DRIPPING SPRINGS • Bridget Hauser and her team of talented craftspeople at Sunset Canyon Pottery shape clay by hand on a potter's wheel to make beautiful bowls, plates, mugs, chip and dip servers, luminaries and nearly 100 other items that customers cherish both as collectibles and practical, durable dinnerware.
Using this traditional method rather than the industrial techniques of mass production ensures that, even in sets, the individual pieces are artistically handcrafted and one-of-a-kind.
A dozen different designs and glaze combinations-with names like "Desert" (the first design, developed in 1982), "Aurora," "Seafoam," and "Safari" (the most recent design)-evoke the colors and shapes of the landscapes and skyscapes that inspire them.
Nature and the environment provide a steady stream of ideas for Bridget, who sees "abundance, bounty, and continuity in nature and signs of constant hope in the life cycles of nature."
Bridget, her husband Bill, and their two daughters moved to Texas from Indiana in 1981. Bridget worked with the original owners of Clarksville Pottery in Austin, first as an employee and later as a business partner. In 1996, she and Bill established Sunset Canyon Pottery, combining her "love for clay and pottery with Bill's dream of having a family business."
Bridget began "playing with clay" as a young girl in her native Indiana, where she lived next door to two ceramics artists. As the oldest girl of seven children, Bridget was already a reliable babysitter by the time she was eight years old. "We made a deal," she recalls, " that I would watch their babies while they were working in the studio and in return I got to paint and work with clay in their studio."
This informal arts education lasted for four years until the artists next door moved away. During this time, Bridget's talent blossomed as she continued to seek additional opportunities to express her artistic vision and perfect her skills.
By the time she was 12, Bridget was going "way out in the country" to attend a neighborhood art class, even though she was the only child in the group. A few years after that, in an advanced high school art class, she rediscovered the potter's wheel and would "drag the wheel out of the closet and the teacher would fire up the kiln."
Her interest in working with clay was definitely rekindled and from this point, in school and out, Bridget concentrated on her chosen medium.
As she remembers, "The minute I touched the clay, I knew I was home." She observes that at first it was the medium itself that appealed to her, but as she became more involved, " It drew me into a close community and family of people in the clay field, where people like to work with each other and help each other."
She received her BA in Ceramics from Indiana University, and when one of her pieces, a 24-inch storage jar salt-fired in a wood kiln, was chosen for a prestigious art show in Indianapolis (even though her instructor's was not), Bridget began to feel a certain measure of accomplishment.
This achievement set a pattern that continues today, as Bridget garners awards and is the creative center of a successful business, with retailers from all over the United States carrying Sunset Canyon Pottery.
She was among the first Texas artists to be honored by the Texas Commission on the Arts as a Texas Original Artist, in recognition of "high-quality, authentic, original work that preserves traditional methods and ensures that those methods are passed down to future generations."
This important tradition continues here in the spacious studio at Sunset Canyon Pottery, where "workers can be found most days busy in the studio producing the handmade clay ware."
John Vela is the production manager. John has a BFA in Art History with a concentration in Ceramics and Italian from the University of Texas, and he co-founded the Texas Clay Arts Association.
Four or five people, often recent college graduates with an art degree, gain practical experience working on potters' wheels. Another person specializes in loading the kilns and there is a high school student who comes in to work part-time after school cleaning up and preparing clay for the potters.
FYI • Sunset Canyon Pottery (gallery and studio) is located three miles east of Dripping Springs at 4002 East U.S. Highway 290. For more information, call 512-894-0938 or visit the web site at www.sunsetcanyonpottery.com where you can learn more about the artist, pottery, upcoming classes and important events like the Empty Bowl Benefit held each November at Sunset Canyon Pottery to raise money for local food banks.

Story © 2010 Hill Country Sun, used by permission http://www.HillCountrySUN.com 

By Bonnie Eissler