Berkshire Pottery Tour

Linda Skipper in studio

BERKSHIRE POTTERY TOUR 2019

INTERVIEW BY H. CANDEEPHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF BPT MEMBERS

For all those pottery enthusiasts out there reading this, they probably want to know how the 6th Annual Berkshire PotteryTour works? Lorimer Burns: Berkshire Pottery Tour is a free, selfguided driving tour of six local ceramic studios. Six potters open their studios and sell their wares for one weekend each fall. We have a detailed map available in our brochure or on our website. The tour is designed in a loop, starting at any studio. Participants can easily visit all six studios in an afternoon. This year, our tour weekend is Sept. 27/28.

How did the Berkshire Pottery Tour first begin? It’s exciting, a real treasure hunt in ways, yes? Lorimer: Ellen and Paula had been talking about starting a studio tour for several years. I wanted to start a collective to show work as a group at craft shows and offer support and artistic feedback. Paula and I met for coffee and decided on the potters we would invite and with Ellen’s blessing, the Tour was born! September seemed to be the perfect time to celebrate both local artisanal ceramics andthe breathtaking beauty of the Berkshires. The tour is definitely a kind of treasure hunt for pots, sculpture, artistic inspiration and, of course, food. There are fantastic places to stop and eat along the way; 6 Depot, in West Stockbridge, between Ben and Paula’s, The Roadside Diner between Linda’s and Ellen’s, Prairie Whale in GB and there is rumor that Steam will be opening in Housatonic very soon.

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Lorimer, please tell us a little about each artist on board, and also, about their guest? Lorimer: Dan Bellow has a large-scale production studio near Railroad Street in GB. He makes functional porcelain ware which he fires in his gas fired reduction car kiln with his many apprentices and students but the best of his work, in my opinion, are the gnarly wood fired pots and one-offs. Dan loves to talk about his work so it’s always an entertaining stop along the tour.

Dan will be hosting Brendan Moore. Dan says “I’ve known Brendan Moore for ten years and I love him like a son. He quit Alfred University after his first year to wood fire with our group in New York state. I’ve always liked his work, quiet pots always made with just enough clay, you can see the marks of his fingers, it’s all perfectly organized and there’s obviously a lot of thought in it. He’s an artist at stacking pots in the wood kiln. I like the way he works, too, super focused, quiet. He’s great to have in the studio, and whenever there’s a big project requiring sustained ceramic effort he’s always right there with me because he is my main man.

Paula Shalan’s work is mainly smoke fired decorative vessels. For me, her work holds such serenity and confidence, much like Paula herself. Paula describes the work of her guest, Liz Daly "I find a sweet, heartlifting beauty in Liz’s ceramics. Her attention to color, form, and detail is thoughtful and sensitive, yet a powerful strength holds and deepens the work.”

Ellen Grenadier’s work is perhaps the most iconic and recognizable. Her gorgeous platters, bowls and mugs are impressed with leaves and ferns and glazed deep cobalt, sapphire greens, amber and periwinkle. Ellen has many collectors and repeat visitors to her home studio in Monterey, where she makes this production line. I have been intrueged to watch her new body of work over time, partially in response to the demands of our annual pottery tour.

Ellen describes her guest artist: “Connie Talbot makes Flameware pots, pots that can be used on the gas and electric stovetop and the grill! Her work has an elegant and timeless quality as she is inspired by pottery, both ancient and modern from around the world. We will be having a cooking demonstration on Sunday using her tangines, pizza stones, casseroles and more. You have to see it to believe it!

Lorimer: My entry into professional ceramics, ten years ago, was wood firing with a group of wild women out in Tolland, MA. It was like a gateway drug. My friend, Nancy Magnusson, said “here, just try this...just one firing” and before I knew it I was driving out there at 4 a.m. to take the dawn stoking shift. Wood firing is rigorous, unpredictable and a little bit crazy so when Nancy moved to New Mexico, I wanted to bring those qualities to the work I was making in my own studio with the added element that I was missing so badly from wood firing ; COLOR. I

Stoneware and Porcelain Decorative and Functional Wheel Thrown and Hand Built Pottery / Lorimer Burns

secretly think of this body of work as inspired by my life-long fascination with the psychadelic experience. I also have a more approachable body of work centered around a family of glazes called Shino. These recipes handed to me by the master himself, Malcolm Davis, who called shino “The Fickle Goddess” .

