Ben Wolff has continued the tradition of exquisite and understated pottery and “horticultureware” that was begun by his father, Guy Wolff.
The senior Wolff, who has just turned 70, continues to live and work (and sell his pottery) at his studio in Bantam, Conn. The younger Wolff (who is about to turn 40) is working from his home studio in Goshen, Conn.
Ben Wolff describes his father’s style as more historically inspired, with clay pots that feel like they could have come from a Jane Austen novel or someone’s 18th century Grand Tour visit to Italy.
Ben’s work is similarly understated and elegant, but is, he says, more contemporary.
The demand this year is unusually high for the work of both Wolffs.
“Everybody was home this year because of the quarantine, everybody was thinking about plants and wanted to have a garden,” Ben said. “But people who live in cities are stuck ; they can’t go outside to their gardens, they have to instead do something inside.”
Wolff has been throwing pots and firing them as fast as he can, to keep up with orders from his many retail clients across the country.
And in the middle of all that, he’s added a new shop, here in the Northwest Corner: 100 Main in Falls Village, Conn., the shop conceived by New York City interior designer Bunny Williams and curated by herself and Christina Van Hengel.
The shop’s focus is work by artisans in the Tri-state region, with everything from candles to furniture.
Prices range from $10 for the smallest pots to about $100 for the largest but vary from shop to shop.
To learn more about Guy Wolff, go to www.guywolff.com; to learn more about Ben Wolff, go to www.benwolffpottery.com; and for information on purchasing horticultureware and more from the Falls Village shop, go to www.100mainst.com.
