Remember the days of summers in the backyard, playing in the dirt and making mud pies? Now you can reexperience the fun of getting your hands mucky and have something beautiful to show for it at the end. Just visit Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center to take a class, where owner Meg Biddle encourages students by introducing them to the pleasures of working with clay. Originally trained as a painter, Meg had a similar experience when she first discovered ceramics. "It was love at first sight," Meg recalls. "It spins, it's hypnotizing, it's super-duper tactile." Although she definitely teaches it as an art form, Meg brings out the fun in ceramics. "What we're doing here is slapping mud around," she says. "Clay is really nicely refined mud. We're making mud pies here." Hence her studio's inviting tagline, "Come play with clay."
Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center just celebrated its three-year anniversary in May 2006. Meg founded the bright, welcoming studio as a place where people of all ages and skill levels can experience the joy of working with clay. Twelve potter's wheels occupy the physical and spiritual center of the studio. Shelves lined with student work line the walls, all in various stages of progress. A tea table in the corner with a hot kettle and more than a dozen varieties on offer provides refreshment, which students can enjoy from handmade mugs. Tools and implements of all kinds are everywhere, both for handbuilding work and for enhancing pieces thrown on the wheel. Surprising household objects like a bamboo placemat, a doily, glass bowls of all sizes and shapes—even olive oil—are all put to use to create amazing effects on clay. There's even an extruder fixed to the wall that's the equivalent of the little pump that comes with Play Dough sets, used to create all sorts of geometric shapes with added attachments, known as dies. Located off the main studio, there's a room for the two kilns where projects are finished. And there's the clay room, where people can grab what they need and start working it into shape in the slab roller, which flattens the clay before you use it. "Yelling 'Hei-ya' is optional when you're flattening it," says Meg. "The beauty of clay is that you can force it to do what you want it to do."
Meg has about half a dozen volunteers who spend time around the studio helping out. Most are as devoted to ceramics as Meg is, and simply like to be around it all the time. "One of our volunteers, Todd, just wandered in one day. He always seems to be around when the kilns need to be scraped, vacuuming needs to be done or any sort of cleaning," says Meg. He's also a dedicated artist who discovers his own tools to work with clay for interesting effects, like seashells, for example.
When she first formed the idea to open her own pottery studio and learning center, Meg immediately thought of this neighborhood. Since she lived a few blocks away, she knew how strong the community was and how much it supported the arts. "I knew I wanted my studio in this area," explains Meg. "I wanted to be in a place with a fair number of people who want to learn and like to do things that are a little different." She saw two core groups in the area as potential students: those in their 20s and 30s who weren't married and who had time to take classes, and families looking to either expose their kids to the arts or take a relaxing evening pottery class for adults. "I have a lot of customers who started here when they were single and are now bringing their kids," says Meg.
 Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center offers classes to people of all skill levels, ages six and up. Throughout the year, you can join one of the six eight-week sessions. Classes are small, ranging from ten to twelve people, and offer lots of opportunity for hands-on attention. Groups can also arrange mini sessions or one-day programs, for just a taste of what working with clay is like. "Those kind of classes are fun, but there's no time for the students' work to dry, so they have to come back later to pick up their pieces once they've been fired," says Meg. Children's classes take place every Saturday, and are taught by Roberta di Oliviera, a volunteer who is also a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. For adults, there are five evening classes a week: Beginning wheelthrowing classes are taught on Mondays and Wednesdays, while Intermediate and Advanced wheelthrowing classes are taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Friday evenings, students can learn handbuilding techniques with Paul Lee. "The handbuilding classes are geared toward beginners, and offer lots of one-on-one learning," says Meg. During the day, students can come in for open studio time or if they are doing an independent study. Parents who are also taking classes can come in on Saturdays to work in the studio while their kids are in class. Costs for classes include all materials, firing and shelf space where students can keep their work. Artists can work there independently if they buy their clay from the studio. During the breaks between new class sessions, Meg offers intensive specialty classes on subjects that are outside of the normal curriculum, such as a class on how to make plaster molds, for example. Occasionally, she will offer field trips to students, such as the group that went out to Rolling Meadows to fire their work in a special kiln that heats the copper oxide glazed clay up to its melting point. Then the pieces are put into bins full of combustibles like straw. Known as Raku, this is a Japanese technique that results in organic-looking pieces with blackened, crackled surfaces.
There's a reason why Meg seems such a natural at running a ceramics studio and learning center. Not only is she an artist and lover of clay, she also has a background in arts education. She started with a degree in arts education from the University of Southern Maine. "I took classes in all disciplines there, so I would be well-rounded and ready to teach art," says Meg. One of Meg's professors turned her on to ceramics, and there was no going back. After she graduated, Meg moved to Chicago and worked at the Chicago Children's Museum for a while, then taught as a substitute teacher for the Chicago Public Schools. "I did a lot of teaching in special education," says Meg. "The classes were smaller and I felt I could make more of an impact on the kids."
