The Bailey Collection

Congratulations to all the correct guessers, and thank you to all who participated! We hope you enjoyed the challenge. Read on for our interview with Andrea Gill, one of the most extraordinary potters of the last 50 years. This influential potter has been making dynamic work for over 40 years and teaching college students for nearly as many.

Congrats to everyone who guessed this Mystery Pot correctly! Thank you to all who participated in our contest; we hope you enjoyed the challenge! Clary was one of the few master potters who apprenticed with Bernard Leach in St. Ives, England in the 1960s.

Bravo to everyone who guessed this Mystery Pot correctly! Thank you to all who participated in our contest; we hope you enjoyed the challenge! We were impressed that so many of you were able to identify the maker of this piece.

The Bailey Collection of Contemporary Ceramics' Michael Lucero sculptural teapot is a wonderful example of his vibrant work. It is a hybrid form with an elaborately finished surface that mixes images and references.

The maker of our Mystery Pot 43 is Helen Naha, the matriarch of a Hopi-Tewa clan of potters who sign their pots with a stylized feather. Our pot is a beautiful example of her Black on White pottery. The Awatovi star design was revived by Feather Woman over her lifetime. One of several designs she developed from shards she collected from the Awatovi ruins.

Read on for a detailed biography of this remarkable Native American Pottery Legend by Grey Wolf Gallery in Arizona. Visit their website https://greywolfgalleryaz.com/ for old and current Native American Artist.

Wayne Higby is an acclaimed ceramic artist, beloved Professor of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, and Director of the Alfred University Ceramic Museum. Wayne Higby was born in 1943 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received his BFA from the University of Colorado/Boulder in 1966. The landscapes of his youth were a lasting influence in his life and work.

The potter's life as lived by Gerry Williams was exceptional. Gerry Williams will always be remembered for his outstanding contributions to the field of ceramics.

Forty years of innovative ceramic work began with functional earthenware made with red clay he dug from New Hampshire's mudflats. Always changing and evolving, his lifetime body of work includes red earthenware, porcelain, and stoneware; gas-fired and wood-fired; functional ware, sculptural forms, wall plagues, and bold political sculpture. His original research in wet fire technique and his photo resist technique were groundbreaking.

Co-founding both Studio Potter and Phoenix Workshops with his wife Julie in 1972, the Williams were able to share Gerry's love of and enthusiasm for our humble medium worldwide. A potter's life well lived, indeed.

“That was the nice thing about clay,” he said. “If you didn’t like the way something really was, you could always fix it up,”

The exuberant, playful work of David James Gilhooly made him an international sensation in the late 60s through the early 80s. His whimsical ceramic creations began with animals, including zebras and anteaters, and then there were frogs, lots and lots of frogs.

In England, where Richard Batterham was born in 1936, he is considered the leading living maker of domestic stoneware. It’s a reputation that has been made by a life spent diligently working with discipline and talent to perfect his functional forms and lovely muted glazes.

Interested in craft and design from a young age, Richard studied at the Bryanston School. He was taught pottery by Donald Potter who had worked with Eric Gill and Michael Cardew. After his National Service, he apprenticed with Bernard Leach at St. Ives for two years. He married Dinah Dunn in 1959, and they set up housekeeping in Durweston, Dorset.

“For over forty years I have been compelled to make these curious forms. Usually, they are vases but sometimes they become teapots, bowls or jugs and sometimes they don't have a name. Their creation has given me joy, despair, friends, money, and backache.”

- Geoffrey Swindell