The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
There are no straight lines in the journey. Even though I’m one of those people who could say I’ve known since I was seven that I wanted to be an artist in some way. If I wasn’t running around with the neighborhood kids, playing football with my brothers, or tending the garden, I was drawing, painting, making sculptures out of toothpicks, or building sandcastles at the beach.
My hands did not touch clay until I was in high school at the age of sixteen. That fateful first time at the wheel, it all clicked. It brought everything together for me; the athlete and the artist! It satisfied the physical and the creative.
I went to Alfred University, where I studied ceramics and sculpture, earning my BFA with a minor in art education. My loving, practical dad said that I could only go to art school if I also acquired a teaching degree.
I graduated from Alfred when I was twenty-one and went right into making pots. I sold them at shops and craft fairs, and it all lasted about ten months. I was making pots in the basement of a rental house, isolated and lonely. Even though I am an introvert, I needed my peers, which I did not have in suburban Long Island, New York. So, I fell back on my teaching degree and taught high school art for five years. Thanks, Dad.
I loved teaching high school, but longed to make my own work, move to the country, and farm. I moved to New York’s Hudson Valley, where I lived and worked as a farmer at an environmental/social justice community for two years. I then moved to my current home in western Massachusetts.
Becoming a full-time potter was not a straight line for me, even though I knew in my heart that it was what I wanted to eventually do. It took another fifteen years after graduating from college to jump into it full-time. It’s not that I ever stopped making pots; I fit it in while raising two sons, farming, and teaching nights at art centers.
Where I Work
The old farmhouse where I live had a beat-up old barn, both of which were painstakingly renovated over the years. The upper section of the working barn was converted into my studio in 2002. It’s a beautiful light-filled space with the working barn below. I am serenaded by the clucking of chickens daily. It’s a dream space with three Bailey wheels, work tables, and a kiln room with two L&L electric kilns. The upper loft is my office space, packing station, photography studio, and glaze-making area.
Community of Potters
When I came to western Massachusetts 33 years ago, I came for the beautiful countryside, the farms, and the hippies. I didn’t know that Western Massachusetts was a hub for potters. I treasure the pottery community here.
I have been part of the Asparagus Valley Potters Guild for 26 years. Twenty-four years ago, we started talking about having a pottery tour, hence the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail came into existence. As one of the founders, I can tell you it wasn’t very lucrative the first year or so. By the third year, we started to get quite the following. We are currently in our 22nd year of this highly anticipated event, which is always the last weekend in April and is very well attended.
The Work
My work is functional and made for everyday use. It changes over the years as I grow and change. How could it stay the same? I am a different person than I was in my twenties. So much has been learned over the years through love, children, and losses. At 62, I am in the last third of my life, which brings more freedom with the kids grown and the lessons acquired from the first two-thirds of life. The wisdom of age carries over to being an artist. I’ve made tens of thousands of pots and thousands of mistakes. I can honestly say I am finally feeling that I’m a good potter. There is an ease and comfort with the clay. My hands just know what to do, when to do it, without extraneous unnecessary motion.
I base my work on function first, then I take it from there. There is so much to look at in functional objects. I tend to look at mediums other than ceramics, like metals and glass . . . an old metal citrus juicer, a metal oil can, a glass coffee carafe. I’ve gathered a collection of these items from antique shops that sit on a shelf in my studio. I also look at pottery daily, from ancient times to the present. As a visual thinker, everything influences me, from the green woods and fields to the sunspot circles in the dappled shade.
What I have been most excited about in the past couple of years with my work is the integration of the land that I live on with what I am making in the studio. I have always been influenced by my surroundings, but now I am incorporating my surroundings into my work. You can put a shovel down a foot anywhere in this valley and find clay. There is a long history, from colonial times and I’m sure from the Native Americans to now, of pottery making and brickyards in the area. I did some experimenting with the clay from the river and found that the optimal firing was around cone 04. I tested some clay on a plate at cone 6 and it melted, which led me to the conclusion that it might make a nice slip. I use this slip mainly with cutout papers to create a negative space of circles, leaves, and abstract patterns. Aside from the slip, I layer most of my glazes in one way or another. I use upholstery foam as a stamp to create patterns while layering different glazes on top of each other. I spray glazes on top of each other, especially for my urns. Spraying glazes is not my favorite process, but I like the results.
