Want a Creative Way to Celebrate Valentine's This Year?

The scene from the movie, “Ghost,” with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze playing in the mud at her wheel is full of passion and sensuality. It has been voted the most romantic film moment of all time. With that scene in mind, consider a couple of playful, ingenious evenings spent making a memory with your significant other this February. Instead of an evening of dinner and a movie, register for the “Falling in Love with Clay” sweetheart’s class at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts Clay Studio. The class will provide a duo of date nights on consecutive Fridays, February 11 and 18 from 6-8 pm at the Clay Studio located behind the Center at 225 W. State Street.

The brainchild of clay teacher Maureen Joyce, this class offers couples a time to spend their energy together to have fun and make something meaningful for them. This is not a class to try to perfect your artistic abilities – the finished product is not the goal as much as sharing a new experience with the one you love. In the first class Joyce will guide couples through a step-by-step process of making a clay piece, which will then be bisque-fired and ready for glazing the second week. Joyce has several project options to bring clay work and couples together - for example, “kissing mugs” or a hand-built keepsake box. Options for decorating the item – with anything from initials and dates to cutouts and drawings - are endless. In addition to creating something together to make this year’s Valentines Day one to remember, there will be time to play on the wheel and experiment with clay.

Making mud pies and playing in the mud is one of the first ways we play as children. It was fun then – it’s still fun now! Students always comment that clay is tactile, liberating, and cathartic, providing so many ways to spur on creativity. Finding that inventiveness together with the person you love gives more opportunities to involve their playful side as well.

All supplies for the class will be included in the cost of $60 per couple. The finished pieces will be fired and available to be picked up about a week after the final class. Class is limited to only six couples, so be one those six to register today. Call 828/669-0930. Come have your own “Ghost” inspired experience with your Valentine this year – we’ll even have “Unchained Melody” playing in the background!