller, or kick wheels..not to
mention gas kilns, salt kilns, or soda kilns. In
fact, our ceramics studio is so awesome, it doesn't
even need window in it!
Okay, okay...we're underfunded, and can't afford
anything. The studio is small, cramped, and sometimes
I wonder how on earth the kilns reach cone 6 when all
the heat is escaping and making the room about
cone-one-billion, but in my opinion, our studio is one
of the most beautiful places on earth!! ;) Except
of course, when I get a nasty shock from one of the
wheels, or when the sink gets plugged up and the
darkroom next door to the studio becomes an olympic
size swimming pool....
Jeez...I heard about all the kilns down there, but
they get Saturdays, too? Shoot! I'm constantly
getting kicked out of the studio when the janitor has
to go home... Saturdays would be heaven! Maybe I
should have Mr. Burningham drop a little hello to my
teacher...or maybe I should just transfer schools for
my last few weeks of school...wish I could! Oh
well...I'm being taught more than I ever thought I
could learn about clay and life, and I suppose that's
what really counts.
~Katie
ready for another clay-filled day...
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Dave Finkelnburg on mon 28 apr 03
Hi all!
I had the distinct pleasure, again, to spend time last week around the
clay classes at Box Elder High School in Brigham City, Utah. The instructor
there is Clayarter Lee Burningham. I've mentioned this program before.
I am not a certified teacher, haven't had any education classes, don't
spend much time around schools anymore since our kids are grown, so I can
only assume the program I saw was typical. When I left on Saturday
afternoon there were students cleaning and washing kiln shelves and loading
the gas glaze kiln (not to be confused with the salt kiln or the Raku kiln),
students glazing, students throwing, students bagging pugged clay... The
teacher was there, of course.
I don't know about you, and it was a long time ago in my case, but I
don't recall spending many Saturdays in my teenage years hanging around the
high school. Mr. B. clearly has these kids involved!
My hat's off to this guy.
By the way, most high school programs must be like this, right?
Dave Finkelnburg, on a drizzly Monday morning in Idaho
Mike Gordon on mon 28 apr 03
Hi,
I'm wondering how rural is this school? I couldn't do salt or raku where
I teach, too much student traffic. The gas kiln they bought doesn't even
have peep holes. I do only bisque in it and electric fire (low) in three
e-kilns. Saturday school is for delinquints! Mike Gordon
Snail Scott on tue 29 apr 03
At 11:15 PM 4/28/03 -0500, Katie wrote:
...[high school]...we're underfunded, and can't afford
>anything. The studio is small, cramped, and sometimes
>I wonder how on earth the kilns reach cone 6 when all
>the heat is escaping...
Underfunded, hah! When I was in high school (not that
long ago), ALL art had been eliminated throughout the
district, except for commercial art and photography
which were justified as vocational training. There
must once been ceramics classes, since one 'storage
closet' at my school was labelled 'kiln', but no one
still teaching there could recall those days...long
gone. I am amazed and still a bit jealous when I hear
about high schools (and even grade schools) with
active, diverse art programs.
Not claiming that I had to walk to school through the
snow uphill both ways, or anything like, but support
for school art varies a lot from place to place. Lee's
program and Mel's are certainly exceptional cases, but
Katie's school isn't doing too badly either, I'd say,
if they have kilns, wheels, and a dedicated clay room.
Last time I taught clay in a school, we used the
cafeteria prep area as the 'studio', the 'equipment'
was thrift-store knives and forks, and I was given $15
a session to cover the cost of materials and firing
(in my own kiln.)
Those of you out there in Clayart-land who study or
teach in schools with actual ceramics programs are
very, very fortunate...it's not a thing to take for
granted.
-Snail
Lee Burningham (Box Elder High School) on tue 29 apr 03
Howdy,
What would you like to know about this school? There are 1400 students,
located just north of what is called the Wasatch Front in Utah. The
Wasatch Front is the population center for most of the people living in
Utah and extends over 100 miles from Ogden on the north to Payson on the
south with Salt Lake and the entire Salt Lake valley in the middle. We
are 10-15 miles north of the recognized limit(for now) of the Wasatch
Front. The houses and subdivisions are rapidly filling in the vacant
spaces between here and there.
