By: Rylie Jacobs (grade 9)

Tussey students are “kil-n” it in ceramics class. Due to a need for more electives at Tussey Mountain, art teacher Adam Baughman began providing a course in ceramics last school year. It is also a class that Baughman always wanted to teach. 

 Using white low temperature clay that they get from an art supplier and also a mining operation, students are able to create sculptures at ease.They also use brown terracotta clay that has a firing temperature of 2000 degrees. To make the clay into ceramic material, students must let it sit for awhile until it is completely hard. After it is dry, it can be sent into the kiln to be fired. 

This year the ceramics class is making a real life sculpture of a human hand! The sculpture has to be life like and show emotion. Sometimes the ceramics class has a project called “artists choice” which is when they can sculpt anything they want that is appropriate.

Senior Ceramics II student Logan Runk enjoys “building all sorts of wacky stuff” in class. “I like that you get to express yourself,” Runk said. “I don’t really like [all forms of] art, I just like to build things.” One of Runk’s latest works is his wearable sculpture of the Infinity Gauntlet worn by Marvel’s character Thanos.