Next time you go to bite into a fudgecicle, make sure it is indeed that summertime classic and not a skillfully-crafted artistic decoy. The faux fudgcicle is just one of many clay masterpieces created this week by the 10 students in Ramune Jauniskis' pottery class.
The five-day Wellesley Recreation Department course, held at the Warren Building, was an opportunity for children, ages 6-13, to mold and paint everything from cups and pots to checkerboards and houses - and, yes, frozen dessert items too. Some projects involved a potter's wheel; others required students to follow Jauniskis' patterns, by hand.
On Thursday, as week's end neared, some students were beginning to paint their hardened creations. As Jauniskis noted - and as parents might recall from elementary art classes - the bland colors of wet glazes often do not reflect their vibrant, post-firing hues. It takes a kiln's heat to reveal glazes' true colors.
Find out what's happening in Wellesleyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Jauniskis said today's paints aren't quite as dull as yesterday's, but she laughed as she described some kids' lack of faith in the firing process.
"A lot of kids when they see the paint will say, 'Oh, I don't want to paint mine,'" she said. "They don't believe me when I say it'll look better when it comes out of the kiln."
