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Thursday, April 3, 2008

Pottery Studio Open to the Community

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    Laurie Pierce is an artist in a dirty business.
    Pierce began her pottery business— Aspects of Clay, a community pottery studio in Cedar Crest— because she ran out of studio space in her home in Sandia Park, she said.
    Pierce has been working with clay since 1991 and even made a business creating tile murals for kitchen backsplashes, fireplaces or showers. It's something she's interested in taking on again, on a part-time basis.
    She earned a bachelor's degree in fine art from Beaver College, now known as Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Apparently a lot has changed for Pierce, too.
    Pierce is now in her early 30s and has a husband and a child. She keeps a photo of her daughter making a clay bowl in the studio.
    She said Aspects of Clay started with a few pottery wheels in 2006 and has grown quite a bit.
    Customers can pay to use the wheels, kilns and go to classes by the hour, weekly, month or even half-year. She also teaches summer camps for Girl Scouts and 4-H Club.
    She also has guest teachers, like Diane Wade, who is from Isleta Pueblo.
    Wade taught a class on building pots using American Indian techniques on Saturday. She even brought clay she'd dug from near her pueblo for students to use.
    The students, all women, rarely stopped laughing during the class.
    The studio also has premade forms that customers can paint with glaze and take home.
    "We can accommodate anybody," Pierce said.
    Electric and raku firings are available. Pierce said she hopes to someday have a larger space where she can fire pottery using gas and wood kilns, too.
    Artists wishing to sell their pottery can display their pieces for free in the studio's informal gallery.
    The pieces range from $2 to $200 and there is a 25 percent commission when a piece is sold, Pierce said.
    In fact, there will be an arts and crafts fair in May. The fair runs noon-6 p.m. on May 2, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 3 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 4.
    Aspects of Clay is south of the Cedar Crest Scenic Byway and west of N.M. 14. For more information, call 281-7115.