Guy Wolff: Master Potter in the Garden

4. Seeking the Old Masters

After Wolff graduated from High Mowing, he decided to go to Wales to seek out traditional potters. He wanted to immerse himself in their work, and to learn. Mrs. Karl, ever encouraging, wrote a charming handwritten letter of introduction punctuated with double and triple underlinings on High Mowing stationery that he was to carry with him, and present as needed. Chapter four Staubach_GW_Finalpgs.indd 47 4/26/13 10:55 AM 48 Guy Wolff June 30, 1970 To Whom It May Concern Guy Wolff worked in a stoneware pottery here for four years. He started at the age of 16—, an innocent, willing, cheerful and hardworking [underlined three times] beginner. —I would not have accounted him exceptional at that time, except for his ability and willingness to work, with no expectation of reward. Hard work, then, was the basis and very foundation of all his accomplishment.—But beyond this, Guy’s vigorous and alive spirit, meeting with clay on the potter’s wheel resulted in what we call, the natural, Folk potter [underlined twice]. That he is, from himself with no direction or earlier influence. For a potter who reads this, I affirm that you have in Guy an unusually closely allied person with the materials with which you work, and that he has a unique value on this basis. If he has occasion to use this letter as well, for other reasons, and as a general recommendation, I want to say that he is, beyond the ordinary, a good, and good-hearted person, one whom you can wholly trust [underlined twice], in the old, and former sense and meaning of that word. Mrs. Isobel Karl As it turned out, he did not need the letter, but young and on his own, it was a comfort to have in his pocket just in case. He carried it with him, and keeps it still. A friend of a family friend met a person who knew the proprietors of Haverfordwest Pottery in Pembrokeshire in the southwestern part of Wales, the Whalleys.This thrice-removed connection led to a job at the pottery.“Anything you do when you are twenty-one is important,”Wolff says.“I was very fortunate that they took me. They were making contemporary pottery. The half badly thrown mugs were trimmed so the outside shape would match the interior.The bottom third had to be trimmed. I learned that I wanted to work differently. I learned what I wanted to do and what I didn’t want to do.” What he didn’t want to do was trim pots. He wanted to throw pots. He wanted to start and finish their shape on the wheel. His parents’friends,the Gabos,strongly urged him to go the Leach pottery while in England and Wales and offered an entrée.“Miriam Gabo and Naum Staubach_GW_Finalpgs.indd 48 4/26/13 10:55 AM 49 Seeking the Old Masters Gabo (1890–1977)—he was a sculptor,had moved to St.Ives ...and they were there when Hamada came with Leach to set up their shop. So Miriam really knew them ...So she said,‘When you go to Great Britain,you have to go to visit St. Ives and say hello to Janet for me.’ I didn’t go when I was working in Wales because the place had too much of an impact, it was too important to me and I was a little worried that I would get sucked up by the whole persona of the Leach thing, so I didn’t go. I stayed in country potteries.” While he was working at Haverfordwest Pottery, his friend Sherry Erickson arrived from the U.S., also to make pots in Wales. The two young potters heard about the centuries -old pottery village of Ewenny and, intrigued that such a place existed,they decided to visit it. Ewenny,near the sea in the south of Wales, has abundant good red clay,minerals including galena for glazes,and plentiful stone.Historic records indicate that potters were working in the area as early as 1427 and that, over the years, around fifteen potteries were in operation . The Ewenny Pottery was established by the Jenkins family in 1610 and has continued in the family for eight generations. Like the Owen/Owens family, the family potters sometimes established their own pot works, or worked for another local pottery such as Claypit Pottery. Ewenny Pottery was...