Catskill-based artist Eileen Sackman has worked with ceramics for more than 25 years, making plates, cups, vases, and other pieces. Many prominently feature endangered animals.
“It’s anywhere from near-threatened to endangered or extinct animals,” she said. “I take a percentage of the sales that I do and I donate them every month to a rhino orphanage in South Africa.”
“It’s a little like I’m forcing you to donate money by buying a pot,” Sackman joked.
Sackman taught a weekly wheel-throwing class this summer at Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts in Maplecrest, where she spent last weekend selling her work as part of the center’s annual Pottery Festival.
Held Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, the festival drew visitors to browse work from more than a dozen ceramicists, many of whom are based in the region.
Tess Charbonneau lives just down the road in Maplecrest. She said she does much of her work at Sugar Maples, particularly in the winter. During the summer, she’s busy gardening.
Charbonneau has worked with ceramics for 18 years.
“I started making mud pies when I was a kid in the backyard,” she said. “That’s what started it.”
Some of Charbonneau’s pieces are inspired by Indigenous cultures, including a brown pot she calls the “cliff dweller.”
“If you’ve ever been to Mesa Verde or any of those cliff-dwelling places of the Indigenous cultures here in this country, you’ll remember that shape,” she said.
Other artists showcased pieces with less traditional forms.
Riley Walzer, originally from Annapolis, Maryland, and now based in Brooklyn, displayed a series of ceramic water droppers. Covering the opening with a hand while pouring allows a single drop of water to emerge from the other end.
Walzer said artists can use them for calligraphy or watercolor.
“They were in this Japanese gallery but in very different forms,” Walzer said. “The owner walked me through and told me all about them, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to go make as many of these as I can right now.’”
Walzer hopes to move to the Hudson area, where he said his parents have a detached garage “that is practically ready to be a studio.” Having a studio is a dream for other ceramicists, as well.
Alex Greco, originally from Long Island, moved to Star, North Carolina, a month ago to work for a clay manufacturer. After interning at Sugar Maples three years ago, he now returns each year for the festival.
He said having his own studio is one of his goals.
“Eventually I’ll have money to buy a studio or make a studio,” he said. “I’m getting there.”
Some of the festival’s most colorful pieces were displayed by Jewett-based ceramicist Ruth Sachs, a former teacher at the Art League of Long Island. Sachs said finishing a piece can take weeks.
“You have to get the clay, wedge the clay, put it on the wheel, then it dries for a week,” she said. “Then it goes in the kiln for one firing, it comes out of the kiln, glaze goes on, and it goes back in the kiln.”
“Each piece could take a couple of weeks,” she said. “I don’t fire the kiln until it’s full.”
Sachs has studios at her home in Jewett and on Long Island. She said she can’t get enough of ceramics. While spending winters in Florida, she regularly visits a studio there.
“It’s better than therapy,” she said.
Photography by Roy Gumpel/The Overlook.
Connor Greco is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Windham, Hunter, and surrounding Greene County communities. Send correspondence to connor@theoverlooknews.com.
