Last Monday evening, I had the honor to be a part of Bill van Gilder’s last class at Frederick Pottery School. I had met Bill almost four years prior at one of his functional pottery workshops he was conducting here in Pennsylvania. Although my experience at the time was very limited, I had an instant connection to his teaching methods and I immediately knew… this was the potter I needed to learn from. And although everyone said, “you can’t drive to Frederick, Maryland every week’’…. long story short… I did. Sometimes once, sometimes twice a week. So almost four years and some 33,000 miles later, I find myself sitting in the last class, watching the last demo, a large bowl, which symbolically was much like the very first demo I watched. And so things end much like they begin – or maybe, I like to think, they just keep beginning.
People will often ask me why I still keep taking classes….“but you already know how to throw”, they say. My answer would be I suppose, that it’s not how good you are, but how good you want to be. How boring would the world be if we all decided we knew
everything and it was time to stop learning? I worried about this - a lot. I knew for a while the class was coming to an end and it occurred to me that I would have no one to spin ideas off of – no one to interact with and say, … “hey, that’s cool… what would happen if you did this??’’ I wonder if the pots in my own studio will grow stale without the objective critiques I’ve come to rely on. These gifts, I’ll miss.
I forged some beautiful friendships over the years with this class and I’m truly grateful to have had this extraordinary mentor and these classmates in my life; they have all enriched it for the better. Real friends can grow individually, I think, without growing apart and I know although we may not see each other quite as frequently, we’ll all move on and grow in our own ways. This gift stays with me.
Last week, I came upon a casserole dish in the kitchen cabinet and I smiled as I took it down off the shelf. It is not a good pot; it works and that’s about all that can be said about it. But I remember how encouraging Bill was to me about it, making sure he had 
something good to say and making me feel excited about the pot I had just made. I’ll be moving some wheels and equipment from the school to my own studio and will begin teaching, myself, in the Summer. I hope I can instill in my future students, in even the smallest measures, the great amount of love and appreciation for the craft and excitement in making new things, that my mentor has instilled in me. I so do not want to fall short in this. When I see a student finishing a pot, on the same wheel I used, it is my hope that, like that funky fluted casserole dish that I made in class years ago, I can find something amazing to say about his or her pot and encourage that student to keep going, keep seeing, keep learning, keep loving. This is the gift I’ll pass on.
Thank you, Billy.
If you search my past blog entries, you’ll also find instructions here on how to make them. They’re easy to make and quick to remake should you need a sharp tool in a hurry!
Once upon a time, I started out as a graphic designer. In the dark ages. Really. Meaning; I cut amberlith, rubylith (my spellcheck doesn’t even RECOGNIZE these words) and frisket very expertly with a swivel xacto knife until I could do it in my sleep. Those who know me well, know I have a love-hate relationship with my electric kiln (there’s a segway here, please keep going)… I’m lucky to have one and I love that, but I hate the often one dimensional look that comes from it, and often strive to do more, with hopes that it will be something I will like and continue; and can transform bits here and there as I go. And so, long story short, I thought maybe I’d take a little part of the me that was, and add to it, the me that is; and that’s when I thought of the silk screen process.
Now I know Randalls aren’t for everyone, but the moment I sat down at one to work, it immediately felt like ‘home’. It was a mini revelation for me in that I thought, ‘oh, this is the way it’s supposed to be!’. As a brief disclaimer before I start, should any reading this think I’m extremely clever in figuring this out, I assure you, I am not. Although there are various subjects in which I think I’m probably smarter than the average bear, carpentry and mechanics are definitely not in my skill set. I need to thank potter, 
The first issue I needed to tackle was getting the bucket head off. It seemed to be stuck on there for good. Aside from the fact that I wanted to use a regular wheel head with it (issue #2), I would never be able to clean out the splash pan properly without taking the wheel head off. I first turned to Google, scanned the Clayart archives for everyone who has ever had this problem (and there were many). I tried literally all the solutions on there from rubber mallets, to heating the bucket head with a propane torch, to ‘Liquid Wrench’ and beyond. Still stuck. In speaking with Bill, he said he only ever had that problem once with a Randall and he had a mechanic come in with a bearing puller to get it off. And so, I went over the hill on the other side of the creek to a small garage owned by a nice man named, Sam Keiser. I walked in and informed him that I thought I needed an auto mechanic but not for any type of motor vehicle. He was intrigued. So, Sam came down the next afternoon and in less than a minute and a half, the bucket head was off!
Next, I took the now free bucket head to a guy at a local machine shop. I needed the new wheel head to be approximately 2″ above the surface of the bucket (allowing for the height of the plaster bats usually used with it). Joel at the shop came up with this idea. It centers the top of the new wheel head over the old bucket head, locking it in, but can be removed, should I ever need to use the bucket head again. Works out pretty well and much less the cost of a machined head.
I’ve spent the last four days, driving back and forth to 
The thing that impressed me foremost about Jeff was that he was who he was. There was no pretense there, no image, no showmanship. He was so approachable and you felt like you could easily have been hanging out in his living room chatting (or watching Downton Abbey), having known each other for years. It was really inspiring having his insight and experiences to draw on, and after making pots by yourself in a studio day after day, new inspiration is always a welcome addition.
And so, I’ll take that advice, glaze the pot, fire it, brew some tea, then see where it sits with me. Maybe it will help if I pour the tea into my new Jeff Oestreich faceted mug. Sure, that’s the ticket! Can’t hurt.
I operate a working pottery studio in Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania specializing in wheel thrown and altered functional stoneware pottery. Stoneware clay is durable enough for ovenware, yet just as beautiful to display. My pots are created with form, function and beauty in mind. The glazes you see are hand mixed and formulated for food safety, as well as being microwave and dishwasher friendly. Current pots may be purchased through the store or local pickup, and custom orders are encouraged.