Currently, I work with two different dark stonewares and a porcelain, which are all from Sheffield Pottery Supply here in Western Massachusetts.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
MORNING
7–7:15am Wake up. Take care of the chicken chores, (watering and feeding). Then yoga and strength exercises.
8:30am Eat breakfast and read the paper, check emails.
9:30am Go for a 45-minute morning hike with my dog.
10:30am Into the studio, work on whatever needs doing, usually the more physical aspects of pottery, like throwing or glazing.
In the summer this changes to 7:00am in the garden before it gets too hot, then the usual routine and in the studio by 11:00–11:30am.
AFTERNOON
2:30pm Eat lunch and take a 15–20 minute nap
3:30pm Refreshed and back in the studio. At this point, I sometimes throw if I am getting ready for a show, but mostly take that time for trimming pots, packing and shipping or making a video or post for Instagram/Facebook. In the summer I will end around 4:30pm to tend the garden or take a swim on the hot days in the river.
5:30–6:00pm Gather eggs from the chickens and cook dinner
EVENING
7:00pm It really depends on the time of year. I might be back in the studio until 9:00pm, or take that time to return emails. During harvest season I will be canning and preserving food from the garden.
9:00pm Start winding down for the day and do something not work related.
10:00pm Get ready for bed.
Making a Living
I am able to make a living through online sales, two studio sales a year, and my urn business. I started making cremation urns in 2005, and added biodegradable urns in 2009. The urn business has a separate website from my functional work because I feel it is important for families to have a peaceful, undistracted place to view something so meaningful in their grief. Depending on the year, urns are 65–75% of my pottery sales.
I make a living from my work, but healthcare coverage is expensive. I am lucky that my wife has coverage through her job as a part-time nurse. We also have a tiny homestead farm, which supplements our expenses a great deal.
We have chosen to work less at our monetary jobs because it is important to both of us to raise our own food organically and steward the land. There are days I can’t be in the studio, especially during our short northeast summer when the garden is in full bloom. We grow all sorts of crops for long-term storage by canning, drying, and freezing. We have a few fruit trees; some years there is too much fruit, and some years there is nothing, due to the fickle northeast weather or the bears. A small greenhouse keeps us eating fresh greens all year, and the bees and chickens provide sweet goodness, eggs, and meat.
The Body and Mind
Choosing to make pottery full time is hard on your body. Repetitive stress injuries happen. Whether you work at the wheel or handbuild, there is no way around it. I have learned to take care of my body in many different ways in the studio and outside the studio. Much of it has helped tremendously, so instead of throwing for five hours straight, I’ll throw for three at most with stretches in between. I do this even though it’s hard to remember to take breaks when I am “in the zone.” The second half of the day I do something else like trim, glaze, or photograph work. Outside of the studio, I start every morning with yoga and strength training. I make time for these activities as if it’s part of my job, like training time for an athlete.
Patience, discipline, perseverance, and self-motivation are very good assets to have when being a potter. You get knocked down often, whether it is psychically (physically?) or mentally. So much can go wrong: kiln issues before a big show, clay or glaze problems, the perfect pot slumping in the kiln, or an injury. It is all very humbling.
The days when I feel defeated by the nature of pottery making I still go into the studio. It’s not a hobby. The best advice I can give is just get in there. Make yourself do something. Start by cleaning the worktables. Once I am in motion, the desire to make or glaze pots comes to me—and off I go!
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The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
There are no straight lines in the journey. Even though I’m one of those people who could say I’ve known since I was seven that I wanted to be an artist in some way. If I wasn’t running around with the neighborhood kids, playing football with my brothers, or tending the garden, I was drawing, painting, making sculptures out of toothpicks, or building sandcastles at the beach.
