Students create petition to save class beneficial to studio art majors

Like the kilns drying their final projects, some ceramics students are fired up over a raw materials class they say is necessary but missing from the curriculum.

A petition to bring back the course began circulating the ceramics studio last week and has so far gained 22 signatures.

A raw materials class was last offered at UCF in the fall semester of 2010 and taught by Hadi Abbas, a professor with extensive knowledge on glazes. Glazes color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof a ceramic artwork.

Horus Andersen, a senior studio art major in ceramics, said this class is vital for students pursuing ceramics as their major or as a potential career. He is the primary organizer behind the petition.

Andersen cited budget constraints in the department as the main reason the class is no longer offered. Faculty members in the visual arts and design department were contacted but did not comment.

Andersen said the course would give students the know-how to formulate a glaze to fit a specific function, and that these are necessary skills for students working to become future ceramicists.

‘You learn how to formulate your own glazes, your own clay bodies; you basically learn how to manipulate all of the elements of ceramics to do exactly what you need," Andersen said.

About five shop glazes are already mixed and available for students to use. Andersen said these glazes are dependable but get boring after a while. Works produced during any given semester often look quite similar in terms of color because of this limited selection of glazes. Knowledge of working with raw materials would give students the ability to add more variation to their work.

Ceramics students like senior Marcelo Hamui must look online for recipes if they want a particular glaze that is not already mixed by an instructor.

Hamui said he wants to see a raw materials class offered "on a regular basis because of the value of the depth of knowledge."

Seth Czaplewski, also a senior studio art major in ceramics, was able to take the raw materials class in the fall of 2009. He said it is the most important class for "understanding what you are working with."

Czaplewski said having knowledge of raw materials allows him to solve problems that come with making large-scale structures. He said the clay that most students typically use would crack apart, warp and shrink too much, so he needs to formulate his own.

"Without that knowledge, you have to spend years trying to figure it out on your own," Czaplewski said.

He said the classroom is an ideal setting to learn about raw materials because of the expert instructor and classmates to work alongside.

Andersen said he hopes to see the course available to students next semester in the spring.

"It's one of those courses that you have to kind of fight for, but it's what makes our ceramics program so incredibly strong," Andersen said. "It's what makes it worthwhile."