As far as student location/class location, my studio space backs out of
the shop area onto the visiting bleachers of the football field. We are
out in the "northwest 40" as in out in the boonies for this school and
receive few or no administrative visits on a regular basis.
What does student traffic have to do with doing salt or raku? I like
having the other students see what is going on with the salt and the
raku, builds interest and excitement for the program. Plenty of the PE
students, the greenhouse kids, and other shop students get to see what
we do every day as they traverse the valley of pottery between the
studio/classroom and the kiln sheds out back.
Our gas kiln started out as a West Coast updraft, is now a rebuilt,
Burningham-modified downdraft, ~45 cu. Ft, with Marc Ward natural draft
burners. There are two large paragon electrics in the back of the room
for all the bisque firings. Approximately 150 loads are fired per
academic year. School year is 180 days. That translates into a bisque
load of pots almost every day throughout the school year and more than
one glaze firing each week. That does not include the raku nor the salt
kiln firings.
If Saturday school is only for delinquents, Praise God for making me and
my students delinquents. I only wish there were even more that fit that
category.
Lee Burningham
Hi,
I'm wondering how rural is this school? I couldn't do salt or raku where
I teach, too much student traffic. The gas kiln they bought doesn't even
have peep holes. I do only bisque in it and electric fire (low) in three
e-kilns. Saturday school is for delinquints! Mike Gordon
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
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Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Susan Cline on tue 29 apr 03
Makes me want to go back to high school. Art and music have been the (poor) stepchildren in every system I've ever been involved with -- both my own and those of my kids. How different things could have been for me, discovering clay at 40+ and finally getting to DO some concentrated work at 54.
Congratulations and hats off to those of you who run (and learn from) the programs that are up and running and struggling-but-making-progress-and-teaching-art.
Keep on keepin' on!
-------Original Message-------
From: "Lee Burningham (Box Elder High School)"
Sent: 04/29/03 01:42 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: High School Clay Program--typical?
>
> Howdy,
What would you like to know about this school? There are 1400 students,
located just north of what is called the Wasatch Front in Utah. The
Wasatch Front is the population center for most of the people living in
Utah and extends over 100 miles from Ogden on the north to Payson on the
south with Salt Lake and the entire Salt Lake valley in the middle. We
are 10-15 miles north of the recognized limit(for now) of the Wasatch
Front. The houses and subdivisions are rapidly filling in the vacant
spaces between here and there.
As far as student location/class location, my studio space backs out of
the shop area onto the visiting bleachers of the football field. We are
out in the "northwest 40" as in out in the boonies for this school and
receive few or no administrative visits on a regular basis.
What does student traffic have to do with doing salt or raku? I like
having the other students see what is going on with the salt and the
raku, builds interest and excitement for the program. Plenty of the PE
students, the greenhouse kids, and other shop students get to see what
we do every day as they traverse the valley of pottery between the
studio/classroom and the kiln sheds out back.
Our gas kiln started out as a West Coast updraft, is now a rebuilt,
Burningham-modified downdraft, ~45 cu. Ft, with Marc Ward natural draft
burners. There are two large paragon electrics in the back of the room
for all the bisque firings. Approximately 150 loads are fired per
academic year. School year is 180 days. That translates into a bisque
load of pots almost every day throughout the school year and more than
one glaze firing each week. That does not include the raku nor the salt
kiln firings.
If Saturday school is only for delinquents, Praise God for making me and
my students delinquents. I only wish there were even more that fit that
category.
Lee Burningham
Hi,
I'm wondering how rural is this school? I couldn't do salt or raku where
I teach, too much student traffic. The gas kiln they bought doesn't even
have peep holes. I do only bisque in it and electric fire (low) in three
e-kilns. Saturday school is for delinquints! Mike Gordon
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from href="http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/">http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached
at
melpots@pclink.com.
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from href="http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/">http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
>
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