On a balmy afternoon in the rear courtyard of the Adele and Herbert J. Klapper Center for Fine Arts, an anagama wood fie kiln is warming up, and the clay artists of the Art Department who constructed and fired the kiln are celebrating three months of intensive work on their masterpiece with a befitting barbeque Those who worked on the kiln include Professors William Shillaies, Anti Liu, Hugh McElroy, and graduate students Eileen Sackman, Roseanne Ebner, and Shana Berman, With the exception of Professor McElroy, all are present, and they are more than happy to talk about the impressive result of their work, ‘The anagama kiln model, origi rating from Japan and China, was created for making pottery 15,000 years ago. "We wanted to make Adelphi a fruitful ceramics center” Professor Shillaies said The kiln builders wanted to have something that distinguishes ‘Adelphi from other universities, The unique structure is called a “dragon kiln’ because of the flames and smoke that it cemits. Adelphis “dragon kiln" is a westernized version of the original Asian model ‘The building crew spent two months cutting the wood necessary to keep the flame alive for six to seven days; roughly six months waiting for the wood to dry, an The Anagama Kiln— Adelphi's Newest Masterpiece entire day filling and firing the kiln, and another six days waiting for the kiln to cool down so the objects could be removed, said Professor Shillalies. The arrangement of the pottery inside the kiln is called a “tumble stack,” Ms. Sackman explained, referring to the roughly 500 ceramics piled inside. At the completion of the firing and cooling processes, the Asian tea bowls and vases, the European wine jugs, plates, bowls, and the Native American ceramics will appear in various colors, including yellow, green, brown, grey, and black. This is attributable to the different clays used in making them, and how these clays react to the heat inside the kiln, said Professor Shillalies, The ceramics are not treated with glaze, which allows for an carthier finish and a better reaction with the heat Half ofthe funding for the kiln was raised from the profits art students generated by selling ceramics they created in December 2006, and the other half of the funding was pro: vided by President Robert A. Scott and Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic AMfairs Marcia G. Welsh "We received great support from the president and the provost, who were excited we're doing something unique, Professor Shillalis sad. Future projects include building a European model salt ‘wood fire kiln, similar to kilns previously constructed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and England. In his type of kiln, “sal is used to glaze the pots, and vapors from the salt turn into glass,” according to Professor Shillalies Another goal for the team is to organize international workshops s0 that a variety of people can view the unique kilns