JEFFERSON COUNTY — On May 4 and 5, ceramics enthusiasts trekked from Stoughton, through Cambridge, Deerfield and Lake Mills to Johnson Creek as part of the Clay Collective spring pottery tour. The tour is an annual event organized by the ten members of the collective, who this year invited 19 guest potters to showcase their art in South Central Wisconsin.
At stops along the tour, visitors see the homes and studios of local ceramists, getting a feel for the environment in which pieces are made. The intimate view of artists’ workstations sets the pottery tour apart from the typical springtime art fair.
“You basically are entering into the home or the workshop of an individual…so it’s more experiential, that’s the wonderful thing about this,” Clay Collective potter Mark Skudlarek said.
Since 1989, Skudlarek has operated Cambridge Wood-Fired Pottery at his property on Tranquil Lane, where stacks of wood and a sign warning of a barking dog that has since passed away greeted shoppers on Saturday and Sunday.
“Going to an art fair is great, but I feel that it’s too congested from time to time, and to really go into a booth and get a feel or an idea for what that artist is all about, you don’t get that, opposed to entering into the environment in which they work,” he said.
Skudlarek cut up kringle, made sandwiches and brewed coffee for guests who looked at his work as well as work from Kenyon Hansen and Shumpei Yamaki.
“When we decided to do the tour, we formed the Clay Collective,” founding member Glen Cutcher said.
“Originally, it was just seven of us, and then we started adding potters…there’s potters from all over the country. For a long time there weren’t young potters. They just weren’t being trained to do production pottery, to do their own personal studio work,” he said.
Until his retirement three years ago, Cutcher worked at Rowe Pottery, where he and the other founding members met trying to make a living as potters.
“Then we started to invite people,” he said. “Some were as old as the rest of us. We have a lot more young potters, and we’ve been trying to get more young women as well, to give them exposure once they’ve gotten to a certain quality. And this show has really good quality and we’re such an eclectic group of potters anyways, it only gets more so with all the new potters.”
Local artists hosted up to three guest potters this year, bringing artists from across the country, though some had international origins.
“The host potter invites the guest, and that can be done through longtime friendships, or it can be through admiration of someone they’ve been following online or saw their work and wanted to invite them,” guest potter Jean Wells said. “Everyone does it a little differently on the tour.”
Artists also meet at different art shows, or based on the recommendation of other artists. While it has its benefits to bring in new potters and provide new bodies of work for shoppers to see, many of the guest potters have been on the tour before.
Returning potters return every year, having built up an audience in south central Wisconsin.
“If you have the same potters year after year, they develop a following, and with that following, customers come back to purchase more,” Skudlarek said.
“It’s to the advantage of that individual to come back over several years… I try to shake it up every once in a while, but mostly I’m pretty settled on the people I know. I like their work. Some people might call it cliquey, but you have to admire the individuals’ work that’s showing with you.”
Wells, who was hosted by Cutcher, has known members of the Clay Collective for years and looks forward to coming over to Cambridge from Brown Deer. The tour gives her the opportunity to showcase pieces that would not do as well at other art fairs.
“I do this full time, as a living,” Wells said. “So I try to have a real breadth and body of work, especially for something like the pottery tour, where most of the people who come to this obviously love pottery, so we’re dealing with a different audience of pottery appreciators.”
This means that Wells can make special pieces, or bring larger or collectible items that may not sell as well at a more varied art fair.
For host potters, the intimate studio and home setting of the tour means that an artist’s entire stock can be displayed for sale without being hampered by travel and booth size.
The majority of artists put out function pieces, but many brought a more eclectic array of options and leaned into larger pieces, creative uses of glaze and shape, and even incorporated sculptural elements.
Many of the hosts and some guest potters will be present at Midwest Fire Fest, which this year will be held June 8 and 9.
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