Senior potter carves out passion in ceramics

Senior Irene Chen sits with a straight posture at the potter’s wheel, placing her hands on a mound of clay while envisioning her final product, a vase. While listening to teacher Leah Aguayo’s directions, she plans the steps of her project, anticipating roadblocks with the experience of a Ceramics 3 student.

With one hand holding a sponge, and the other inside the vase, she pinches the clay, causing it to rise up higher and higher. She then takes her carving tool and carves out intricate bands on her vase, rotating the potter’s wheel as she goes.

Her hand is steady; while in the past she “rushed things and just put an outline of the design,” now she carves out intricate details and spirals on the vase to “bring it to life.”

Three weeks later, Chen’s work of art is ready to be placed in the kiln. After removing it from the kiln the next day, she sands the rough surface and brushes on layers of powder pink glaze.

What started as a blob of clay has transformed into a beautiful, pink vase.

Chen takes a keen interest in ceramics and intends to pursue it in the future. Her fascination began in middle school, when she spent many hours listening to her older brother rave about the SHS ceramics program.

“I took Ceramics 1 freshman year and absolutely loved it,” Chen said.

In sophomore year, Chen did not take ceramics because she was in the MAP program, which required her to take an extra elective. She only had a free seventh period, but Ceramics was not offered then.

When Chen was a junior, the school began offering Ceramics during seventh period. Chen took two periods of ceramics, as a Ceramics 2 student and teaching assistant for Leah Aguayo. As a senior, she is an advanced student in Aguayo’s seventh period, Ceramics 3 class.

Chen loves all parts of ceramics, but mostly enjoys carving designs in objects such as plates, bowls and vases.

One of Chen’s favorite pieces is a sculpture of Winnie the Pooh that she made during her junior year for her boyfriend. The process involved creating two separate pots, joining the two pieces and then adding clay and carving into it to make it look like Winnie.

While on the potter’s wheel, Chen uses many strategies in order to create a stunning piece of art. For example, when making vases, Chen lifts her pot multiple times before shaping it.

“Shaping [my vase] is the fun part,” she said. “You get to push out with the hand inside the vase to shape it.”

The process of making a masterpiece is long and requires patience. When she started ceramics, Chen adopted this quality and learned to accept that “most things will not turn out how you want it.”

As a beginner, Chen experienced difficulty when making a coil vase, a type of vase constructed out of stacked coils. The coil vase fired well, but because she was rushing, she applied the glaze unevenly. The uneven coats were visible once she fired it again; through the experience, Chen learned to take the process slowly.

Chen said that because of the nature of ceramics, pieces often look different than expected. After pieces are colored, fired and glazed, the glaze can turn a different color because there are not enough coats of it or it is not mixed well.

Sometimes, though, the piece that comes out of the kiln is even better than Chen anticipates.

“Once I [decided to] just mix a bunch of high fire glazes and it turned out [amazing]. It's like Christmas gifts,” Chen said. “You kind of know what you're getting but not 100 percent.”

Another one of Chen’s favorite pieces is an elephant plate she made, which involved the intricate carving that is her signature technique.

“People will think it's a sting ray, elephant, scorpion and butterfly,” Chen said. “Really, it's the eye of the beholder and it's nice, because that's art.”

Aguayo, who has guided Chen through ceramics, feels that Chen is a very helpful student who is willing to learn. Due to her hard work in her first years, Chen’s “creativity is just blossoming,” Aguayo said.

According to Aguayo, Chen crafted and sold many clay jewelry holders last year.

“She’s got a bit of entrepreneur in her which just touches my heart,” Aguyao said.

Aguayo, who has watched Chen progress through three years, also feels that Chen is her “little soul sister in clay.”

In return, Chen regards Aguayo as the “Clay Master 2000.”

With all the guidance she has received in high school, Chen said she is interested in pursuing a minor in ceramics in college.

“I really love finding new things to make and making them,” Chen said. “Ceramics is my special place.”