MASON - Barb Kanuth felt like an artist instead of a middle school principal Friday when she received her wish from the WKAR Wish Board.
Kanuth, principal at Hope Middle School, 2020 Park Lane in Holt, bid on a wish from the MSU television station’s wish board auction to make pottery with local artist Doug DeLind.
Earlier this year, DeLind created wooden statue silhouettes of several members of MSU’s men’s basketball team to commemorate their success in the 2001 NCAA Tournament.
The WKAR Wish Board is just one of the categories in the broadcasting station’s auction to raise money for public television.
Kanuth brought three co-workers to DeLind’s studio, and with his help they each made three pieces of Raku fired pottery.
Raku is a Japanese firing process. DeLind used a soft brick kiln, which he said allows the heat to reflect.
Kanuth and her friends - Yvonne Glenn, the school’s media specialist; Lynn Bambusch, who works in the Emotionally Impaired Classroom; and art teacher Heidi Irvine - glazed three tiles: a face, a fish and a cat face.
“I’ve seen Doug DeLind’s work and thought this would be fun,” Kanuth said. “And you get to take something home with you.”
After glazing the tiles, the women put them in the kiln for an hour and a half, until the kiln reached 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
“When we opened the kiln, fire came out,” Glenn said. “It smelled like roasted marshmallows when you burn them over the campfire.”
DeLind put the tiles into garbage cans filled with burning newspapers. DeLind, who has been doing Raku firing since 1976, said every artist has a different process.
As the pottery was taken out of the garbage cans, the new artists watched the colors change to what looked like little rainbows running across the pieces.
“Where there is a rainbow we are watching the copper reoxidize,” DeLind explained to the group. “This is fun because it is a spontaneous process.
“I’ve done it for 26 years and this is (the women’s) first time, so it is fun for everyone.”
DeLind laid the tiles out to cool while Kanuth and her friends enjoyed a feast of cheese, crackers, dip and wine.
“I was kind of scared at first,” Glenn said as she waited for the pieces to cool. “I don’t know what it is going to look like.
“When we put the glaze on it was green and white, but when they are done they will look completely different.”
When DeLind announced the pieces were done, the four women rushed to look at them.
“Oh that’s cool; isn’t that something?” Bambusch said as they watched Irvine’s tile switch colors from copper to purple to blue. “It keeps changing and changing.”
DeLind put little plaques on the backs of the pieces so they could be hung on walls and for the fish to be able to be stuck into a garden.
Irvine was excited about the way her pieces turned out - she even had one with a rainbow running through it.
“This was awesome,” she said. “It is something I always wanted to know how to do.”
State News staff writer Shaun Byron contributed to this report.