I am excited to host Ben Krupka, as my guest, who was an original member of the tour. Ben has shown his work nationally and internationally and is currently head of the Ceramics department at Simon’s Rock. He also comes from a long line of ardent pyromaniacs. Ben’s work is quiet, minimalistic and very soulful. I have a dinnerware set made by Ben that I just love. Ben took a hiatus from the tour because he has focused on building his own energy efficient home on his own, having never done construction before. Let that sink in. He lives the hand-made values, bringing his own design aesthetic to the furniture and lighting he is now making for himself.

Lorimer: Ben Evans just completed work on his expanded home studio in Richmond. He, too, has a production line but specializes in slip casting. He is also masterful at glaze chemistry and development. His work clearly shows the direct influence of his interest in architecture and his love of the water. Ben is one of those people that is good at everything he does. Plus he’s a great person, always fun to be around. And such a hard worker. Ben shows regularly at GBAM at the

Farmers Markets in downtown GB and arranges his pots by color and his wins my award for MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOTH.

Has anything in the overall plans been added this year to the tour that is new and exciting? Lorimer:Yes! We are looking forward to four new artists to join us this year. Liz Daly will be showing at Paula’s studio in Stockbridge, Ben Krupka, who is head of the Ceramics Department at Simon’s Rock will be at Lorimer’s studio in Housatonic. Brendan Moore will be joining Dan Bellow in GB. And Connie Talbot, from Northampton will be setting up at Ellen’s in Monterey.

Is your group generally open to new artists? What would be the criteria? Lorimer: Yes - It has always been our intention to eventually expand and feature more ceramic artists. This year we are very excited to add the four guest artists and hope to continue this in the coming years. In the beginning, we decided on a smaller group, to get established as an annual event and to streamline the logistics. Each of the six potters doing unique and different work. I love how we really complement each other so well. Many visitors comment on this. We look forward to adding more local and regional ceramicists each year.

Have you all, or some of you shown together in other group shows in the past? Lorimer: For the last two years, the potters of BPT have organized a fundraiser called Mugs for Mothers, the weekend before Mothers Day. In 2018, we donated 100% of the proceeds to Multicultural Bridge’s Women to Womens Group. This year we chose The Elizabeth Freeman Center and held the show at Dotties, in Pittsfield. We want to give back to our community and raise awareness for groups and individuals that are more and more often denied rights, resources and opportunities.

Who is the newest member to this pottery group? Lorimer: Linda Skipper came on in our second year. It was an easy and unanimous choice.

Dan Bellow: I am a sucker for an all-over pattern, and Linda’s are perfect. She rules her lines out on her pot before she starts so it looks like a globe of the earth. Each incision is conscious and mindful. I’m way too loose to be capable of that kind of discipline and control, but I admire it when I see it. One of my most treasured possessions is a little Skipper pot in cone 10 porcelain that I glazed in copper green and fired in my kiln in a way that did me proud, too.

Linda Skipper: I was a visitor at the first BPT, enjoy- Continued on next page...

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Low-fired Earthen-ware pottery / Paula Shalan

ing the tour and the graciousness of the hosting potters. I wanted to buy a piece of each Potter’s work to have and to hold and also to support their efforts. The next year I was invited to join the tour. I felt it was a great honor to be included and I appreciated the confidence they had that I could fit in with their level of professionalism.

What were people’s professions before they became potters? Dan Bellow: I’ll give you MC Richards: I was a person. From my resume: I have run a newspaper, covered a legislature, written a screenplay, run an unsuccessful business and lost a pile of money, won a lawsuit, painted houses and sold real estate. Real estate was the worst.

Ben Evans: Before pottery and during college I always worked construction and originally wanted to become an architect. Since graduating college with a BFA in ceramics twelve years ago I have been working in the field of ceramics. I first moved to the Berkshires to be the ceramics studio manager at IS183 Art School. There I started teaching many

Porcelain Green Tea Pot / Ben Evans

different ceramics related courses and began making pots to sell.

Lorimer: I moved to The Berkshires, just after 9/11 from Cambridge, MA where I taught personal safety and self defense to women, and in the Boston public school system for IMPACT Boston. Before that, I lived and worked in NYC where I was a modern dancer. I still dance with The Moving Company through Community Access to The Arts and Dawn Lane and Dancers.

Linda Skipper: For twenty years I was involved with the production of the TV show “Law and Order “as their head scenic artist. Before that I worked as a scenic on many films, TV movies, and lots of commercials. Going back even farther, I had gone to undergrad and graduate art schools concentrating on painting, printmaking, and drawing. I had some ceramics classes but the desire to take it on more seriously came once I was free to leave NYC and really live my full time life in the Berkshires.

