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Field Trip: Guy Wolff’s Pottery Studio & Shop

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I had this plan in mind for Thursday, but it rained torrentially that day, so I moved it to yesterday. And what a fabulous day it was! I’ve known about Guy Wolff’s garden pottery for a long time, but it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind until my friend Tracie posted a photo of a favorite GW pot on Instagram. (Thank you, Tracie!) He’s very famous and when Martha Stewart started featuring his work (she collects his pots) and also gave one of his pots to Oprah Winfrey, his fame increased.

So I googled him because I wanted to order one of his pots and it turns out he lives and works in Connecticut. Hello! Practically right next door! Yesterday, GPS in hand, I drove to his studio in Bantam, CT. (Stopped to pick up flowers at Trader Joe’s, of course).

The area of Connecticut in which he lives and works is gorgeous.

His website said that they’re nearly always working and the shop is open daily so stop by – and I did. This is the shop. In the same building, but behind the shop, is the studio where he and his wife throw the pots. I don’t know how much you know about Guy Wolff, but go to his website and google him, as well. He has a love for antique pots and works in that tradition. He is a master craftsman and artist and has a love for history that is referenced in his work. He comes from a family of artists (his father was an abstract expressionist painter) and his parents were friends with Alexander Calder. Marcel Breuer was his uncle. Quite the lineage!

I walked in the shop and said hello to another woman who was shopping. Her words to me: Get ready to become addicted.

Truer words were never spoken.

I wanted to buy everything and my senses were on overload.

As I started to pick the pots I wanted to buy, in came Guy!

Oh my gosh, he is the nicest person, so friendly, so warm and down-to-earth. We proceeded to chat for almost two hours! We talked about everything: theater, life as an artist and the strain of making ends meet (we all encounter this challenge), his children, movies, music, and of course, his pottery. I can’t even begin to relate everything we talked about, but I had such a great time. His wife, Erica Warnock, joined us at one point and it turns out she was student at Boston University in the theater department just a few years before I joined the faculty. So we had all of that in common.

Guy is also a musician and he plays the guitar and the banjo and he treated me to a mini-concert on a banjo from 1881, which someone dropped off at the studio as a gift for him. (I shot a video of him playing and sent it to Don.) He and Don would get on like a house afire – they’re also the same age, so I’m going to take Don there when he returns from California.

Little did I know when I stopped by to buy some pots that I would be there all afternoon. He also showed me the pots he has designed that are either based on actual shards found at Presidential homes like Monticello, or evocative of the style and/or clay found at Presidential historic sites; Roosevelt’s home, Hyde Park, for example. There are several designs and they’re beautiful. (Next on my “must have” list.)

I was amazed and overwhelmed by the selection but I went with my first love, his white pots.

I took this late in the day yesterday. Let me show you some closeups I took this morning.

This design is inspired by a pot found in Cornwall. The edge is called a pie crust edge.

The mark “G. Wolff” means the pot was made by Guy. The year is inscribed in the clay and the number 4 relates to the wet weight of the clay for that pot. It’s also signed on the bottom with his signature.

This is the largest pot I purchased. It’s gorgeous, as are all his pots.

Guy told me the pots marked 1 or 2 are made by his wife, Erica, and sure enough, there was her signature on the bottom. You’ll notice it’s also marked G. Wolff Pottery, indicating that someone other than Guy made it.

I bought four pots. One is a gift for a friend.

I’m simply crazy about these and I have no idea where I’m going to put them! I’m afraid to put them on the porch because of the intense winds we encounter here that sometimes knock things over!

I’ll figure it out.

I have to stop myself from driving right back there today and buying more pots. I’m so thrilled to finally own some Guy Wolff pots and, even more, to have the chance to get to know him a little. He and his wife are truly lovely.

His son, Ben, by the way, is also a potter and has a studio of his own now: Ben Wolff Pottery.

Happy Saturday.

Presents, Songbirds, Flowers & Chairs

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A presents day yesterday, from others and from me to me/us!

Nancy, who is a longtime reader of this blog, sent me a package full of wonderful treasures. Three more Hardy Boys for Don, a Nancy Drew for me, and two beautiful pieces of miniature pottery. The moon-faced pitcher (Nancy told me to google it for interesting information) looks like it was made by Enesco and was also manufactured in other colors and lustreware finishes. The other piece is a Shawnee miniature.  I love everything.

Thank you so much, Nancy! What a generous gift!

I also received a package from Don. I didn’t take a photo of it because it’s a T-shirt, but it’s from the famous Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66 and it has a great logo. Perfect for this bird-loving girl.

