Clay has been the medium for practical articles and artistic expression for thousands of years. A Tallahassee artist was celebrating National Clay Week at her home studio throughout the weekend.
Susan Stelzman's open studio event on Saturday and Sunday (10/14-15) was as much a house party as an artistic exercise. Dozens of people of all ages from middle school to retirees came to Stelzman's Brandt Drive workshop.
"I have a bunch of potters and sculptors working in clay making sculpture and pottery," she said as some visitors created wheel-thrown pottery and others crafted ornamental figures.
"(This is) National Clay Week and this is an open studio to celebrate anything and everything clay."
On Sunday, many of the visiting artists' pots and sculpture pieces were fired in Stelzman's backyard Raku kiln. That's a method that originated in Japan five centuries ago.
