Haines residents beat winter weather in the pottery studio

The days are getting longer, but Haines residents are still finding indoor activities for winter weather. On Monday and Thursday nights you can find the community ed pottery class creating ceramics by hand or at the pottery wheel. 

There’s a low hum of electric pottery wheels and the soft splattering sound of clay and water in the art room at the Haines School. Betsy VanBurgh is the pottery teacher through Haines Community Education. She usually offers the five or six week class in winter.

“I think it’s the time of year everyone gets so busy in the summer. Everyone is looking for something like this be inside and crafty,” says Van Burgh.

Van Burgh is helping Diane LaCourse center a piece of clay on the wheel. She braces her elbows on her thighs and pushes against the clay. Centrifugal force helps her move the lump up into a volcano shape, then a perfect dome as she presses it down on the wheel. This is centering, the process of putting the center of the clay on the center of the wheel.  Van Burgh says centering is the hardest part of ceramics.

“As the wheel is turning you have to have the clay get on there it’s you gotta learn the skill of how you brace yourself and get it centered,” she explains.

It can take beginners weeks to learn. Diane La Course is almost there even though she’s only spent a few courses on the wheel.

“I’ve mastered the art of being a kid and making a mess and having fun,” she laughs.

La Course pushes her fingers into the middle of the clay as it spins, creating a hole. She pinches the edge between her fingers and pulls gently. The walls of what will be a bowl bloom up as if by magic. She says the bottom of the pot is a little thin.

“It’s not what I intended but, hey, I’m happy!”

She’s not the only one who sees possibility in the unexpected. Alain D’epremesnil is hand building on a nearby work table. Hand building is pottery that is created off the wheel. 

“This was going to be a bowl but it collapsed, so now it’s going to be a citrus press,” he says. “This was going to be a bowl also…now its a mushroom. So I stopped making bowls and I tried to turn this into a flute, but it’s not working either!”

The class is about learning a new skill and, of course, creativity.

“Anyway,” D’empresnil says, “I’m gonna keep my day job.”