For the brave souls that make the trek down West Wheelock Street and across the Ledyard Bridge, Davidson Ceramics Studio is worth the trip. Located right off the Connecticut River in Norwich, the studio allows students and faculty to throw, fire and glaze their own pots, whether they have experience working on a potter’s wheel or are getting their hands dirty for the first time.
Studio director Jenny Swanson said that most visitors to the studio are beginners.
“People are on a discovery mode when they come here,” she said.
Equipped with potter’s wheels and kilns, the studio has resources that let guests work with clay in various ways, including a room where students can explore hand-building, or molding clay with their hands. An adjacent room holds a row of potter’s wheels for learning how to throw. Across the hallway, kilns of different sizes bake students’ works to completion.
It takes at least three visits to complete a pottery piece, Swanson said. On the first visit, a potter will mold the piece into shape, either by hand or on a wheel. The piece dries until the second visit, when the potter returns to “trim” the pot and prepare it for firing. After a day of firing and another day of cooling, the piece is ready for glazing and a second round of firing.
Instructors remain available at the studio to offer support, instructor Sarah Heimann said.
“That’s the fun of the job — most people want to start throwing, and it’s an interesting challenge to teach the technique to a student who’s never worked with clay before in a hour and a half,” Heimann said.
Although the number of people who frequent the studio varies by term, a mix of undergraduates, graduates and faculty use the space.
Thayer School of Engineering student Harrison Hall said he heard about the studio from a lab partner, who frequented the studio in his free time. Now, Hall spends at least 10 hours per week making ceramics.
“Ceramics is all about the relaxation of throwing,” he said. “If I’m tense and try to throw, terrible things happen. I have to relax and remember to breathe. That’s what I really enjoy about it.”
Jimena Diaz ’14 first visited the studio her freshman fall. She became a student worker at the studio her sophomore year and has been teaching ever since.
Diaz said that teaching new potters basic techniques has helped her to relearn and hone these skills.
“It’s a very relaxing activity, and it’s nice for people to come down here and get away from school work,” she said.
Diaz is currently designing and creating her own ceramic dining set, which she plans to use after graduation.
The studio also supplements coursework, like an English course on Dave the Potter, in which students learn about the poetry and pottery of Dave, a slave who taught himself to read, write and create art on a South Carolina plantation in the 1800s. For about three weeks in the term, students visit the studio and try to replicate his pottery style.
This term, students in an introductory classics class had the option to use the studio for an extra credit assignment.
Jessica Frieder ’15, a student in the classics class, said that though the project took many hours, it gave her a better appreciation for the ancient pottery.
“Working with my hands, rather than just reading about the Greek pottery, made me understand the extent of the precision and detail that went into the pottery making,” she said.
