Powell: Handmaking history offers insights into creativity

From birdhouses and toad hideouts to cookie jars and wall hangings, Oak Openings Pottery is an impressive display of one man’s imagination and artistry.

That man is John Thies who tells a fascinating story of his beginnings in pottery.

On a visit to the pottery business down a long lane on County Road EF near Swanton, John’s designs are on display for the public to admire and to buy. After viewing a variety of pieces in an outdoor display, visitors enter the large showroom that is bright with natural light that highlights the myriad of designs.

While admiring John’s work, I asked a standard question, How long have you been doing this? John’s answer was a praise to educators that is always a joy to hear.

John has been designing pottery for more than 50 years because he began as a teenager.

He confided that when he was a student at McHenry High School near Chicago, he was active in sports, but at 15, he recalled he was beginning to get in trouble.

In an effort to help him and other students with problems, the school offered special classes. John chose art classes. The pottery classes that were in the art curriculum attracted John’s interest and he has never swayed from it. After high school, he worked in several pottery businesses with a goal of learning something new and different.

He remembers that the first lesson in art class was making small objects called pinch pots.

He still loves working with clay each day. He praises his wife for her pottery accomplishments on her days off. Dr. Tiffany Hyland is a veterinarian at High Point in Whitehouse. John says her work as a veterinarian is stressful and working with clay is calming and relaxing.

Tiffany and John met in Perrysburg 16 years ago when he was teaching pottery classes.

John explains that clay designs are fired 15 hours and that the flames from different woods used and the ashes that melt on the products change the glazes during firing.

John not only works daily firing pottery in kilns, but designs and sells mega kilns all over the world. His kilns have been shipped all over Europe and to India.

The four white goats in the back yard are testimonies to Dr. Tiffany’s compassion for animals. Two were rescued from a farm where they were being abused. The other two in the large fenced pen were gifts from neighbors.

Oak Openings Pottery, located at 2520 County Rd. EF, is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment.