Day 5 Haiti

Today is my fifth day in Haiti. I am here with my friend, Nicole Copel. We are joining forces with two other potters to teach throwing to women at the ApParent Project. So far it is a wonderful experience, enriching and educational. Shelley and Corrigan Clay are the directors of ApParent Project www.apparentproject.com

Yesterday was our first day with the women. We have two groups, one in the morning (8am-11am) and one group in the afternoon (12pm-3pm). Each group is comprised of women that are interested in developing a skill so that they can gain employment and be able to care for themselves and their children. They range in age from 18-40 years old.

Yesterday we taught them to wedge clay, and how to center the clay. Today we repeated those two demos and went on to creating a center hole and opening up the clay. Tomorrow (Sunday) they will have a day off then on Monday we will continue with the next step, pulling up walls of a cylinder. We are teaching throwing in a very different than what each of us does in classes we have previously taught. Our goal is to get these women proficient enough with the basics to be able to make small items that they can sell once we are gone. We hope that they can make a tumbler or mug by the time we leave.

Apparent Project Haiti

Just realized that I have not written on my blog in quite awhile. Boy how the time flies. Finished up teaching at Western State Colorado University. I taught the Intro to Ceramics class for Professor Al Caniff while he was on sabbatical last semester. It was truly a great experience. Finished up the semester Dec. 18th then drove to Omaha for two weeks with son, BJ. Spent Christmas and New Years in Omaha. I even ran in a the Doomsday 5K race with BJ. It was at 9pm, in the dark and on snowpacked trails.

Currently, the big news is that I will be traveling to Haiti on January 29th with my friend Nicole Copel, owner of Pinon Hill Pottery in La Veta, Colorado. We are going to teach clay skills at Apparent Project www.apparentproject.com I am hopeful that we will be of assistance to the folks there as they get their clay program underway. They already have several artisan programs including jewelry making and book binding. Take a look at their website to learn more about their mission.