Summer Help

Jeff and I have been very fortunate to have an intern for the month of July...

Liz Merritt is a senior at East Carolina University. She came to us through a collaboration between the North Carolina Pottery Center and the University. 

 July is always a busy month for us. We are getting ready for the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair, hosting our anniversary open house, and then this year throw in the ongoing "move up the road". All of this has given Liz the opportunity to experience life as a studio potter. It's not just about making pots. There are glazes to mix, ash to sieve, pots to clean, price, pack, or put out for display. Kilns are loaded and fired. She has experienced the successes as well as a few failures... and the problem solving that went into figuring out why. We did yard work together; mowed the lawn, trimmed trees, and weed whacked. If you have a store front, it needs to look good. Just don't look behind the studio. That's where our glazing set up is located, and it's not pretty.

Liz has also learned that country living includes lots of bugs in all varieties, shapes, and sizes.

She has marveled at all of them, and photographed many!

July is winding down and so is her time here. I hope that Jeff and I imparted some of our knowledge onto her as well as insight into the life of studio potters.

See Liz's work at Glaze and Grow

Gerry Williams, you will be missed...

Last night I received an e-mail from a NH Potters Guild member with the news that Gerry Williams has passed away. The photo above was taken in June of 2010 at the last guild meeting that Gerry attended. He is the gentleman seated in the center, holding a cane. Jane Kaufmann's husband Dick took the photo of members gathered around the NHPG Community Wood Kiln. Gerry was an influential member of the potters guild and a mentor to many.

While Gerry was a great potter, many readers may best remember him as one of the founding members and long time editor of "The Studio Potter" publication. I fell in love with Gerry's writing when JZ and I started to date. He had nearly every copy of SP going back to it's inception in 1972. I spent many early morning hours at JZ's kitchen table, drinking coffee, eating pbj toast, and reading Gerry's articles. Gerry and his wife Julie roamed the countryside visiting potters in their studio for articles in the journal. His writing drew me in and I was mesmerized by each potters story. I was very sad when Gerry retired and no longer wrote the pottery studio visits.

Gerry Williams will be missed by many in New Hampshire and around the world. He contributed so much to the ceramics community through both his pottery and his writing. Colby-Sawyer College had retrospective of his work a few years ago. If you would like to know more about his life you can read a brief history on the Colby-Sawyer website by clicking here.

Studio Potter - December 1997

I have a collection of Studio Potter magazines, stored in plastic bins. Every so often I reach in and randomly take one out to read. Last month my random choice featured Seagrove potteries in 1997...

 Jugtown

 Dover Pottery

 David Stuempfle

 Westmore Pottery

 Neolia Cole (Sanford, NC)

Ben Owen

an exciting find! (for me at least)

  as you know i have a large collection of studio potter magazines that date back to the 70's... john and i were always bummed that we didn't have the very first issue that featured nh potters (very fitting since studio potter is a nh based publication).
a big part of our nh trip was spent emptying out jeff's storage units.  resting on top of one of the boxes was three issues of SP... lo and behold one of them was the very first issue!!!!

Fall 1972

on the left - Vivika and Otto Heino when they were living in Hopkinton, NH on the right are Jack and Eric O'Leary - Meriden, NH

the centerfold is a picture of NH Potters Guild members, photographed on top of Giberson's new glass studio, March 11, 1972.

the guild had a new picture taken last June in front of the community wood kiln at Al Jaeger's in Deerfield... i will try to get a picture of it to post.
...time to turn up the bisque kiln, have a great day!!