Jason A. Smith | The Valdosta Daily TimesAnabelle Giron, 7, mixes colors on her palette to use for her wind chime.

VALDOSTA — Children and their parents gathered at the Hudson House across the street from the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts to make pottery Saturday.

The classes, hosted by the Turner Center and taught by Julie Smith, are two-hour projects that can be completed in one day, she said.

The classes focus on a particular project that is seasonal or in parity with a timely holiday such as Easter or Mother’s Day, she said.

During the Saturday class, children made wind chimes.

The chimes are made of two cones that fit inside one another. The top cone has an intricate design on it, and the bottom cone fits inside the top cone. There is a small weighted piece used to catch the wind, making the cones hit each other to chime in the wind.

Because creating the wind chimes requires the use of a kiln, the children don’t actually create the chimes from start to finish, Smith said.

However, the children do create the cones using clay wrapped around another cone that is used for support, she said. The support cone helps the children with the glazing process and is later removed.

Once the clay has been properly applied to the support cone and sealed, the children take a small palette and add glaze, the chemicals used to paint the clay, and decorate the wind chime, Smith said. 

There was also clay available for the children to cut out butterflies, flowers and other decorations to add onto the wind chime to give it a three-dimensional look.

Once the glaze is applied, Smith takes the children’s creations and puts them in the kiln, she said. Typically the finished product is ready to be picked up about a week after the class.

While the items created in the class are seasonal or timely to a holiday, all of the projects in the class are functional, Smith said.

“The projects are always something usable,” she said. “For Mother’s Day, we’ve done flower pots. In the winter, we’ve done luminaries that can be as Christmas trees. We’ve done bird feeders, too.”

In this particular class, there were several first-time students but John Walker Pankey, 7, has been attending the classes for about a year, he said.

Pankey said he enjoys coming to the classes because “I get to learn stuff and I get to make stuff.”

While he said he enjoys molding the clay, his favorite part of the class is applying glaze to his creation. His favorite creation was a luminary shaped like an angel that he made for Christmas.

The children’s pottery classes are held the first Saturday of every month. For more information, call the Turner Center, (229) 247-2787, or visit http://turnercenter.org and search for pottery classes. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1257.