Tour pottery of local artists this weekend
Sep. 22—The Michiana Pottery Tour is this weekend. Artists from all over the region were preparing materials to be exhibited and sold at nine different locations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Artists in the self-guided pottery tour will be stationed in Goshen, South Bend, Bristol and Constantine, Michigan. The pottery tour is celebrating 11 years this year. Justin Rothshank, a co-founder of the tour along with Dick Lehman and Mark Goertzen explained that pottery has become a prominent artistic focus of Elkhart County.
"There's a lot of potters in the region working and a lot of people don't know that," Rothshank said. "This is a way, mostly to raise awareness, of the fact that there are a lot of working artists in the region, and to join collaborative forces to co-market an event."
The organization of the tour is a year in the making. While many artists are full-time potters, they spend much of the year in addition to selling to their regular customers, putting together pieces for the tour, and contributing funds for marketing to send ads and print maps, postcards, and signage for each of the driving tour's stops.
"I think most of the hosts are either full-time artists or very close to that, and some of the guests are full-time artists but also instructors, teachers or do other things in the clay and art field as well," Rothshank said.
This year, the Michiana Pottery Tour has nine hosts with three to five guest artists at their stops. Most are local, but some are nationally recognized artists.
"Some artists travel pretty far," Rothshank said. "I'm hosting a guy from Utah who is flying out on Friday for the tour. I have someone else coming from Tennessee, and Georgia."
Many of the artists are local, though. Rothshank attributes the clay artists' proliferation of the area to Marvin Bartel, a former Goshen College clay arts professor, and Dick Lehman, a former student of Bartel's who had been a professional clay artist in the area for nearly 40 years.
"He had a shop at the [Old] Bag Factory for a number of years and cultivated a sense of, not only making but, retail ceramics," he said. "He sort of showed everyone that it's possible in a town like Goshen."
Rothshank said pottery, in some ways, requires collaboration. Potters work together or hire interns or apprentices, who then take their learned skills and continue to grow pottery in the region.
"Goshen has really been a region where that's been fostered and endorsed," he said.
Bartel was his professor at Goshen College, too. After returning from a decade in Pittsburgh, Rothshank used apprentices to help him build his own business because he knew the model from Lehman's pottery business.
"Some of the people who are hosts on the tour now are people who have been my interns or employees, cultivating a younger generation coming up behind me, and some of those folks are now full-time artists and are looking to cultivate the same kind of thing," Rothshank said.
The majority of Rothshank's sales come from serving ware such as cups and bowls.
"Most people are coming to buy for use," he explained.
There is also decorative work made for collectors from all over the area.
"For me, it's a great opportunity to talk to my fellow artists who are here exhibiting but it's also an opportunity to educate folks about handmade clay, contemporary craft, talking about process and why something costs the way it does. All that's an important part as a craft artist, education of certain processes helps people understand why a cup can cost $50 or $100 as opposed to a dollar at Wal-Mart."
In Constantine, artist Mark Goerlzen will be at 13991 Timm Road, with guest artists Sam Hostert, Troy Bungart, Lesley Bevan and Steven Kin.
In South Bend, artist Alec Hoogland will be at 2204 Spring Hill Drive, with Sarah Anderson, Amy Smith, Levi Yastrow, and Carly Connelly. At 1133 Allen St., South Bend, artist Norah Amstutz will be with Cristal Sabbagh, Jennifer Sue Kaplan, Jesse Woodworth, Julia Whitney Brown and Mark Nafziger.
In Bristol, artist Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz will be at 56815 C.R. 9, with Andrew Linderman, Seth Green, Kim Marcadis and Doug McIndoe.
There will be five locations in Goshen. Dick Lehman, along with Lorie Marsh, Britney Smith and Dale Huffman will be at 18359 C.R. 28. Sadie Misiuk will be at 2211 Berkey Ave., with Dylan Quakenbush, Alex Paat, Brett Sauve, Anna Szafranski, Tim Kowalczyk, Dow Redcorn and Susan Messer McBride. Justin Rothshank will be at 63786 C.R. 33, with guest artists Kyle Guymon, Yesha Panchal, Susan McHenry and Horacio Casillas Jr. Trevor Daughtery will be at 1708 Lincolnway East, with Isaac and Karina Shue, Steve and Louise Skinner, and Anthony Romero. Members of the Clay Artists Guild will be at the guild, located at 212 W. Washington St.
Complete the passport for a chance to win pottery. Winners will be drawn at random. For more information, go online to https://michianapotterytour.com/.
Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.
