An earthy rainbow of slightly-imperfect clay mugs and bowls – some about 6 inches tall and some smaller, some with handles and some without – lined the folding table in the corner of industrial gray and white studio lobby.

To the left of the table, beyond the doorway of a large studio, rested a much larger table filled with many more elaborate clay objects, all marked with price stickers. Erica Cerjanec, a sophomore communication design major, slowly circled the table, her fingers trailing the tops of a few mugs. They occasionally gripped an object’s rim, lifting it for closer examination.

‘This stuff is definitely more detailed,’ Cerjanec said. ‘It’s great.’

By early afternoon Monday, only a few people had stopped at a smaller version of the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ annual ceramics sale in the upper level of Syracuse University’s Comstock Art Facility on South Campus, including Cerjanec, who was just dawdling between classes and didn’t plan on buying anything.

Maybe the small turnout was because of the sudden snow, or maybe just the time of day, said Shawn Rommevaux, a senior ceramics major, who sat across the studio at a long, wooden table, painstakingly adding reddish brown glaze to a series of clay tiles – a personal project, he said.

For 35 years, SU ceramic students and faculty – as members of the school’s Shape Clay Society – have molded, painted, fired in a kiln and glazed dozens of mugs and other objects for the sale, which is normally held in the lobby of the Shaffer Art Building in the fall. They also have just begun to sell their work in a spring sale as well, said Chwee Kim, a graduate student studying ceramics.

This sale in the studio, which continues today until 5:30 p.m., is just the leftovers of this year’s fall sale a couple weeks ago, Rommevaux said.

Some of the ceramics students can carve and mold out a mug within 15 minutes, some an hour, depending on skill level or attention to detail. But all ceramic students learn the drill – and making a cylinder is one of the skills they acquire, Rommevaux said.

‘They’re made by everybody,’ Kim said, waving her hand toward the table filled with clay creations. Kim, like Rommevaux, had created several of them.

Students priced their own work, and all the proceeds are donated to the department – but in the spring sale, students usually do receive a chunk of the money, Rommevaux said. The main motivation behind the sale is to raise money for the department, for field trips, conferences, a $4,000 scholarship for one graduate student and four undergraduates and other activities.

‘In VPA we don’t get funded very well,’ Rommevaux said, lifting his paintbrush. ‘I guess because we don’t put out Tom Brokaws.’

Published on December 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm