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Art is a way of expressing oneself, and the gift of art is not only meaningful for the receiver but the artist as well; it’s the gift that gives back.

The Fine Arts Clay Club will be selling handmade quality work made over the course of the semester on the main floor of the CUB today. The event is held to fundraise for a clay conference called the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA).

Iolanda Palmer, Fine Arts Clay Club advisor, has a special place in her heart for NCECA and all that it has to offer.

“I started going to NCECA when I was 25 with my first love many, many years ago in Pittsburgh,” Palmer said. “It means so much to me to go there with students and to have raised that money to have been able to take students there because it’s so special to me.”

The conference has grown over the past 50 years, and now over 5,000 people from around the country attend every year. They have workshops, lectures, exhibitions and demonstrations, Palmer said.

The students have the opportunity to set up a booth and talk about WSU’s fine arts graduate program to other attendees.

“It’s like any other conference, but it revolves around clay: functional clay, sculptural clay and mixed media,” Palmer said.

The students attending the conference are graduate students, and Palmer hopes that in the next few years, undergraduate students will have the chance to attend, as well.

Palmer hopes to reach across campus and talk about what they do and hopefully recruit students to the fine arts department.

“The bigger picture here is that we are a department that really loves creativity and critical dialogue,” Palmer said. “We talk about political things, and we talk about social things, and those ideas come out into the work.”

Morganne Couch, a fine arts graduate student planning to attend the conference, is new to clay-making but made tiny mugs, vases, bowls and letter-pressed Christmas cards for the sale.

“I think a lot about personal people in my life and what my family might need or want when making different things,” Couch said. “Like, what would my boyfriend want or what would my sister use? I also go on Pinterest.”

Couch enjoys the process of ceramic art and seeing other people’s work as inspiration for her own, since everyone goes about their artwork in a different way, she said.

The crafts are great for Christmas or birthday presents or as something nice for any student at the end of the semester, Couch said.

“I just think it’s an awesome opportunity to add some art and craft to your life, something unique that you’re not going to get anywhere else,” she said.

The Winter Ceramics Sale will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today on the main floor of the CUB.