Author: Colleen Miller

It was great to have LifeBridge back. This time we made turtles.

Recreation Council of Greater St. Louis held their quarterly meeting at Blaze STL. It was a great opportunity to show off the studio. We were fortunate to have met Carol Callahan at FestAbility. Thanks to her for setting this up.

Lifebridge Partnership comes to the studio. Their vision is that “People of all abilities will find belonging, realize their potential, and experience well-being.” We love the part about belonging as “inclusion” is one of our values. The studio was busy and it was great to see the space shared by enabled and disabled together.

Class was taught by Colleen Miller, Board member and volunteer at Blaze STL.

Upper class students from Miriam School and Learning Center on field trip to Blaze STL making pottery.

Alyssa Renaud brought a small group from Pathways to Independence to the studio to do our lovely small bowl project. After finishing the hand built bowl, we played on the pottery wheel some.

Art teacher, Mrs. Terry, brought her eighth graders to the studio for an informational and creative field trip. We talked a little about glaze and clay. The students got to do some hand building in clay to make a bowl. After that, they tried their hand at the wheel.

Comments from Clay Field Trip GCA students Dec 3, 2021
When we were at the ceramic studio I learned that clay has a lot of different elements and involves quite a bit of chemistry.
I enjoyed looking around the studio.
Fun, useful. I always knew what to do. I learned a lot.
The field trip was very informative and I now know why dishes are so expensive.
It was very fun on the spinning wheel and the bowl designing took talent.
The field trip was super fun and a new experience to learn something.
The pottery wheel was fun, but it was also very challenging.
Also, the little bowls we made were fun. I enjoyed looking at the work you had completed and not completed.
I liked your studio and the best part was making a fun thing on the wheel. And I loved how you were
kind and talked about the studio in a way we would understand.
It was fun. I was sad that we didn’t get to keep what we made on the wheel. I would do it again.
I enjoyed the wheel and looking at the decorations on the shelves. I would like to come back for another field trip.
Thanks for giving me a fun experience and the best part that I did was the wheel thing and again thank you for the fun experience and I hope that your business goes well.

We really enjoyed Paraquads art show last month and would like to do something similar, but on a smaller scale. Working on making the old pottery studio more assessable for wheelchairs. Getting an automatic door is next but that may take some doing.

Grade school art teacher is adding pottery to her skills. Blaze STL provided a crash course on the basics including hand building, glazing, kiln operations and a number of tricks and tips.