My hands did not touch clay until I was in high school at the age of sixteen. That fateful first time at the wheel, it all clicked. It brought everything together for me; the athlete and the artist! It satisfied the physical and the creative.
I went to Alfred University, where I studied ceramics and sculpture, earning my BFA with a minor in art education. My loving, practical dad said that I could only go to art school if I also acquired a teaching degree.
I graduated from Alfred when I was twenty-one and went right into making pots. I sold them at shops and craft fairs, and it all lasted about ten months. I was making pots in the basement of a rental house, isolated and lonely. Even though I am an introvert, I needed my peers, which I did not have in suburban Long Island, New York. So, I fell back on my teaching degree and taught high school art for five years. Thanks, Dad.
I loved teaching high school, but longed to make my own work, move to the country, and farm. I moved to New York’s Hudson Valley, where I lived and worked as a farmer at an environmental/social justice community for two years. I then moved to my current home in western Massachusetts.
Becoming a full-time potter was not a straight line for me, even though I knew in my heart that it was what I wanted to eventually do. It took another fifteen years after graduating from college to jump into it full-time. It’s not that I ever stopped making pots; I fit it in while raising two sons, farming, and teaching nights at art centers.
Where I Work
The old farmhouse where I live had a beat-up old barn, both of which were painstakingly renovated over the years. The upper section of the working barn was converted into my studio in 2002. It’s a beautiful light-filled space with the working barn below. I am serenaded by the clucking of chickens daily. It’s a dream space with three Bailey wheels, work tables, and a kiln room with two L&L electric kilns. The upper loft is my office space, packing station, photography studio, and glaze-making area.
Community of Potters
When I came to western Massachusetts 33 years ago, I came for the beautiful countryside, the farms, and the hippies. I didn’t know that Western Massachusetts was a hub for potters. I treasure the pottery community here.
I have been part of the Asparagus Valley Potters Guild for 26 years. Twenty-four years ago, we started talking about having a pottery tour, hence the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail came into existence. As one of the founders, I can tell you it wasn’t very lucrative the first year or so. By the third year, we started to get quite the following. We are currently in our 22nd year of this highly anticipated event, which is always the last weekend in April and is very well attended.
The Work
My work is functional and made for everyday use. It changes over the years as I grow and change. How could it stay the same? I am a different person than I was in my twenties. So much has been learned over the years through love, children, and losses. At 62, I am in the last third of my life, which brings more freedom with the kids grown and the lessons acquired from the first two-thirds of life. The wisdom of age carries over to being an artist. I’ve made tens of thousands of pots and thousands of mistakes. I can honestly say I am finally feeling that I’m a good potter. There is an ease and comfort with the clay. My hands just know what to do, when to do it, without extraneous unnecessary motion.
I base my work on function first, then I take it from there. There is so much to look at in functional objects. I tend to look at mediums other than ceramics, like metals and glass . . . an old metal citrus juicer, a metal oil can, a glass coffee carafe. I’ve gathered a collection of these items from antique shops that sit on a shelf in my studio. I also look at pottery daily, from ancient times to the present. As a visual thinker, everything influences me, from the green woods and fields to the sunspot circles in the dappled shade.
What I have been most excited about in the past couple of years with my work is the integration of the land that I live on with what I am making in the studio. I have always been influenced by my surroundings, but now I am incorporating my surroundings into my work. You can put a shovel down a foot anywhere in this valley and find clay. There is a long history, from colonial times and I’m sure from the Native Americans to now, of pottery making and brickyards in the area. I did some experimenting with the clay from the river and found that the optimal firing was around cone 04. I tested some clay on a plate at cone 6 and it melted, which led me to the conclusion that it might make a nice slip. I use this slip mainly with cutout papers to create a negative space of circles, leaves, and abstract patterns. Aside from the slip, I layer most of my glazes in one way or another. I use upholstery foam as a stamp to create patterns while layering different glazes on top of each other. I spray glazes on top of each other, especially for my urns. Spraying glazes is not my favorite process, but I like the results.
Currently, I work with two different dark stonewares and a porcelain, which are all from Sheffield Pottery Supply here in Western Massachusetts.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
MORNING
7–7:15am Wake up. Take care of the chicken chores, (watering and feeding). Then yoga and strength exercises.
