Descanso highlights local artists

Siminski’s ceramic creations round off the show, with a collection of mostly geometric-shaped Raku pieces. Siminski learned much of his craft through teachers and classes at Glendale Community College and the La Cañada Community Center. He retired after 32 years as a mechanical engineer with the Department of Water and Power and was spurred on by his wife, Conni-Su, to take his first ceramics class at the community center. That’s when he fell in love with the art of crafting and glazing pottery and ceramic pieces. “You get some fantastic colors,” he said, as he described the process of pulling — with tongs — a glowing red-hot ceramic pot out of the kiln and “forcing a crackle” with newspapers against the clay piece. “There’s a lot of serendipity in these things,” he said. “You can start out with a cranberry color and the crackling makes a blue. It’s not planned, but the color is gorgeous and the crackle is wonderful.”