The Bucks 3-D Sculpture Club allows students to creatively connect and add to their portfolios using a variety of sculpture methods.

The sculpture program might seem like just another medium for artists to express their creative talent, but what the average person may not realize is that it’s a vehicle for much bigger things. The club is more than meets the eye.

Chris Hartey, 22, liberal arts major from Warminster says, “It helps you figure out more than just one skill. You have the freedom to choose what project you’d like to do.”

That freedom includes working with bronze, aluminum, welding, wax, casting, copper, steel and plaster. Some work can include using car parts. The possibilities are only limited to what someone can create.

There is a lab fee which is used to cover the cost of materials. The club also has access to a “maker-bot” (rapid prototype printer) to help make small figures.

The club also helps bring everyone together and gets people to creatively connect, even people from different backgrounds and walks of life, according to club vice president Amanda DeFranco, 27, fine arts major from Levittown. “It gets you involved with creative events in the community,” added DeFranco.

Bucks is one of a few community colleges in the United States to have its own foundry, so local artists have a rare opportunity to create work they might not be able to create elsewhere.

The club is an excellent venture for transfer students, as the work done in the club can be added to their portfolio.

In addition, it also helps them garner more experience in foundry which in turn helps them refine their talents that they can take to other colleges, and makes for a good stepping stone. Past transfer students have come back and told club members how much the club has helped them in their development of conceptual ideas.

The clubs advisor, John Burns, is highly respected and works to benefit the club members in the creative process. Any questions, thoughts, ideas or recommendations from Burns are taken into account and used to strengthen the club member’s work.

“He makes you want to be involved, and pushes you. At the same time he also gives you freedom in your own creative process,” DeFranco remarked. Burns himself started as a lab tech at Bucks in 1996 and helped created ‘Timeless Offerings’ here at Bucks.

The Bucks 3-D Sculpture Club meets the first Saturday of the month at 1 p.m. in the 3-D Arts building at the Newtown campus. Students are encouraged to attend a meeting regardless of past experience with art.