A Love Affair With Clay

Lush green fields and forest-lined roads with layers of aged mountains framing the landscape — this is the Berkshires. And amid all this beauty is a rich culture of music, art, theater and dance.  

   This visitor is here to find not one potter but two. I found Missy and Sandy Kaolin (their professional name, “kaolin†is a type of clay; Sandy and Missy asked not to have their real names revealed) just past the Great Barrington airport on Route 71. I came looking for them because their work is different, and it’s noted for its innovation and diversity.

When I stepped into the small gallery (a room in their house where the Kaolins display their work), I didn’t know where to look first.

There was so much to look at — fruit so real I wanted to pick up a luscious-looking pear or a piece of cantaloupe, rainbow-colored bowls of all shapes and sizes, varied vases and bowls of brilliant red with elegant slashes and swirls and others showing off the white porcelain-like clay they often use.

But it was the animals that attracted me most — adult giraffes and elephants with their offspring, winding around tall sculpted  pots on revolving platforms. These are not small creations. They rise 24 or more inches.

The variety of styles makes one think this is the work of several potters. But Kaolin & Co. Pottery is Missy and Sandy. They’ve been together 25 years. Missy says they’ve known each other “almost forever. Our families were longtime friends.â€

This year they are celebrating 20 years in the Berkshires —  they call their relationship “a love affair with clay, the Berkshires and each other.â€

Petite Missy, 42 but looking much younger, says her parents weren’t happy when she chose to study art, majoring in ceramics. But she wanted to do what she loved most: Make pottery.

She taught Sandy, who is 58 and has a master’s degree in mathematics, how to use the potter’s wheel and together they started out as production potters, making functional ware.

The need to become more artistic increased over the years and Missy describes the two of them as “ceramic artists.â€

They are both perfectionists, a trait that apparently enhances both their marriage and their art.

The work begins with Sandy. After the two discuss what the project will be, he forms a pot, perhaps a bowl or a vase.

“He’s very creative,†Missy says, “He always seems to know what shape will be just right.â€

 Once it’s completely formed, Missy takes over and begins the sculpting, sometimes cutting out parts of the piece, sometimes making a dramatic slash and, in the case of the huge vases with animals, sculpting the figures and adding appropriate background scenery. The results are dramatic.

“Now, rather than focusing on only functionality,†Missy says, “we can devote our efforts to ideas and techniques that, hopefully, distinguish us as artists — not only as craftsmen.â€

The couple’s work is included in prominent private and corporate collections. Last October, the Boston Globe published an article about them, at long last acknowledging the superiority of their work.

IBM commissioned them to create  “The Dancing Elephant,†in honor of CEO Louis Gerstner’s bestseller, “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?â€

Last June their work appeared at the prestigious SOFA (Sculptural Objects of Fine Arts) in New York City. They created a cornucopia of fruit at the request of Mostlyglass.com, the upscale Internet crafts dealer, from whom the invitation to SOFA had come.

The Kaolins have sold pottery to collectors in the United States and abroad, and to Berkshire residents and visitors, who often come back to add to their collections and have since become friends.

Among their other pottery creations are pet portraits, playful animal sculpures, commissioned heirlooms and special-occasion tribute plaques, which include a wide variety of personal details.

All this work comes from what is probably the smallest potting room of any successful potters  — about 10 by 10 feet square. A tour  took all of five minutes. The room is clean and organized. It’s hard to believe two people work in this tiny place, creating such remarkable pieces of art pottery.

Their pottery isn’t advertised, but the Kaolins sell their work on the Internet at www.kaolinpottery.com. Prices range from $25 to $7,000.

They live with two terriers and create their pottery at 80 Egremont Plain Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230.