ART LESSON — Alleghany High School art students listen to Mary Douglas describe the process used to make a ceramic teapot.

Art students study teapots

Nineteen art students sat with notebooks open in their laps as Mary Douglas, with a white glove on one hand, held up a wooden and metal sculpture.

"How long does it take to make something like that?" a student asked.

"When you’re working on a lathe you can do it really fast … putting this metal together is easy as well," she said.

The sculpture looked like a wooden miniature pumpkin carriage with a wheel that extended far out to the front on a metal axle. It was actually a teapot.

"I’m using the word ‘teapot’ loosely because most of them aren’t functional as teapots; the artist is just using the form of a teapot with a handle, spout and hollow body," said Douglas, curator of the Kamm teapot collection.

Most, however, were much more complex and time consuming in their construction.

One was apparently inspired by nightmares. Another was clay made to look like different kinds of metal. One was an irreverent political satire called "JFK’s Brain." Another was a whimsical ceramic pot called "Get that Dog Out of the Pool," shaped like a backyard pool with a poodle for a lid.

Moving alongside a long padded table full of such teapots, Douglas described processes and materials used in contemporary craft, including an assortment of fiber, ceramics and metal.

This was one of three Alleghany High School art classes that teacher Donna Link brought to see the Kamm teapot collection during a recent school week. The collection will be housed in the Sparta Teapot Museum, expected to open in 2008.

"I hope my students will gain a better understanding of what the teapot museum has to offer the county. I hope they begin to form a connection with and alliance to the museum, which I feel is going to be an asset," Link said.

"In their own work, I hope they become broader and deeper in their ability to interpret forms like the teapot and are able to see maybe limitless possibilities," she said.

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