The flowers Don sent me for opening night. The roses have opened and the pale pink peony is about to open. Aren’t they gorgeous?

From me to me: another Nancy Drew. This is one of the later editions illustrated by Russell H. Tandy. We’re getting there – only seven more to go but a few of those are extremely hard to find!

We get a pile of sales circulars in the mail every week and I usually throw them in the recycling pile without even looking at them. This week, for some reason, I looked through them and saw one from The Christmas Tree Shops. I decided to quickly take a look at it – thank goodness I did – and what did I see? Adirondack chairs made out of cedar for $49. What????? Not only that, but they fold up, so we can store them in the shed (if we ever clean it out.)

I drove across the river yesterday and came home with them.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I have always, always wanted a couple of Adirondack chairs! I’m so excited! I could paint them, but I think I’ll leave them natural, with the addition of a clear coat. Cedar ages well, and our porch furniture tends to be weathered wood.

They’ll go on the porch. I’m on the hunt for colorful cushions. I haven’t put them together yet. Maybe today, but I also have to mow so we’ll see what happens.

I mowed the back forty yesterday, as well as the corral. Today, the front yard, because it’s due to rain tomorrow.

It’s finally time to soak my morning glory seeds. I’ll be sowing them on Monday, along with zinnia and moonflower seeds. Huzzah! And, I have yet to buy impatiens for the porch or flowers for the planters, but I did move all the plants I overwintered this year back out to the porch.

Spring is here.

I made a cup of coffee this morning and went outside to sit on the funky patio. It was about 6:15 and the air was full of bird song. Glorious. I’m going to do it more often. At that point in the day, traffic is fairly quiet around here and the songbirds can take center stage. It’s a beautiful way to start the day.

Happy Saturday.

 

A Little Bit of Everything

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On our second gloomy day in a row, I thought a sunny picture would be in order. Hard to believe, but I just took this about 3 days ago.

Low-key is a perfect description for life here in the cottage these days. After my spurt of energy sorting and purging the closet on Thanksgiving, I have reverted to my inclination to be lazy. I did rouse myself to drive to our local jeweler yesterday to get the battery in my watch replaced – a favorite watch that I had lost track of, but found – you guessed it – in the midst of my cleaning and sorting on Thursday.

And, on high alert, I stopped at the grocery store to get some more Peet’s French Roast. I’m not exaggerating when I say we go into a mild panic at the thought of running out and finding that our closest store is also out.  And that has happened, my friends. It isn’t pretty. We’ve tried just about every other French Roast out there, most often when we have no other choice, and while some are okay, none equal Peet’s.

Don’t you think Peet’s should hire me as a ‘brand ambassador?’

I’ve been reading the latest Lee Child, but – and I’m going to be frank here – I’m just not that into it. That is the first and only time I have ever said that about one of his thrillers. This one takes place in the past, when Reacher was still an enlisted man, and the premise is intriguing, but for some reason this one just seems too formulaic. Maybe it’s my mood, maybe because I’ve read all of the Reacher series, but I’m having to force myself to finish. I will finish, if only because I bought the darned book, but it is definitely not my favorite.

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The latest SquintBox, which arrived in yesterday’s mail. The theme is ‘Good Cheer.’ Christmas presents, holiday cards, a shopping bag and box from Paris, a Plum Pudding Cake, and a glass bowl of holiday candies. My stash is growing monthly due to this neat subscription service!

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Mini Pottery collection update. I’ve had to move some of the pieces to the top of this shadow box because I’m running out of room! (I’m not complaining.)

We watched Top Hat  on TCM yesterday. As the world’s biggest Fred Astaire fan – really, I am! – I’ve seen this movie many, many times. But I never tire of it. I’ve been an Astaire fan since I was a kid. There’s not much I don’t know about him. My dorm room and student apartments were dominated by a huge poster of Fred and Ginger dancing Cheek to Cheek, Ginger’s infamous feather dress looking gorgeous (and somewhat dangerous for Fred, as feathers flew everywhere.)

In times of stress and worry, which, let’s face it, this particular time is, a Fred and Ginger movie is the perfect prescription. There’s a reason their movies were such a hit during a time when the country reeled from The Depression.

Another movie that makes me happy? Tootsie. And that’s on TCM tonight at 8.

Another happy thing: our new weekend home delivery of the New York Times. I signed up for it at the beginning of the week. We now get the Friday – Sunday editions delivered to our little cottage. And they’re out there on the driveway early! We get up around 5:30 or 6 and the paper is already there.

I’m making good on my promise to subscribe to a newspaper or two as well as magazines that feature investigative journalism. Supporting a free press is imperative.

Happy Saturday.

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