Thanksgiving is less than a week away, but the spooky season continues on campus. Showing off their pinch-pot skills, Ceramics students are keeping the Halloween spirit alive by crafting their own clay monsters. 

“So we learned a new pinch pot method where we take a ball of clay and pick a size to create a dome,” sophomore Prashubha Kamble said. “Then we make a similar-sized dome, and we kind of [merge] them together and smooth the clay out to create a hollow ball. And to that ball, we can add ears, eyes, different monster-ey features [since we’re] turning it into a monster.”

Starting around Halloween, this project is a journey, transforming from a roughly sketched-out idea to a glossy end result. But from carving the clay to painting the monsters, the little details bring the monsters to life. 

“I enjoyed painting the sculpture and making the eyes [of the monster] because ‘the eyes are the window to the soul,’ so it really finished off the piece,” Kamble said. 

The experimental nature of the class allows for the creative expression of each of the artists’ personal styles, something that has been apparent since the very first project for senior Maggie Wang. 

“Ceramics is super open to creativity and allows me to experiment with a bunch of different things,” Wang said. “For example, our first project had very few requirements. You really can do anything different or whatever you want in this class.”