Maybe it happened within a half hour, certainly by the 45-minute mark.

But at some point, the LINC kids’ understanding of the simple directions from the KC Clay Guild art teachers ran fully amok — just like it was supposed to.

The little clay pots the class of girls had been shaping with their hands took off in an array of directions as varied as all of their imaginations.

Their teachers — the Clay Guild’s Education Chair Abby Callaghan and artist-in-residence Sam Sequeira — had given some direction to the girls in LINC’s Caring Communities program at Dobbs Elementary in the Hickman Mills School District.

They’d showed them some ways to enliven the character of their clay pots with eyeballs, lips, ears . . .

But now the children, without prodding, were running with it. No more nervous glances at their neighbors’ projects. Inhibitions fell away.

Lips, giant teeth, rabbit ears, snaky octopus arms began attaching to pots as the girls worked undaunted by — even delighting in — their hands being smudged and flaked with clay.

“We never say you have to do it this way or that way,” Callaghan said. “We just want them to have fun and open them up to something else they might want to do.”

“We really enjoy it,” she said of their love of ceramics. “And we want other people to enjoy it too.”

The KC Clay Guild has been around since the late 1980s as a non-profit offering a community space for ceramic artists in Kansas City and reaching out to encourage new generations of artists.

The practice of the art requires some specific equipment, particularly a kiln — a special oven — to complete the creative process, and that’s part of what binds ceramic artists together, Sequeira said.

“It’s good for building community,” they said. “You have to know people. You have to rely on people and ask them to help you do it.”

This fall, the KC Clay Guild began partnering with LINC at Dobbs to introduce children into the creative community of ceramics, with classes for boys and girls after-school.

The after-school time, being loosened from some of the time constraints of the regular school day, provides a great opportunity for students to relax and express themselves freely, Callaghan said.

An art space can serve as a “third space” outside of the time at home and the time at school or work that dominates people’s lives, she said.

The experience, she said, echoing many others, is “therapeutic.”

LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Joyce Kynard at Dobbs experienced it herself, joining the kids in an earlier session when they were making and coloring snakes out of clay.

She felt the joy that the kids felt, working the clay with her hands.

“The kids can relax and take their minds off of whatever is going on,” Kynard said. “You just think about creating. Some of the children had never had experience with clay. It was an opportunity to be creative and they really enjoyed it.”

When the children finish their artwork at the end of the class, Callaghan and Sequeira load the pieces into large tubs to take it back to the guild’s art space in Waldo to fire them in the kiln so they can bring them back to the school as finished ceramic art.

Families interested in trying out clay art can come with their children to the KC Clay Guild’s family nights Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at 200 West 74th Street in Kansas City.

It’s all part of the guild’s mission, now being shared with LINC, to grow a community of art. Learn more at kclayguild.org.

Click on the images to enlarge the pictures.