Community members peruse ceramics made by WVU Clay Club members during the 2025 pottery sale. (Photo by WVU Clay Club.)
The WVU Clay Club’s spring pottery sale will take place May 1 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Douglas O. Blaney Lobby of the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center.
Shoppers can peruse handmade ceramics, including mugs, vases, jewelry and figurines.
Prior to 2025, the semi-annual sale was hosted by the WVU School of Art and Design’s Ceramics Production students and featured mostly bulk-run utilitarian ceramics. Under the Clay Club, the sale features the students’ unique, personal works.
“The WVU Clay Club Sale provides a unique opportunity for patrons and community to not only get a glimpse of what students are creating at the WVU College of Creative Arts and Media, but also the ability to purchase works of art made by students,” said Robert Moore, an associate professor of Art and head of the Ceramics program.
Student artists attend and work the pottery sale, so patrons will have the opportunity to meet and speak with the sculptors.
Sydney Hatfield, a senior Art Education major, with an emphasis in Ceramics, is the current president of the WVU Clay Club.
“I grew up in a very artsy family, so I was always making something,” Hatfield said. “When I was in middle school, the local art museum started doing a pottery camp in the summers and I’ve been obsessed with pottery ever since.”
She loves making sculptures and slipcasting objects, which is pouring a clay slurry into a plaster mold to form more delicate or intricate ceramics. She joined the Clay Club to get more involved with the WVU Ceramics community.
The pottery sale is her favorite club activity.
“It’s fun to basically run a business for a day,” she said. “I love seeing the community’s support for our club and really appreciate people showing up for us. We all make a wide variety of items, so there’s something for everyone.”
WVU Clay Club members set up for the 2025 pottery sale. (Photo by WVU Clay Club.)
Proceeds from the sale benefit WVU Clay Club members and ceramics students, helping to pay for club activities, visiting artists and demonstrations and attendance to the annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference.
NCECA is an international membership organization centered around ceramics. At its yearly conference, there are exhibitions, artist demonstrations, new technology displays, school recruiting booths and ceramic supplies and vendors.
Hatfield has attended the NCECA conference previously, and she loved having the opportunity to see art from all over the country.
This pottery sale is one day only: Friday, May 1, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center Douglas O. Blaney Lobby.
The Clay Club is open to any WVU student, and its membership is comprised of a mix of ceramics majors and non-majors. The group sponsors activities like the Monongalia Empty Bowls Throw-A-Thon and a yearly collaboration with the Horticultural Club. Follow @wvuceramics to see activities and work produced by the WVU Clay Club and ceramics students.
Learn more about the WVU School of Art and Design at https://creativeartsandmedia.wvu.edu/school-of-art-and-design.