FALL ARTS FEATURE #2
Slinging
Mud
by Renee Roberson photography by Renee Roberson
Bailey’s Glen pottery studio provides a therapeutic outlet for members
Left: Sharon Byers and Jim Westbrook. Right: Spearheaded by member Don Wilhelm, the pottery group created a coral reef exhibit now displayed in the Bailey’s Glen clubhouse.
If you talk to anyone who lives in the Bailey’s Glen, the active adult community in Cornelius, you’ll learn how much they love the strong bond that exists among the residents. From fitness classes to social gatherings to crafting and woodworking, opportunities abound for the homeowners to meet new people and stay actively engaged with others. In 2017, two residents, Jim Westbrook and Sharon Byers, began brainstorming what it would look like to create a pottery studio in the community. Both retired educators, Westbrook began taking pottery classes in retirement after his wife offered them up as a gift and Byers had been teaching students the fundamentals for years as an elementary and middle school art teacher. Westbrook was already a part of a woodworking group when Byers approached him with the idea. They wanted the studio to be able to “provide a creative outlet for residents to use through clay.” The two also knew working with pottery would also help residents learn new skills and build lasting friendships along the way. 40
LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS | SEPTEMBER 2021
The pottery plan
Westbrook and Byers put together a plan of what the studio would include and a list of the materials and tools they would need to get started. Then, they met with Bailey’s Glen managing partner Jake Pallilo to present their idea. He agreed to give them a room in a building that also housed the woodworking and automotive shops in Bailey’s Glen. He told them they could use any discarded building materials to make furniture, shelving and tables needed in the studio and Westbrook took him up on that. They soon realized the space allotted would not be large enough to accommodate both the pottery wheels and the kilns needed to fire the pieces. They went back to Pallilo and he agreed to give them a second room to put the kilns in. One room is used mostly for handbuilding the pottery and the other is for glazing.
Fired up for friendships
This past spring, The Mudslingers Pottery Community held its first open house, and the studio began offering classes this fall.