She was away from clay for a while, until she discovered the ceramics studio at the Jane Addams Community Center that was located at Broadway and Belmont. This long-standing program was left over from the days when Jane Addams founded vocational training classes that taught people to become skilled laborers. "Years ago, it was a good job to work in a ceramics factory" explains Meg. "The men would make the ceramics and the women would paint them." As a volunteer there, she had access to the studio and could work as much as she wanted after completing her list of regular duties. Meg taught there until the studio closed in 2002. Shortly after, she decided to go back for another degree and enrolled at The School of the Art Institute, where she studied her two loves—painting and ceramics. After she graduated, she opened the Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center. "I was really following my dream," says Meg. "My mom jokes that I should have been a plumber so I could support her in her old age. But I told her that she has no one to blame but herself." Meg's family always took her to museums, symphonies and started her seriously training in painting at age 14, when she took classes outside of school. Not surprisingly, Meg's ceramics incorporate painting techniques for an unexpected effect. A set of cups, for example, reveal paintings of body parts such as lips, an ear and a hand at their bottoms that evoke a sense of intimacy. She often integrates textural patterns by using fabric during the painting process.
It all starts with the clay. Ceramics is part geology, part chemistry and a lot of messing around. "It's muddy, sticky and messy—that's the good part," says Meg. "Working with clay is like therapy." The composition of clay is much more complex than you'd think. On a basic level, it's very refined mud, or rock worn down to a fine powder. Typically a mixture of feldspar with hints of silica and aluminum, the clay that goes into ceramics is mined and processed. "They dry it, filter it, sift it and purify it," describes Meg. Since it comes from the earth, it starts out with lots of roots, bits of pebbles and other matter that must be removed before it arrives on the potter's wheel. For porcelain, the clay is super-pure and fine, with no grit or grain in it, known as grog. For stoneware, which is a much sturdier type of pottery, there is more grog and pulverized, pre-fired clay included, which gives this type of clay a more plastic quality.
 After you complete a piece, it needs to dry out before it can be fired in the kiln in a several-step process. If a piece goes into the kiln without drying thoroughly, it can explode during firing—leading to disappointment for the artist who created it. Experienced potters learn to be somewhat fatalistic, as there is always a level of uncertainty built into working with clay. Things don't always turn out the way you expect them to, but fortunately, that can also result in pleasant surprises. The first firing, or bisque fire of about 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, is what transforms clay permanently to ceramic. If you want to add a glaze, you do so after the bisque fire and then fire it again at about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Glazes range in colors and properties, from silica (which leads to a glossy effect) to colorants like oxide (which create a rusty hue). "There's lots of chemistry in ceramics," laughs Meg. "I would have paid much closer attention in my chemistry classes, had I known then what I know now." Patience is a virtue in ceramics; between the throwing, accenting, drying, firing, glazing and firing again, a piece can take weeks to complete. But the end result is rewarding, and even becomes somewhat of an obsession for certain people. "Some people catch on really fast," says Meg. "If they come in during open studio time, they can make quite a few pieces during a class session."
The democratic atmosphere at Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center gives all artists equal opportunities to sell their work. "People pay per shelf to display their work," explains Meg. "All of the money goes back into advertising and promotion for the studio. The artists set the prices and I don't take any commission." People walk in all the time off the street and buy the pieces they like. Anything with a price tag is for sale. Todd, the studio volunteer has his own shelf filled with fluted, organic and flower-like pieces, but his work isn't for sale. "I like to fuss with my stuff and I hate to part with it," he says. "So I give it away. I warn people that I regularly patrol resale shops. So you'd better break it if you don't want it." Roberta di Oliviera, the teacher of the studio's children's classes, also has a shelf. Her work is more sculptural and political, including a series of bottles based on historic warmongers, one of which is stamped with skull imprints. Many items are amazingly affordable for original pieces, with some as low as $40. You'll find other items on some of the shelves, such as jewelry and functional art. Meg sponsors several studio events each year, which invite people to explore the studio and purchase the amazing work available there. The anniversary show in May highlights student work, while the summer show features the work of studio staff and visiting artists. Just in time for holiday shopping, Meg holds a holiday show where she invites artists who work in a variety of media to exhibit and sell their work. "Most people do this type of work for pleasure," observes Meg, "But it can be so validating to sell a piece. And there's only so many teapots you need at home, anyway."
Take your opportunity to play with clay by taking a class at the Lincoln Square Pottery Studio and Learning Center. If the last time you touched clay was in grade school, don't worry. There are several beginning classes where everyone is welcome. Call the studio at 773.248.4430 for details. Come find out how fun it can be to turn mud pies into something you're proud to show off on your table at the next class session, which starts on Monday, June 26, 2006. For a complete list of current classes, visit www.comeplaywithclay.
Lincoln Square Pottery Studio & Learning Center
4150 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618
773.248.4430
www.comeplaywithclay.com
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