While wandering around campus this afternoon, I stumbled upon a wooden railing full of colorful, glazed, ceramic cups with handles.

Seventeen students and their instructor were seated in the patio area adjacent to the Roundhouse near Lassen Hall.

Each student presented the cups that he had made from clay and glazed to the group to be critiqued.

Tom Decker, a Sacramento State lecturer for a beginning ceramics class said he was holding class outside because people don’t talk as much in the studio.

Decker also wanted the students to make cups, present them to the group and gain confidence.

The cups were the second class project. The first one was to create a bowl and the next task is to make a vessel.

“Of this class of 22 students, only one or two of them are art majors,” Decker said.

“The others are not even taking the course for general education either. They just want to do ceramics.”

Leonard Low can be reached at [email protected].