It’s an odd thing to hear about a biology student teaching a ceramics class, especially when it’s at Gannon University.

Sophomore biology major Rebecah Ford said she has been teaching a weekly ceramics class on Tuesdays for almost a whole semester.

While she was in high school, Ford said, she took a vast array of art classes and she has taken a class from the Erie Art Museum. She’s glad this class has helped her to continue with artistic education.

Ford said the class has been going well. Right now the students are finishing up their projects and painting them. Ford has made several pieces including a coil pot, a slab box and a tile.

In the class, Ford said, students have made a variety of ceramic pieces including coil pots, slab boxes, tiles and 3-D objects, such as angels, octopi and Tigger.

Ford said she started the class because she likes ceramics and she figured other people at Gannon would too. Since Gannon didn’t have a ceramics class, she’d figure she could start one.

“I guess I just thought, we have all this clay, might as well use it,” Ford said.

Ford said she feel like most of the people in the class enjoy it.

Hyonjin Choi, a graduate education student, said she thinks the class is awesome and that Ford is nice and intelligent.

Choi said she made several pieces during the semester including a 3-D ceramic Tigger, some coil pots and a slap box.

“All of the pretty stuff in this room was made by Hyonjin,” another student said.

Emily Russell, a chemistry major, said the thing she likes best about the ceramics class is that she could make whatever she wanted.

Throughout the duration of the class, Russell said she made two ceramic octopi, some doorstops, a globe, some half spheres, a painting and an obelisk.

Russell said though she likes ceramics, her favorite part of the class is painting.

Ford said she definitely enjoyed getting to teach people and share her talents with other people.

“I really enjoy seeing how people have grown in their projects,” Ford said.

Ford said she would like to teach a class someday to professors who want to learn how to work with ceramics. She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to, but if professors want to learn, she’d want to teach them.

Ford said next semester she will be facilitating an open studio. With this, people can come into the studio and a variety of crafts including ceramics, painting and jewelry.

If students like art and they miss it from high school, Ford said this class will be a good way to start again, try new things and to escape from school work.

If anyone is interested in joining the ceramics class, they can contact Lori Steadman at steadman005@gannon.edu.

“If there are students who want to learn and I have time, then I would love to teach them or help,” Ford said. “If not then I will always help out with workshops or art open studio.”

This article by Khadija Djellouli originally published in The Gannon Knight on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. For more articles from The Gannon Knight, check out www.gannonknight.com