💐Safflower, calendula, rhubarb, indigo, sunflowers and more… these will be blooming for Fall 2026 to be made into dyes
#Ollas are the terra cotta sculptures made from students recently from our Arts and Society Dialogues Idea Forum @smfaattufts@smfafibers@tuftsdaily@tuftsuniversity
🌱They are scattered throughout the garden beds to slowly leak rainwater, feeding the seedlings with moisture.
Thank you Leslie Rogers @buttflincher for showing us how to make these organic dye plants grow and thanks to all who came out to plant and water today.
👀We are looking for a person who can regularly water these babies over the remainder of this month.
This is a paid job, please DM @buttflincher if you are interested🤑
As we are currently deep in the trenches of our final review boards this week, it is bittersweet to reflect on this past semester, riddled with snow days, glaze experiments, clay chances and camaraderie in the #smfaclay studios. Here are a few snapshots during the final crits- a record of the hard work that some of our students have put in to their projects.
Congratulations to all for pushing yourselves and accepting the occasional “failure” that is inherent in collaborating with clay.
We wish you all an inspiring summer and to the folx who are graduating next week-carry forward what the fire has taught you -strength, patience and resilience ✨ ✨✨
We are looking forward to our @mfaboston Artist Talk tomorrow with Jennifer Ling Datchuk in room B209 at 6pm @jenniferlingdatchuk@michellemillarfisher
📯We are at capacity for seats but
if you have already registered, please join us!
🦏 SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden planting sesh this week. Meet Leslie Rogers and company @buttflincher at the plant 🪴 beds left of the 🏫 school.
📆 Thursday -5pm-8:30pm
and Friday -11am-4:30pm
Many of you chose to become plant parents this year, rearing a total of 100 seedlings from seed paper made in Milcah Bassel’s classes, using our garden-dyed scraps from last fall’s community quilting 🧶
We have many more seeds for direct planting and a few expert gardeners in our midst who raised successful broods (MFA Mijung Yun and Exec Admin Assistant Bronwyn Teixeira), to whom we owe 👏
📯We will have snacks, a new trellis to install, and work on displays from Quilting ReImagined and 3D Foundations: Fibers & Welding.
SEE 3rd video for a future VISION of the FRUITS OF OUR LABOR🍓🍇🍎🍉🍑🍊🍋🍒🍋🍍🍌🥑🍏
New shop glazes, coming to the studio soon! @k_feefifofum Technical Explorations class has a new cone 6 glaze palette in the works. These glazes are beauties and we can’t wait to see how they layer and share them with you! 🔥🩵
SMFA CLAY road trip to 🚗 DETROIT @nceca 🌆 It was quite the ceramic experience❗️Congrats to Yaqi Cai @user0name01234 on it’s presentation “Cut, Etch, Sinter: Laser Cutting + Clay” and to Erin Carey @negativejoy for hosting a SMFA at Tufts table in the resource hall.
💐Turbo gratitude to Leslie Rogers @buttflincher for the insider Detroit tour and intel❗️Hope to get students to next year’s NCECA in Baltimore 〰️
📸Images from the last 5️⃣days with SMFA CLAY〰️➰〰️
Slides 🛝 1 & 2
Thank you Dr. Michelle Millar Fisher @michellemillarfisher for your generosity in showing & teaching our class selected ceramic works from the MFA Boston collection and projected plans for the museum’s future ceramic work displays.
We cannot wait to read your upcoming book, “Craft Schools: Where We Make What We Inherit.”
A project which took her across 48 contiguous US states to visit craft schools via train over the course of three years 🛤️
Slide 🛝 3
MFA Student Grace @graceocdina demonstrating how to make color clay for our Advanced Studio Projects class
Slides🛝 4,5,6
Final critiques from our 3d Foundations class
Slides 🛝 7-11
Friday’s Art and Dialogue Salon organized by Mary Ellen Strom. Special thanks to Neda Moripour
and our keynote speaker Elly Stormer Vadseth @dwelling_gestures for showing us her fascinating Trondheimfjord research.
#smfaclay
📯Join us this Friday at 230 Fenway in the Anderson Auditorium for the
ARTS AND SOCIETY: DIALOGUES 2026 🖼️🎨🗣️🎙️
⏰ 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
Keynote lecture by Elly S. Vadseth: “Within and Beyond Extractive Zones – Past, Present, and Future
Choreographies of the Sea”🌊
Panel discussions from a multitude of professors and curators from SMFA and A&S.
At 1pm join us for the “Ideas Forum”where we will be making Terra cotta 🪴GARDEN SCULPTURES and several other projects in the vein of this dialogue session.
2nd slide animation titled Prometheus Garden by Bruce Bickford, 1988
Here is a tutorial on keeping our wedging table clean and ready for the next artist to use it 🧽 🧼
🚨 There has been wonderful activity in the ceramic studio over the open studio hours and weekend.
🦜Please be a steward of our space and wash 🧼 after your workstation and floor 🪣 when you are done!
Please do not leave your clay buckets, tools and clay dust for us to clean up after 😃
Clay people that clean together 〰️stay together!
