SHERIDAN — For the past few weeks, Stephen Mullins, the local ceramicist and business owner behind Red Bison Studio in Sheridan, has been busily building. Now, as a result of his labor, a several-foot-tall mound of bricks sticks out of the earth on the southern end of Sheridan College’s campus.
Someday soon, Mullins hopes, the mound — a kiln — will fire pieces of pottery by students and artists from across Wyoming, the U.S. and the world, enticing all to check out Sheridan’s ceramics scene.
Mullins first had the idea for the kiln a few years ago and created a limited liability company called State Clay — separate and distinct from his ceramics studio at Red Bison — to facilitate fundraising for the endeavor. State Clay partnered with SAGE Community Arts, which will serve as the business’ fiscal nonprofit sponsor, said SAGE Executive Director Jill Benson.
From there, the fundraising began. Mullins received contributions from the Wyoming Arts Council, the Homer A. and Mildred S. Scott Foundation and local philanthropists, including the Standish family, Kim Love and an anonymous donor to meet the goal. State Clay raised more than $50,000 to fund the kiln project.
“It felt like this huge number…” Mullins said. “The people in our community were really willing. They were excited for the project; it’s all education-based.”
Mullins also partnered with Sheridan College to build the kiln on campus and offer Sheridan College students and professors access to the new artistic resource.
“Having it at the college is the perfect environment,” Mullins said.
Construction on the kiln began in May, Mullins said, with a multi-state coalition of builders. Ceramicist Simon Levin was the primary builder on the project, with assistance from an apprentice. A group of volunteers, including a Sheridan College professor and students, representatives from the University of Wyoming and interested parties from across Wyoming, California and Illinois appeared to assist in the process. It took the group about two weeks, working seven days a week, to complete the structure.
The kiln’s construction is unique, Mullins said. It’s a wood-fired kiln, meaning the heat used to fire ceramics within the body of the kiln is generated by burning wood.
The kiln also features two designs in one: While the front part of the kiln is a train kiln, which includes an elevated box in which ceramic pieces are fired, the other part operates as a cross-draft kiln with a catenary arch, or special parabolic shape, design. Many kilns are train kilns or catenary arch kilns, Mullins said, but it’s rare to see the two combined in one. This distinctive design will allow Mullins to fire using the train kiln, the catenary arch kiln or both at once.
Mullins said his goal is to offer this type of kiln to all sorts of Wyoming artists. There’s not another kiln of this caliber in the state, and Mullins said his kiln offers a resource for students and artists across the state. He’s already partnered with SAGE and reached out to other local art nonprofits and plans to expand his search statewide soon.
“This is such a unique style of art that we get to bring right to our community,” Benson said.
Each year, Mullins said, State Clay is planning to host two workshops and firings — featuring one national artist and one international artist — during which the invited artists will demonstrate their individual wood-firing techniques to attentive learners. These workshops, Benson said, will elevate art in Sheridan and offer local artists and students expertise in a special technique. Sheridan may even become a ceramics hub for the state.
Meanwhile, an influx of artisans attending the workshops — and requiring nourishment, lodging and other services — will boost the local economy, Mullins said.
“A whole other level of learning will happen with each artist,” Mullins said.
Although the kiln construction is complete, Mullins said there’s still more to be done. The kiln’s concrete pad has to dry for much of the summer, and more fundraising is required to build a roof over the kiln work area.
Nevertheless, Mullins anticipates the kiln’s first firing, an intensive, multi-day process in which ceramicists must ensure the burning wood is maintaining the kiln at the proper temperature, will take place in August.
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