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Crafting Community

Drop by the ASI Craft Center, where busy students can engage their creative side.

By Larry Peña
Photos by Joe Johnston | Video by Matt Yoon and Dylan Head

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A group of students in blue smocks sit at spinning wheels making pottery.

Students spin their wheels in a pottery class hosted by the ASI Craft Center.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon in the middle of winter quarter, third-year electrical engineering major Reese Tepper is unwinding from a grueling day of classes by working on a personal project at the ASI Craft Center. She’s made and painted a ceramic chess board and is now treating the individual hand-thrown pieces with a coat of colored glaze. 

An open glass door in a brightly-lit hallway under colorful signs reading "Craft Center" reveals a rack of surfboards.
A sandwich board reading "ASI Welcomes you to the Craft Center" and a list of a variety of craft projects

First photo: The entrance to the ASI Craft Center, on the first floor of the University Union. Second photo: A sign advertising the Craft Center’s offerings. 

“I just finished a three-hour midterm and came straight here for fun,” says Tepper. “With engineering, I don’t have a lot of free time. But whenever I have an hour in between classes, it’s easy to come here and relax with a little creative outlet.” 

A young man in a clay-spattered blue smock uses his hands to shape a clay pot
A group of students in dirty blue smocks sit at a row of pottery wheels, shaping pieces of clay.
A collection of unfinished clay bowls, cups and plates sits on a table.

Pottery is one of the most popular classes at the Craft Center. First photo: A student shapes a mug by hand. Second photo: Students throw projects on pottery wheels. Third photo: Student projects awaiting firing in one of the center’s kilns.

Located in the Julian A. McPhee University Union, the center contains spaces dedicated to teaching and facilitating a huge variety of creative projects: a surfboard shaping bay; a studio for fiber arts like sewing, embroidery and knitting; supplies for painting, printmaking and jewelry crafting; a leatherworking station; a stained-glass studio; and the immensely popular ceramics workshop. The center offers six-week introductory classes in each of these areas, as well as open hours for students already familiar with the crafts. 

Students shape surfboards, punch leather and make pottery at the ASI Craft Center.

The space is funded primarily by student fees managed by ASI, and all Cal Poly students get access to classes and crafting supplies at rates far below what they would pay for similar activities elsewhere. 

A close-up shot of a hand pressing a metal stamp tool into a decorated leather strap.
A young woman sits at a table applying a length of metal filament to a small piece of colored glass.

First photo: A student uses a punch to create designs on a leather guitar strap. Second photo: A student crafts a piece of stained glass artwork.

“It’s so important to have a space like this on campus,” says craft center coordinator Jennifer MacMartin, who has a background in public health focusing on community wellness. “Having creative outlets on a college campus where people have such busy schedules gives students a chance to come here and take a breath, get a reprieve from stress, and engage that creative part of themselves.” 

In a workshop strewn with white dust, three young men wearing respirator masks work on shaping foam into surfboards.
A rack holding a dozen unfinished surboards of various sizes and shapes.
A young woman wearing overalls, a respirator mask and headphones scrapes a tool across the surface of a partially finished foam surfboard blank.

First photo: Three students shape shortboards in the surfboard shaping bay. Second photo: A row of finished surboard cores rest in a rack awaiting the final fiberglass layer. Third photo: A student sands down a layer of foam on a longboard.

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