Ceramics guru is fired up about teaching his art to his students

By Heather Crabtree
The Entertainer

CORVALLIS — For more than 40 years, Jay Widmer has been working with his hands.

Widmer of Corvallis heads the Linn-Benton Community College ceramics program at the Benton Center, teaching the transfer ceramic classes for dual-enrolled students.

He discovered clay in high school, and it was from his teacher that he developed the desire to teach and be a potter.

For 28 years, Widmer has helped craft the ceramics culture in Linn and Benton counties.

“I try to introduce students to the culture of clay. It’s something in the collective conscious,” he said. “People have made pots for 20,000 years, and it’s a great way to explore humanity. The machine-made culture has really taken away some of our humanity. (Ceramics) connects students to pottery and firing. It broadens their experience of the hand made.”

Two years ago, the Benton Center was remodeled and expanded, and that put the ceramics studio “front and center.”

“Ceramics has become very strong and has become kind of the signature program for (the Benton Center),” Widmer said.

For 25 years, the ceramics department was located in a former second-grade classroom in the old Washington School building. Equipment was kept in outdoor sheds.

The studio now includes 22 wheels, a glazing area and a place for the bisque, gas, raku and salt kilns.

Like the pieces made by the students and instructors of this department, the kilns are also made by hand. Widmer’s assistant Hank Grzeskowiak constructed each of the kilns.

There is a reason behind having a variety of kilns. Each type affects the surface of the clay differently during firing.

One example of how firing can effect the clay can be seen in the main display case at the Benton Center. Several raku pieces by artist Steve Aulerich are on display.

The different colors in the raku pieces range from reds to greens to yellows to blacks and browns. The surface has a metallic look to it.

Raku is different than most firings. The pieces are glazed and fired in a raku kiln until they are red hot (about 1,800 F). It is then that the pieces are removed with tongs and put in a reduction bin — essentially a metal trash can converted for artist’s purposes. The can is filled with paper and newsprint and then covered. The heat from the piece ignites the paper and the burning carbon draws out the colors in each piece.

Each piece ends up being different because the artist can only direct it, not really control it, Widmer said.

Widmer also owns a tree farm in Alsea that is home to a wood-burning kiln he constructed in 1991. At that time, it was one of three in the state and is now one of 20.

Widmer operates the wood kiln twice a year, usually in the spring and fall. He finished the first firing of the year last week.

“It’s a big effort just loading it,” Widmer said. “I have a cabin out there and I use firewood from my tree farm.”

The kiln burns four cords of wood in 44 hours, and wood has to be added every 12 minutes during the process.

“Every potter’s dream is to fire in a wood kiln,” he said. “A lot of time (goes into the firing). People don’t understand the process and the effects on the surface. The wood cycling (the adding of different types of wood) and the flames can vary (the colors on the surface).”

He and the students participating will unload the 250 pieces that made it into this bi-annual firing on Saturday, April 8.

You can check out pieces from the LBCC Ceramic Department’s students in the juried art show from April 14 through May 15 in the Arts & Humanities Gallery on the LBCC Main Campus in Albany.