FACE MUGS

Summer 2015

THE PROJECT

Following my graduation from KCAI, I was fortunate to be the Resident Camp Coordinator at Camp Hantesa in Boone, Iowa. As a child, I was a camper here for 8 years so naturally it was an exciting opportunity to return to this incredibly special place that taught me important lessons in my youth. 

The images shown here are camper's creations from the Face Mug craft I taught during our final week of resident camp. The idea came from a ceramics elective I took during my senior year at The Kansas City Art Institute. The class, called This is Place , was taught by Casey Whittier and in small groups we programed and implemented ceramic based projects with high school students in the Kansas City area. Jenny Green and Victoria Lumpkin created the original project which taught kids about texture, slab building, pulling handles, scoring, and the vast range of facial expressions. A huge thank you to Jenny and Victoria for the spectacular idea, my campers enjoyed this craft tremendously and I think the results are beautiful! 

MY ROLE

This week of the summer pushed my time management and balancing skills as I juggled my role as Resident Camp Coordinator while teaching a time sensitive craft. In addition to managing a group of over 20 resident camp staff, I spent my afternoon craft time with a small group of students to build, glaze and fire our mugs. Leading up to this, I worked with a volunteer to clean the ceramics studio and access our inventory. With limited time to complete the mugs, we fired them on the final day of camp. Upon their complete cooling, I packaged and delivered the final mugs to the young artists.