11/22/2009 10:41:00 PM Chino Valley High students
make ceramic ornaments to sell
Salina Sialega/Chino Valley Review
Chelsea Kelly, a senior art student at Chino Valley High School, shows one of the hand-painted ceramic Christmas ornaments that she and fellow members of the National Arts Honor Society made to sell at the Chino Valley Hometown Christmas event on Dec. 4-5 at Heritage Middle School.
Salina Sialega/Chino Valley Review
Sierra Logan, right, and Jessie Markey, art students at Chino Valley High School, paint ceramic Christmas ornaments.
Looking for some new Christmas ornaments? The 20 members of the Chino Valley High School National Arts Honor Society will have ceramic ornaments for sale at the Chino Valley Hometown Christmas and its Arts and Crafts Fair Dec. 4-5 at Heritage Middle School.
While people can view about 100 decorated Christmas trees and listen to choirs sing in the gym they can go next door in the cafeteria to visit the Arts and Crafts Fair at the same time. The event runs from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 4 and 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 5 at the middle school, Road 2 North and Road 1 West.
Chino Valley High art teacher Mary Ellen Kirkedahl said she and the National Arts Honor Society members came up with the idea of using the Art Department's ceramics facilities to make ceramic Christmas ornaments to raise money for the club. They will be selling the ornaments for $3 to as much as $8 each at a booth in the Arts and Crafts Fair.
"We have one of the best ceramics facility in the tri-cities," Kirkedahl said. "Jim Ward, who retired as the high school's art teacher two years ago after being in the post for 25 years, built the facility." This project, she said, enables the high school's art students to use the facility, which sits idle most of the time. "We can't afford to offer ceramics because of the district's budget woes," she said.
Kirkedahl added, "This way the students can learn how to make ceramic items while using the school's incredible facility."
The Honor Society members are working on the ornaments before and after school. With the Chino Valley Unified School District on a four-day school week, the art building is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Classes at the high school run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. so the students have about 1.5 hours before and after school.
Kirkedahl said only one of the Honor Society members has any experience working on ceramics.
"The students look forward to coming in here because making these ornaments is so much fun," she said.
Kirkedahl hopes the members can have 100 ceramic Christmas ornaments made by the end of the month. She said it takes the students one to two hours to complete an ornament, then they fire the ceramic ornaments in the kiln for six hours.
"I've never worked with ceramics so this is interesting," member Sierra Logan said.
Fellow member Erica Smith added, "This is a detailed experience making the different elements stand out."
Kirkedahl is hopeful the students can sell at least $250 worth of ceramic Christmas ornaments so they can buy some good clay for the potter's wheel so the Honor Society members can get some experience working with it.
