The De Anza ceramics department held a pottery sale showcasing entirely student-made wares to a crowd of customers on Dec. 3 and 4 in the Campus Center Cafeteria.
Dozens of ceramic items were on offer at all price points, encompassing a wide variety of artistic styles and techniques — and a span of many years.
Alayla Romzro, 22, ceramics major, did not specify the age of the oldest pieces, but said the works had a storied past in the department.
“Some are really old student work,” said Romzro. “Some are kind of current.”
Professor and event overseer Gustavo Martinez said the pottery sale is a long-running tradition at De Anza.
“The previous instructor — actually, I’m covering for him this year — Rocky Lewycky, he’s been doing the sale for a lot of years,” Martinez said. “And I just took on the role of helping the students set it up. It’s a team effort, for sure.”
Lori Malahy, 43, ceramics major, said she has had an interest in the art form for a long time as well.
“I’d always wanted to (get into pottery),” Malahy said. “So about a year and a half ago I started taking classes at studios first. And then I heard about De Anza, and I decided it would be really fun to get a degree.”
Malahy added that she’s been learning a variety of interesting techniques at De Anza.
“You can see that there’s all kinds of different techniques here,” Malahy said.
Students taking ceramics classes were excited to show off their work, and to share with the public some of the techniques they used to create different visual and textural effects.
Malahy said of a vase, “Some of the ones we’ll find are soda fired.”
Explaining further, Malahy said, “Soda fire, you don’t actually put glaze on it. When you’re firing, you’re filling the baking chamber with a sodium, baking soda kind of solution. And that reacts with the clay body at certain temperatures and leaves a glaze on the item. That’s just rad.”
Other students had different techniques they favored, and spoke about the details of the processes.
“This is called raku,” Pamela Sharma, 49, visual arts major, said, gesturing to a set of glasslike pieces she made herself. “It’s a low fire technique, and it creates these beautiful shimmering, lustrous effects.”
“This was all built by hand, so not on the wheel,” Sharma said of her handiwork. “This was actually all hand built.”
Sharma said that it was her second year taking ceramics classes, and described herself as “a very passionate student” regarding pottery.
“I’m an advanced student, if you will,” Sharma said.
Sharma said she hoped her pieces would sell.
“These are the pieces I decided to donate to the school and the program,” Sharma said. “So hopefully they’ll sell and fund the program further.”
In addition to giving extra visibility to the ceramic department and the work of its students, the sale had a greater purpose: raising funds for the department, and more specifically funding a trip to a ceramics conference.
“The goal of the fundraiser is to raise money for the school to go to the California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Arts,” Romzro said. The conference will be held April 25 and 26 in Davis.
Martinez, for his part, said he was proud of his students for their growth and hard work over the course of the quarter.
“I love seeing the growth of the students, the individual growth,” Martinez said. “They’ll come in unsure about their abilities, and then by the end of the quarter, it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown as individuals and as creatives. That’s probably what I enjoy most about teaching.”
