As Skutt, a company responsible for making pottery wheels, ceramic kiln and glass kilns announced a Peep Show contest for students to create functional ceramic peephole plug that fits into a kilns, students were eagerly getting to work with their pieces for the contest. A peephole and plug play many roles within the kiln allowing moisture, oxygen and much more to escape. When the Peep Show contest ended, teachers were told to check their emails to see if any of their students were of the 20 finalists. Two were Sherry Daniel and Moises Salmeron, who will have their pieces displayed at the Skutt Booth at The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).
When Daniel picked her design, she wanted to pick something simple to make. With that in mind she proceeded to make a red mushroom design. Salmeron designed a purple flower.
“I thought it was really cool and had a nice three-dimensional shape,” Salmeron said. “It took me an hour and a half to get all the petals done and [another] a hour and a half to get them all set up and looking nice.”
Salmeron took a relaxed approach when making his piece. He listened to music and let creativity take over in his design. Daniel was focused on making her pieces quality. She made sure to keep it functional but still nice to look at.
“I wanted something that would stand on its own because it’s supposed to be a plug; the cone is suppose to be the one on the bottom so I wanted something that would look nice while it’s standing,” Daniel said.
After submitting their pieces, their teacher Stephanie Shaffer, told them that they were winners. Daniel couldn’t believe such a simple design was going to go to New York. Salmeron felt proud but surprised by himself and his design because he just wanted to finish the assignment at hand.
“I didn’t think I would win,” Salmeron said. “I just wanted to get the assignment through with. I did try really hard on making it.”
Once the project was done, both students took the winning results differently. Although he did not have a plan to get into art in the future, Salmeron knew art would be a good outlet to release emotions. Daniel, on the other hand, saw this as her first step in continuing an art career, while also getting ready for the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) competition.
“I am doing another competition next Saturday,” Daniel said. “It’s called VASE. I am doing this feet project.”
When the competition was over Daniel got to look at the other winners’ pieces and could not help but think about how intricate their designs were compared to hers. While Salmeron never got to look at the others, both said they learned good lessons on hard work and going with the flow.
“It helped me see that even the smallest things that you really don’t think a lot of can help you,” Salmeron said.