Studio Potters and Their Marks

Pottery Location Birth and Death Dates Marks Laura Andreson Los Angeles, California (1902–1999) Alexander Archipenko New York, New York (1887–1964) Arthur E. Baggs Columbus, Ohio (1886–1947) F. Carlton Ball Oakland, California (1911–1992) Charles Fergus Binns New York, New York (1857–1934) Paul Bogatay Columbus, Ohio (1905–1972) Cornelius Brauckman Los Angeles, California 1864–1952 Rose Cabat Tucson, Arizona […]

Beatrice Wood (1893–1998)

Beatrice Wood, born in 1893 in San Francisco, studied art in Paris, then returned to the United States in 1914 and became part of a group of avant-garde artists in New York. Wood became interested in ceramics after she returned to California and took her first pottery class in 1933. Later she studied with Glen […]

Carl Walters (1883–1955)

Carl Walters was a painter until he was 39 years old, when he made his first ceramics at his studio in Woodstock, New York. Beginning in 1922, he produced ashtrays, candlesticks, bowls, vases, and plates, many with decorations inspired by Near Eastern designs. He is best known for his colorful ceramic sculptures of animals, especially […]

Peter Voulkos (1924–2002)

Peter Voulkos introduced revolutionary ceramics techniques and shapes. From 1949 to 1952 he studied ceramics and worked at Montana State University in Bozeman and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He was resident potter at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, from 1952 to 1954. Voulkos’s early work was conventional. Many […]

The Scheiers—Mary Goldsmith (1908–2007) and Edwin (1910–2008)

Although both had some training in the arts, Mary and Edwin Scheier didn’t work in ceramics until after they married in 1937. They discovered a red clay in Glade Spring, Virginia, and set up a pottery there. Their early wares were utilitarian—tableware and jugs—and reflected a Southern folk tradition. Mary threw the pots, and Edwin […]

The Natzlers—Gertrud Amon (1908–1971) and Otto (1908–2007 )

Gertrud Amon and Otto Natzler were born in Vienna, met in 1933, and established a studio in 1935. Gertrud threw thin-walled, simple, classical shapes on the wheel, while Otto developed the glazes. A few months after Hitler’s regime occupied Austria in 1938, they married and fled from Vienna to the United States. The Natzlers set […]

Glen Lukens (1887–1967)

Glen Lukens studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913, then developed a pottery program to rehabilitate wounded soldiers returning from World War I. He was fascinated by the bright blue glaze on an Egyptian figure he had seen in a museum, and in 1924 he went to California to try to recreate […]

Pillin – Polia (1909–1992) and William (1910–1985)

The pottery decorated with pictures of elongated figures of women is easy to identify as the work of Polia and William Pillin. Once seen, it is always remembered. Polia Sukonic, a Polish immigrant, and William Pillin, a Ukrainian immigrant, came to the United States as children, met in Chicago, and married in 1929. Polia planned […]

Maija Grotell (1899–1973)

Maija Grotell studied ceramics in her native Finland before coming to the United States in 1927. Her early work in America used innovative glazes, art deco designs, and strong, simple shapes. Some pieces are decorated with art deco skyscrapers and city scenes. She became head of the ceramics department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art […]

Waylande Desantis Gregory (1905–1971)

Waylande Gregory was one of many artists who worked at the Cowan Pottery in Cleveland, Ohio. He started there in 1928 after working with ceramics, especially architectural pieces, in the Chicago area. At Cowan he created figurines and statues. After Cowan closed in 1931, he worked at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, […]