Students looking for a productive way to fill time between classes or to spend their evenings need look no further than the SIUC Craft Shop.

The Craft Shop, located in the basement of the Student Center, offers various classes in a variety of artistic mediums, including matting and framing, woodworking, beadwork, painting, sewing and glass arts.

Another section of the shop is a pottery studio, where visitors and students can learn different aspects of ceramics, such as wheel throwing, glazing and firing.

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Monday was the first meeting of a wheel-throwing class taught by Chris Scamehorn.

Scamehorn, a graduate student from Union, Mich., in ceramics, has been wheel throwing for 14 years. He said his class gives students the opportunity to learn basic ceramics skills.

‘Sometimes people make objects, sometimes they make a mess. It’s a lot of fun,’ Scamehorn said.

At the first class, Scamehorn taught students about the history of ceramics and wheel throwing, and introduced them to the materials and the technical aspects of how the studio functions.

Wheel throwing is a meditative, relaxing art, Scamehorn said. He said some believe artists can only center the clay on the wheel once the artists center themselves.

Throughout the three-week class, Scamehorn will teach his students how to throw clay, fire it and glaze it.

The wheel throwing class is not the only opportunity for students and community members to look into ceramics, however.

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The ceramic shop is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Curriculum classes use the shop as well.

Jennifer Kennedy, a visiting assistant professor in art education, took her art and design students to the ceramics shop to glaze and fire a project they made in class.

She said the class, a course in studio art for pre-service teachers, shows aspiring teachers how to infuse art into their core curriculums.

‘Arts are underserved in schools, and this is a way that when teachers’ students are not receiving formal art instruction, they can still learn key art concepts in conjunction with the academic work that they’re already doing,’ Kennedy said.

But although the class is considered an education class, it is offered as an elective and is open to any student, Kennedy said.

She said her students use the craft shop because they can buy the clay there and use the studio to glaze and fire projects.

Shandereen White, a sophomore from Chicago studying early childhood education, said she decided to take the art class because it will give her more ideas for teaching and making her lessons fun for students.

White said she has enjoyed the class and she wants to explore more art mediums.

‘I’m thinking about coming to the craft shop to do (a project) on my own,’ White said.

Audra Ord can be reached at

536-3311 ext. 275 or at [email protected].