Clay it Cool

Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: September 2024

Photo by Bianca Mitchell, The Bascom Director of Marketing

There’s magic in that mud! The Bascom’s Frank Vickery rules a bustling ceramics studio, with lessons for everyone.

Can ceramics be head-over-heels addictive? It certainly can when the mojo is right.

And there’s plenty of magic in the Ceramics Open Studio Program at The Bascom under the direction of Frank Vickery. The pull is 2,500 square feet of marvelous mud-space. It’s used for wedging, texturing, hand-building, wheel-work, slabbing, scoring, glazing, and mastering kiln-skills in the Dave Drake Ceramic Barn.

But the real magic is Frank Vickery. He’s the epitome of the art of craft. He has an unyielding vision of bonding everyone, everywhere to his concept of community.

All this and more fires up participants and community with classes, lectures, and super-successful shows, the 13th of which recently rocked the rafters of what used to be the Crane Horse Stables.

The idea behind the shows is sales, but the whole experience is much deeper than that. Ultimately the practice is to get better. Learning, preparation, interaction (which boils down to teamwork), and presentation, are the things that build community and successful crafters.

As shows approach, studio members prepare for the event. Everyone does a shift as a helper, wrapper, customer interactor, or register-cashier. All the pieces are made by the studio members.

A new soda kiln pavilion and a concrete structure around it to make a patio area was completed in June. A soda kiln is an atmospheric kiln, firing at 2300+ degrees. Vickery says, “The soda vaporizes in the kiln due to the heat and attaches to the clay body surface and creates magical and lustrous surfaces.

“We are honoring a Cashiers potter who passed during Covid. We are reconstructing his world-class kiln, reconfiguring it here, and putting a pavilion over it, allowing us to grow our workshop offerings and the quality of instructors we attract.”

The program also added a new instructor, Esther Lipscomb, resident educator artist who will teach classes and work with the public to strengthen community and share her vast expertise.

“I’m proud to be part of each artist’s creative journey. It’s inspiring to watch their growth,” says Vickery. “By working with artists, The Bascom members, staff, and board, a community arose, and in a way, we’ve all become a family.”

To know more about The Bascom, the ceramics program, and future events, call The Bascom at (828) 526-4949. Better yet, stop by and discover all the treasures and surprises that it houses – 323 Franklin Road in Highlands.