You’re invited to take a peek at our region’s up-and-coming artists this weekend when students in Selkirk College’s Kootenay Studio Arts present the annual year-end show and sale.
A late-spring tradition in the West Kootenay, students will have the results of many hours of splendid toil on display and available for sale at Selkirk College’s downtown Nelson campus at the corner of Victoria and Josephine streets.
Students in five different studios — blacksmithing, ceramics, jewelry, metal casting and textiles — will be featured in the show that opens Friday afternoon and runs through to Saturday afternoon.
“I’m looking forward to it,” says metal casting studio student Charles Harris. “This is a profession I wanted to do since I was a kid and after spending nine months at KSA, I want to show it off a little.”
Harris, 24, grew up in Rossland and after stepping away from post-secondary for three years, returned to Selkirk College this past September. With a passion for working with metal, he spent his first four months in the blacksmithing studio and since the Christmas break has been developing his skills in metal casting.
Harris will have a number of items at the year-end show and sale this weekend including belt buckles, door knockers, decorative hinges, chess pieces, knives and intricate bronze masks. Some will be for sale and some will be for show.
“All these things that I had in my head and that I wanted to create required the skills that I’ve now acquired,” says Harris. “The program was better than I imagined. If you want something made out of metal … I can do it.”
The show opens today at 3 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. The students will be back at Kootenay Studio Arts tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Admission is free and everybody is invited to come take a look.