Aaron Hagan is pleased to see the pottery program take off at Casa.
 On Wednesday, he fired up the kilns for the thousandth time since Casa opened in 2013.

“We started with three kilns and now we have six,” Hagan said, adding a variety of students, adults and arts groups, with a core group of 75 active members using the kilns the most,though he estimated over 500 people have used the kilns including school groups, a special needs program and much more.

“ We have a lot of different programs o for pottery and object production. They’re probably among our most popular classes,” he said.
“We fire  the kilns up two or three times a week,” Hagan observed, adding last year he predicted they would reach the milestone about this time.

Casa’s clay program began with a gas kiln and two mid-sized electric kilns in 2013. Due to a rapid growth from an expanding 3D Studio and heightened interest in clay education, Casa purchased a large oval electric kiln in early 2014. Later in 2015, Casa acquired a glass kiln for glass fusion firing to meet the needs of local glass artisans. 

 

In 2016, the clay programming again expanded as an old kiln which was retrofitted to become a Raku kiln. Raku is a Japanese style of firing that involves smoke and fire and dramatic finishes. The first Raku firing occurred in 2017 with full-day Raku workshops beginning in the fall of 2018.

It has been so popular that they have been able to hire other staff including Ethan Roth to fire up the kiln and train a few other volunteers to fire them up and use the kilns safely.
“ We rely a lot on our volunteers,” he said.