Ceramic plates, bowls and mugs lined the walkway of Free Speech Plaza as the Ceramic Art Student Association hosted its biannual sale, which will continue from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Thursday.
The average week of the sale brings in about $6,000 in revenue, but Monday alone earned $5,800, according to CASA president Jenny Hager.
Half of the revenue from the ceramics sale goes back to the individual artists and the other half goes to CASA’s treasury. It is used to bring in visiting artists from around the nation and send students to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference in the spring semester.
Last week, Jeremy Hatch, an artist who works with slip casting — a technique where molds are used for shaping clay — visited the University, and the organization plans on having more artists come in the spring with all events open to the public, Hager said.
The graduate ceramics program at LSU was ranked eighth in the nation by U.S. News and World Report and only accepts two to three new students a year, said first year graduate student Jenni Lombardi.
“It feels pretty awesome to be a part of this,” Lombardi said. “I was one of two people who entered the program this year.”
Hager, who is a third year graduate student in the fine arts program, uses slip casting herself and said she likes to create pieces that fit into one another and have floral designs.
Each art student has a style he or she enjoys using most, said ceramics and sculpture senior Emily Moody.
“I like to make things that trick the user with angled edges,” Moody said. “I even tricked myself one time, and when I tried to set down the mug that I made, wine spilled everywhere.”
Third year graduate student Autumn Higgins said she likes to depict the mundane moments of everyday life in her work. Her pottery depicts drawings of people with large eyes in different awkward moments. One unfinished piece shows the outline of people waiting in line at the supermarket. Higgins said she will be working on her thesis for graduation next semester and probably won’t go with the other students to the conference in March.
“I have an exhibition in May,” Higgins said. “It’s going to be more of these pots portraying daily life and highlighting the more mundane aspects with the really exciting parts of life hidden in it.”
Higgins grew up in Portland, Ore., and her grandparents were ceramic artists. Higgins said she entertained herself in artistic ways growing up, and she has handmade sculpting tools from Italy that were a gift from her grandparents.
“My whole life I’ve done a lot of drawing, and I’ve almost always done drawings of people,” Higgins said. “I’m trying to make my two-dimensional drawing go around a three-dimensional pot.”
While at Southern Oregon University, where she got her undergraduate degree, Higgins started out in photography classes but ultimately decided to study ceramics because she said the energy and atmosphere in the ceramics community was really nice.
After she graduates, Higgins said she is not sure what she will do.
“I’d really like to apply for an art residency,” Higgins said. “But I would also like to be a studio artist. I don’t have a set plan.”
Higgins’ artwork is among other ceramics students’ pieces on sale this week.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Mariel Gates

A few original, handmade pieces of ceramic art stand on shelves for sale on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, during the LSU Art and Design ceramics sale in Free Speech Alley.