Boulder Mountain Clayworks Inc

          Boulder Mountain Clayworks, Inc., is a 2000 square foot clay studio located in a light industrial park just north of Ketchum, Idaho.  It is equipped to the level of a community college clay studio.  Our gas kiln, the only one in the Valley, allows us to fire to cone 10.  BMC offers many different stoneware and porcelain clay bodies and a full spectrum of glazes for students to use.

          It is our mission to provide clay classes on the community college level to as many people in our Valley that want to “try Clay.”   Our Children’s classes are taught by professional teachers and our adult classes are taught by our professional clay artists.  We also seek to provide state of the art studio space for those artists that need studio space to further their artistic vision.  We are also committed to enriching the community by interacting with other non profits to provide opportunities for them to share the “clay experience” with their clients and staffs.  Our Guest Artists give a community lecture, free and open to the public on their life and times and provide workshops on the current state of clay art from their point of view.

          We estimate that BMC has brought the “clay experience” to 400 children and adults in 2013 through classes, partnership programs and workshops.  The studio is open to all studio potters and the public Monday through Saturday from 9am to 6:00pm.  After hours the studio is available to studio potters by key code entry.

          BMC offered its first classes in July of 1996.  It became a nonprofit arts education organization in November of 2006.  BMC strives to integrate clay education and art appreciation with opportunities for community involvement by offering children’s classes, adult classes and community outreach programs.

          As an example of our community outreach programs we have collaborated with The Hunger Coalition of Blaine County for the past three years on the 3rd Sunday in January to put on the very popular “Empty Bowls” event.  This fundraiser for The Hunger Coalition involves Boulder Mountain Clayworks’ invitating  the community to join us in making 300 handmade ceramic bowls in our studio. We ask local restaurants and caterers to donate wonderful food to the event like soups, stews, salads and ice cream. The community comes to purchase these bowls for $20 each and samples the fabulous food that has been donated. 100% of the proceeds go to The Hunger Coalition for the purchase of food for those who are food insecure.

          We have also worked with Higher Ground and the Wounded Warriors organizations to provide bowl parties for our veterans.  These are bond building events and provide tangible evidence to the veterans of their ability to create and of their time in Sun Valley.

 

          One of the high lights of our summer events is working with the Idaho Cancer Foundation and their Camp Rainbow Gold that is located about 20 minutes north of Ketchum.  BMC provides, free of charge, a project, the materials, the expertise and the firing of the projects to the camp.  This is a camp for kids with cancer and their siblings; we reach over 175 youngsters per year here.

          BMC has a fabulous Summer Program this summer.  A raku workshop with nationally known Jim Romberg will be held June 27-29.  All of the workshops are “hands on.”  In July, Renee Brown will be down from Missoula challenging her workshop participants to create clay sculpture using her unique hand building and textural techniques.  To finish up the guest artist series for the Summer we have Forrest Lesch-Middelton, a California clay artist teaching Volumetric Image Transfers.  He has been named   Clay Artist  of the Year by Ceramics Monthly Magazine.  All of these workshops qualify for continuing education credits  from College of Southern Idaho.

          We are offering one day workshops, children’s clay camps, teenage throwing and family clay afternoons.  This will be an exciting and busy summer season at Boulder Mountain Clayworks.