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A passel of potters photos by Jim Craven With 10 pottery wheels, a kiln and yards of counter space, Sacred Heart's new ceramics lab has plenty of room for creativity. School opens ceramics lab By Vicki Guarino of the Mail Tribune To a chorus of "cools," Sacred Heart School opened the door Thursday to a new world of self-expression for students: ceramics. The generosity of two donors has enabled the elementary school to set up one of the largest pottery labs in the region. With 10 wheels, a large kiln, yards of counter space, plus shelves of glazes, molds and tools, it is an uncommonly well-appointed pottery shop for the school's 260 or so students. The first class, fourth-graders, set to work on the wheels Thursday morning. "See, we're going to make something like that," said a wide-eyed Lacey Hall, pointing out a bowl on the cover of a pottery book to classmate Happy Lathrop. Eventually, teacher Donna Patella will set students free to make whatever they want. For now, however, students are getting used to shaping clay and controlling the wet mass on the spinning wheel. Patella "I've used modeling clay before, but this is different," said Mollie Reeder, squeezing her cube of gray clay. "It actually feels good between your fingers," Lacey said as the clay oozed between her palms and up her forearms. Mess was no matter for Patella. "Today we're just going to play and get gushy," she told eager potters. "Gushy is OK." And there was no way a student could make a mistake. "You probably just stuck your finger into it," Patella assured one youngster. "It's all right, it's just clay." Looking around the studio, Patella was as excited as her students. "This has been my dream for 10 years," she said. Working in ceramics gives kids a new outlet for expressing themselves, she said. It draws on muscle, eye and hand coordination as it taps imaginations. Patella has taught ceramics elsewhere. For the 10 years she has been at Sacred Heart, however, she hasn't had the resources -- space or money -- to add the subject to her art program. That is, not until one Sacred Heart parent and business owner last year asked Patella if she had any projects that needed funding. Patella brought up her idea for the ceramics lab and soon had a $10,000 check. A short time later, another family gave the program a collection of art prints. Patella sold them and suddenly had a total of $17,000 for her new studio. The school gave her a room -- a long-abandoned wood shop. St. Mary's High School students cleaned up the place. Crews came in and set up the wheels and installed special clay-proof plumbing, and by the end of last week, Patella had everything she needed for a new art program. "I've never been in a place that has the kind of equipment this place has," she said. Patella planned the place big so that youngsters wouldn't have to wait for space or tools. "I don't like to have kids standing round," she said. She doesn't like the idea of having the equipment sit idle either, so she's making plans to accommodate more than Sacred Heart students. St. Mary's students will be using the lab, and Patella wants to open the room to the neighboring West Medford community. "I think the value of someplace like this increases the more it is used," Patella says. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA