Pottery and Handmade Crafts by Casey Staub: February 2010

Six years ago I found myself in a ceramic class taught by Dick Hotchkiss in Grass Valley, California. I took the class for fun with the thought that it would make my school experience more enjoyable. The first day of class I showed up early to make sure I knew where I was going. The small campus is up on a hill that overlooks the sun setting into the valley. It is a beautiful view from outside the west facing classroom door. Dick arrived right on time to unlock the door for the waiting students. This is where I began my adventures in clay.

Dick has this dynamic personality that captured my heart right away. Not only was I too fall in love with clay under his instruction but I also fell in love with him and his passion for clay. He is a very tall strong man. He must be at least 6’ 4”. This year he turned 71 and he is still building kilns from scratch, collecting buckets of clay from the mountains, mixing clay and glazes, making pottery, firing kilns, planting, tending and harvesting his beautiful garden, splitting oak rounds, climbing on rooftops, hiking, coaching track, and teaching ceramic classes at Sierra College.

The Sierra College studio came with another amazing man, Andy Sellery. Andy did all the technical work to keep things moving as well as walk around and help students as they worked. The Sierra College studio was complete with the sound of Andy’s laugh. Andy is a fun, loving and a very positive guy. He was always there right when it seemed I needed a little coaching or a little encouragement. He worked hard to keep the kiln loaded and firing and always slipped my pieces into the best spots. Dick and Andy made up the Sierra College team as I know it. Together they helped create the potter that is still growing in me.

The first class I took was a wheel throwing class. The next semester I enrolled in the class a second time along with Dick’s primitive ceramics class. I learned to throw on the wheel, hand build, how to pit fire and raku fire, decorate and glaze, and that Dick makes the most delicious homemade, garden grown rhubarb peach pie. I also learned about the geological make up of clay, what materials are used in glazes… all the processes the clay goes through to become a piece of art.

I continued to enroll in Dick’s classes for the next couple years and even when I wasn’t enrolled Dick allowed me to come in when I could and work. I knew from the beginning that I had found the dream I wanted to follow. Over time I think Dick could see the passion for clay growing in my heart. He gave me the space I needed to work, the tools I needed to learn and the encouragement I needed to be successful. He believed in me as a potter and that gave me courage. Dick became my mentor and even more importantly one of my best friends.

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