ISU students interested in expanding their knowledge of ceramics beyond the classroom will have the opportunity to meet a professional from the field this weekend.

Iowa State will welcome guest artist Dan Mehlman on Friday and Saturday for a two-day workshop in design and plaster work. He will introduce design students to the techniques, traditions and problems of ceramic manufacturing, and show students new ways to think about design and production.

Mehlman is a freelance designer, sculptor and mold and modelmaker for the ceramic and glass industry.

Mehlman will include two basic molding principles — a press mold and a two-part mold.

One of the techniques Mehlman will be teaching includes casting a plaster form from an object thrown on a ceramist’s wheel. All of the students who participate in the workshop are asked to bring in an object. After Mehlman sees the objects, he will choose two with which to create a two-piece mold.

Ingrid Lilligren, associate professor of art and design, is responsible for lining up the workshop.

“Part of the reason we have a guest artist like this is to provide more exposure to the students,” Lilligren said. “I specifically bring people who might cross over discipline areas.”

This workshop is for any student in the College of Design or any student who is interested in ceramic manufacturing. For students who would like to participate and are currently not enrolled in a ceramics class, the fee is $20, which helps with the some of the expense of bringing Mehlman to Iowa State.

The rest of Mehlman’s costs are provided by money raised every semester during a clay sale, when students sell some of the pieces they make during the semester.

“I am interested in adding a component and production to the curriculum in my ceramics classes,” Lilligren says.

“If these students go on to work independently in ceramics or go onto graduate school, they will need as much background as possible — and we like to provide that background.”