ARTS & CRAFTS PROFILE ARTS & CRAFTS PROFILE Finding Your own Path Can Lead Full Circle Jemerick Art Pottery hunning production work for individual craftsmanship is at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement. Finding your own path is also part of living the Craftsman lifestyle, and SSteve Frederick and Cherie Jemsek of Jemerick Art Pottery know a lot about that. They create unique, hand- crafted pottery in their Saugerties, N.Y., studio. Although their paths to pottery led them from dif- ferent places—Steve studied English literature and Che- rie was an art teacher—they blended their love of nature with the Craftsman lifestyle to create Jemerick Studios. pendent artist rather than an art teacher after rekindling Steve found his direction when he discovered pottery her friendship with Steve. and trained at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in “I was intrigued by Steve’s pottery and his ability Deer Isle, Maine, under Mutsuo Yanaginara and Jack to be creative and make a living of a sort selling what Troy. Cherie found herself inclined to become an inde- he made,” she says. Disillusioned with teaching and school, she decided to drop out of a master’s program and work with Steve as an artist. While he worked as a studio potter, she made jewelry boxes and small pieces. “At that time the whole craft-fair phenomenon was hap- pening. You could be a part of these craft shows and sales for next to nothing. It allowed people to participate with very low overhead.” The studio pottery movement rejected mass pro- duction, instead embracing small pottery studios craft- ing individual pieces of functional stoneware—an ethos similar to that of the Arts and Crafts movement. “We were also very much into building everything ourselves, including forms, ovens, etc.,” says Cherie. Steve’s participation in a “Clay Molds Workshop” in Kohler, Wis., with Richard Knotkin and Jack Earl allowed him to incorporate cast and assembled sculp- tural pieces into his repertoire. These new skills added a new direction to his work. “After the clay molds work- shop, we were able to incorporate mold building and make our own glazes and colored porcelain,” he says. “This moved my work in a more modern direction.” A series of fortunate opportunities eventually led them to Saugerties, N.Y., on the Hudson River 95 miles north of New York City and 10 miles west of Wood- stock, where Steve met antiques collector and dealer Art Accardi. 104 ARTS & CRAFTS PROFILE “Art specialized in Arts and Crafts pottery. He showed me samples, and he had an extensive library. I borrowed some books to study, and I was particular- ly taken by the works of Teco and Grueby.” Accardi told Steve and Cherie that Arts and Crafts pottery was an up-and-coming market because of the movement’s 100-year anniversary. Their techniques and skills gave them the foun- dation to move in a new di- rection, and they embraced the opportunity. Steve de- cided to make a few pieces in the Grueby style. Ac- cardi displayed the pieces at Grove Park in 1997 and received a great response, Today, Steve and Cherie prompting him to sell Je- have returned to produc- merick pieces through his ing Arts and Crafts–inspired company, The Arts and pieces in the studio-pottery Clay Company. “For a tradition. Calling on more time, we designed and pro- than 40 years of experience, duced about 95 percent of they develop pieces focused the ceramics for the Arts on capturing the essence of and Clay Company,” says Steve. the Arts and Crafts move- But Accardi favored traditional reproductions, while ment. Their pieces are both Steve and Cherie were interested in showing their own interpretations of traditional ideas in new lines at fine-art fairs. It was during the pieces and reflections of American Craft Council show in Baltimore that a their personal styles and representative from the Metropolitan Museum of Art skills. All of their pottery approached Cherie. “I took her card and decided to send is hand thrown on a wheel a small sample of our work with a Jemerick card to her from stoneware clay and sculpted by the artists before when I returned to the studio.” being fired to cone 7 (2,200 °F) in an electric kiln. Each The idea paid off. The Met picked two pieces from piece carries the artists’ mark. Steve and Cherie’s Classic series to include in their Their journey has come full circle. They forged catalog. But after two years of production work, they their own artistic path and are educating people unfa- realized they missed their roots. miliar with Arts and Crafts style through their artistic “We believed in the studio-pottery philosophy and vision. we wanted to make individual pieces more than pro- duction pieces,” Steve says. “We were relieved when Jemerick Art Pottery the catalog orders ended but appreciated that it helped 845 246-6952 us keep our heads above water during the recession.” jemerickartpottery.com 105.