By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Patience.
That's what Niles High School senior and ceramics student Paul DePoy said it took to create his piece on the potter's wheel. DePoy's and about a dozen other students from Patty Bunner's ceramics II and IV classes currently have their artwork on display through March 31 at Chemical Bank in downtown Niles.
Bunner said Chemical Bank was kind enough to contact her with the offer for showcasing the student artwork.
The ceramic pieces range from decorative, sculptural flowers and head study pieces – like small busts – to functional but small pots and vases. All of them are hand built.
The head study pieces don't have to be a likeness, Bunner said. Instead, the pieces allow the students freedom to display facial expressions in their imagination as visible artwork.
"It gives them an opportunity to learn about human proportions and facial proportions," Bunner said. "We all recognize what a face is, but these things are primarily imagination."
The students generally used one of two techniques: coil building or spinning material on the potter's wheel.
Coil building is rolling out numerous pieces of clay and stacking them. Some examples show the layers, while other pieces are rolled so tight and small the artwork appears smooth.
"It's slower and you can add detail easier," junior Tristin Callahan said of coil building.
DePoy said he prefers the potter's wheel for the opposite reasons.
"You can build things faster," he said.
Added Bunner, "We try to explore all of them."
See related photo inside on page two.