8:30am Eat breakfast and read the paper, check emails.
9:30am Go for a 45-minute morning hike with my dog.
10:30am Into the studio, work on whatever needs doing, usually the more physical aspects of pottery, like throwing or glazing.
In the summer this changes to 7:00am in the garden before it gets too hot, then the usual routine and in the studio by 11:00–11:30am.
AFTERNOON
2:30pm Eat lunch and take a 15–20 minute nap
3:30pm Refreshed and back in the studio. At this point, I sometimes throw if I am getting ready for a show, but mostly take that time for trimming pots, packing and shipping or making a video or post for Instagram/Facebook. In the summer I will end around 4:30pm to tend the garden or take a swim on the hot days in the river.
5:30–6:00pm Gather eggs from the chickens and cook dinner
EVENING
7:00pm It really depends on the time of year. I might be back in the studio until 9:00pm, or take that time to return emails. During harvest season I will be canning and preserving food from the garden.
9:00pm Start winding down for the day and do something not work related.
10:00pm Get ready for bed.
Making a Living
I am able to make a living through online sales, two studio sales a year, and my urn business. I started making cremation urns in 2005, and added biodegradable urns in 2009. The urn business has a separate website from my functional work because I feel it is important for families to have a peaceful, undistracted place to view something so meaningful in their grief. Depending on the year, urns are 65–75% of my pottery sales.
I make a living from my work, but healthcare coverage is expensive. I am lucky that my wife has coverage through her job as a part-time nurse. We also have a tiny homestead farm, which supplements our expenses a great deal.
We have chosen to work less at our monetary jobs because it is important to both of us to raise our own food organically and steward the land. There are days I can’t be in the studio, especially during our short northeast summer when the garden is in full bloom. We grow all sorts of crops for long-term storage by canning, drying, and freezing. We have a few fruit trees; some years there is too much fruit, and some years there is nothing, due to the fickle northeast weather or the bears. A small greenhouse keeps us eating fresh greens all year, and the bees and chickens provide sweet goodness, eggs, and meat.
The Body and Mind
Choosing to make pottery full time is hard on your body. Repetitive stress injuries happen. Whether you work at the wheel or handbuild, there is no way around it. I have learned to take care of my body in many different ways in the studio and outside the studio. Much of it has helped tremendously, so instead of throwing for five hours straight, I’ll throw for three at most with stretches in between. I do this even though it’s hard to remember to take breaks when I am “in the zone.” The second half of the day I do something else like trim, glaze, or photograph work. Outside of the studio, I start every morning with yoga and strength training. I make time for these activities as if it’s part of my job, like training time for an athlete.
Patience, discipline, perseverance, and self-motivation are very good assets to have when being a potter. You get knocked down often, whether it is psychically (physically?) or mentally. So much can go wrong: kiln issues before a big show, clay or glaze problems, the perfect pot slumping in the kiln, or an injury. It is all very humbling.
The days when I feel defeated by the nature of pottery making I still go into the studio. It’s not a hobby. The best advice I can give is just get in there. Make yourself do something. Start by cleaning the worktables. Once I am in motion, the desire to make or glaze pots comes to me—and off I go!
CAREER SNAPSHOT
YEARS AS A PROFESSIONAL POTTER
25
NUMBER OF POTS MADE IN A YEAR
1500
EDUCATION
BFA, Alfred University
THE TIME IT TAKES (PERCENTAGES)
Making work (including firing): 70%
Promotions/Selling: 25%
Office/Bookkeeping: 5%
FAVORITE TOOL
Sherill Mudtools red rib
PROCESS
Wheel throwing
WHERE IT GOES
Retail Stores: 0
Galleries: 0
Craft/Art Fairs: 0
Studio/Home Sales: 50%
Online: 50%
LEARN MORE
www.lucyfagella.com
www.luciaurns.com
Instagram: @lucyfagella
Facebook: @lucyfagellapottery
YouTube: @lucyfagellapottery
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