Ellen Grenedier: Before I was a potter I

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Lemon Juicer hand-made and thrown on the wheel / Daniel Bellow

was a child, finding and painting acorns and "selling" them in my yard. I was a teenager learning to use the potters wheel at summer camp. I was twenty-yearsold visiting Kyoto Japan and coming home with a suitcase full of teabowls. So I guess I've always been a potter of sorts, influenced by my mother and aunts who collected, and set tables with the most beautiful antique tableware. The combination of dishes and food has always been a magical for me, and so I pursued making pottery all my life. I've also been a waitress, the owner of Merrimac Smoked Fish, an interior designer, a teacher, and more. But all have been in the hopes of, or support of, getting to my ceramic work.

Paula Shalan is the second of three generations of potters and was an Early Childhood and Art Educator in Bronxville, NY and Chicago.

Are any of the members teachering? Lorimer: Dan has ongoing classes in his home studio and also loves teaching The Steiner School High School kids.

Ben and Paula, teach the most popular and sold out classes at IS183 Art School. Ben also teaches glaze workshops at Penland School of Craft in Ashville, NC.

Ben Evans: Teaching gives me a good balance to my studio practice. I get to share my knowledge and experiences with others and gain a sense of community.

Lorimer: I enjoy teaching ceramics almost as much as I like making pots. I love experiencing the “what if…” moments and liberation of not knowing the “rules”. Clay is anti-intellectual, non verbal, pure proprioception. I believe we all need less talk and more mud.

Ben Krupka: It’s hard to pinpoint only one favorite part of teaching. First, is being witness to the moment someone loses themselves in the material. Second is watching a student gain confidence in their skills and follow their inspiration.

One of the nice things about this open tour is enjoying the drive from studio to studio, but would the weather effect the success at all? Lorimer: Paula surveyed several event organizers, many of whom agree that the last weekend of September is usually very fine weather! We have had a couple of cloudy mornings but, thankfully, we are in the Berkshires and “if you don’t like the weather wait 10 minutes”.

Linda Skipper: This years tour will be my fifth and each of these years I have trusted that the weather will be on my side because my studio space is very small as is my house, and I’ve chosen each time to display my work outside. I constantly keep my fingers crossed with a minimal back up plan for rain, knowing that all

I can do is move everything quickly inside onto whatever surfaces I have available. We’ve had cold weather with sweaters required and we’ve had really hot weather, but no rain so far. I have my stack of plastic tarps to put on top of the display if it starts to pour, but so far I’ve been lucky. I keep trusting in the goodness of September.

Do you meet after the tour is finished and share stories over dinner? Lorimer: We do spend an evening together, after each tour, sharing notes and numbers.

Can you share with us one or two stories that make these past years events memorable? Ellen Grenedier: Last year, when setting up my studio for the tour, I took two pieces out of my archives of old favorite pots that I had not yet been able to sell because they were so special to me. I put a high price on them. Then I put a road sign guiding people to the studio in a new, far away spot, wondering if anyone would see it. She did! and she bought my pot and I was delighted to see that I could let go of it because it was going to a new and happy home.

Linda Skipper: The thing I am most enjoy about the tour is having the chance to make a beginning or a growing relationship with the people who come to visit. Continued on next page...

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Slipware pottery / Ben Krupka

Each time somebody claims one of my pots and decides to take it home I have a little ritual. I ask them if I can take a picture of them holding their pot, so I can remember them and which piece they chose. Then for the next tour I prepare a poster that I title “Friends with Pots” and everyone who has bought one at the last tour has their picture on this poster that hangs outside with all of the rest of the display. And my delight, is to be able to see a person with a familiar face walking down the driveway, and I can look at my photos, refresh my memory of their name, and walk out to greet them by name. I’ve had a lot of people come back year after year, and we’ve become better acquainted each time. I find that they feel very warmly treated as they see their photos displayed. This contact in this extra intimate way really is my best Takeaway.

What are the responsibilities of each studio participant that will make the visitors trip run smooth and enjoyable? Lorimer: Dan does our press and other writing tasks. Ben is the IT guy. Linda and Ellen bring their keen design sense. I host the meetings and organize the Mother’s Day fundraising event, Paula transcribes meeting notes and pays the bills. We all deliver pots and brochures for shows and advertising.

How does each studio artist prepare for visitors?

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Lorimer: Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning!

