Ceramics professor fires up some special gifts
By Julie Rausch
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David Hiltner, who teaches ceramics, shows some of the platters Shirley and President Don Beggs asked him to make. The platters will be given as gifts to special guests and donors. |
David Hiltner, assistant professor of ceramics, has created one-of-a-kind platters, which will be presented to special guests and donors to the university.
"It was an honor to be asked to make gifts," Hiltner says. Shirley and President Don Beggs requested the platters.
The Beggses say they think it's a privilege to be able to call upon the expertise of faculty members such as Hiltner.
"We both really appreciate art created on campus," says Shirley Beggs. "We feel it’s important for donors and special guests to be able to carry home with them gifts created by members of the faculty or by students. For alumni, those unique, artistic gifts represent the talents from their alma mater and are all the more appreciated."
It also represents a lot of hard work. It took Hiltner about two months to complete the 30 salt-fired platters, which are first thrown on a potter's wheel.
Using
a traditional Korean method, they are flattened with a mallet to about
15-16 inches in diameter. The platters shrink one or two inches during
the firing.
The ware is bisqued during a first firing to prepare it for glazing. It takes about 20 hours to heat the hard brick kiln, fueled with natural gas, to the proper glazing temperature, 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit. Six plates fit into the hand-made kiln at one time.
Salt is thrown into the kiln on the second firing. The salt glaze is formed by sodium vapor attaching to the alumina and silica in the clay. Salt build-up inside the kiln causes more richly seasoned pieces; however, it also is a factor in causing the oven’s structure to deteriorate.
The oven is sturdy, though. Hiltner is using a kiln that he and some other students built while he was a WSU undergraduate seven years ago.
The glaze leaves an orange peel textured-effect. Various colors are achieved in the firing process depending on which slips and glazes Hiltner uses. Slips (wet clay) and glazes are brushed or sprayed onto the surfaces prior to the second firing. The metallic oxides in the slips determine the color of the platter after it is fired.
"Some of the slips I use are orange to red or peach to salmon in color," Hiltner says. "I also will use white, black and gold slips with yellow, green or blue transparent glazes which give an old, crackled earth surface look."
Hiltner received a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics in 1973 from WSU, and he completed his master of fine arts degree at Syracuse University in New York. Before joining the WSU faculty in 1999, Hiltner taught at Syracuse, Northwest College in Wyoming and University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Hiltner’s ceramic works have been included in invitational and juried national exhibitions. Recently, a solo exhibition of 16 wood-fired vessels was shown at Northwest College. His work was also included in an invitational group exhibition, "Focus on Clay," at the Erma B. White Gallery at Butler County Community College. His work can be seen locally at the Acme Gallery and at WSU’s Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art as part of a faculty exhibition through May 14.