Ben Evans: A lot prep work goes into the weekend that may go unnoticed. While firing my last couple glaze kilns, I do a lot of cleaning and organizing in the studio the week before. Let's face it, clay is a messy business, and when I'm in production mode I will slack on the routine cleaning until the kilns are firing. I will also buy some local cider donuts & cider from the local apple orchards in Richmond, as well as others snacks for my guests.

Dan Bellows: I like the Tour because it forces me to clean up the studio and kiln room, get to the bottom of my deep-seated mess. Then all my friends show up and say “Wow, this is beautiful. You’re really well organized.”

Linda Skipper: Besides making my pots, there are many other pieces of the puzzle. I photograph each pot and create a catalog that has reference numbers and prices, and is easy to flip through as the sales are concluded. I make hang-tags for each pot with a reference number and price which then gets attached to the photo in the catalog when each pot sells along with the name of the buyer. I’ve prepared sales receipts that I ask a buyer to fill out with their mailing address and email.

Then there is the setting up of five tables of the display

and making the whole area look inviting. Of course there’s snack food to prepare and set out, chairs to arrange to invite lounging and conversation, and talking through with my blessed team of three extraordinary helpers, how to split up the welcoming, the sales, the photos, wrapping the pots, and also tours with me into the studio without anyone feeling neglected. Our attention to organization usually pays off with my visitors feeling appreciated and able to connect with me, and also with others, who are looking at the same time. My goal is to make it not only a place to purchase a pot that they love, but to give them, and me too, an enjoyable, personal experience together.

Ellen Grenedier: Clean and edit out the pottery so people can see it clearly. I display some of my platters with food and get out teacups for tea so people can enjoy food and pots and feel welcome.

Open Studios are real popular across the country, and I wonder, why do you think this phenomena has surfaced? Are galleries not enough? Lorimar: Open Studio Tours have been popular among potters, especially within areas that are dense with studios, like NC and Minnesota for several decades, but I think they have been popularized since craft shows became less economically successful 12-15 years ago.

Linda Skipper: I enjoy living with crafts and artwork that I have bought directly from the makers, and I think many people share that feeling of holding the work more precious by meeting the artist where the work is made, and gaining some understanding of the intricacies required to bring that piece to life.

Ben Evans: I think it's because people are interested in seeing the inner workings of an artists studio. Each of our studio's are uniquely different and it shows in our work. The space in which art is made has a profound influence on the creation and maybe it's this link that people want to experience.

Ellen Grenedier: I find that people are fascinated with the idea of making things with our hands. So many folks are now turning to pottery for a hands-on, creative, and possibly relaxing experience. They want to see "behind the scenes", the how and where others make pots and the variety possible with ceramics. There is time to poke around and ask questions! And many people collect, so this is a fun way to be out enjoying the beautiful Berkshires.

I wonder what have you learned from the past Open Studios that is invaluable to the process and outcome of the next Open Studio Tour? Lorimer: We spend much of our meetings discussing advertising, how to get the word out there in an age where our culture is so innundated with visual images and commercial efforts. Five out of Six of us are over 55-years-old, so we rely heavily on Ben and his wife for modernizing our approach each year.

We really want to encourage visitors to go to all six studios so we promote that through a raffle of six mugs, one from each of us. To enter, get the brochure initialed at each studio and turn it in at the last one you visit. Et voila, holiday shopping is done!

Ellen Grenedier / Stoneware with leaf motif

What other Open Studios have you visited and enjoyed? There’s about 16 listed on the web, starting in early spring. I would think early fall is ideal for pottery makers, especially if kilns are fired up. Lorimer: The asparagus valley potters tour was my introduction to open pottery studios. It was especially important for me being able to visit Angela Fina’s studio because she gave me my introduction to working with porcelain at IS 183 workshops. I’ve also enjoyed the Hilltown 6 Pottery tour and art studio tours in New Marlborough and Monterey.

Dan Bellow: I heard about the Asparagus Valley Pottery Tour from my teacher Tom White, who’s been a regular since the beginning. One year, I guested at Molly Cantor’s by the Bridge of Flowers. I know a lot of those potters and admire their work and I like to go play tourist. The most interesting part of the tour for me is seeing how other people set up and manage their studio. I always thought it was a great idea, wanted to do it here.

I think, the map you give people is a main key to the success of this tour? What was involved in the creating of it? Who designed it? Lorimer: Ellen and Linda, being the furthest from GB were very enthusiastic about creating a perfectly detailed map. Together, they made a hand drawn map, which was so beautiful that it should be archived on our website~ berkshirepotterytour.com

Thank you, and enjoy!

Linda Skipper / Wheel thrown and hand carved

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