[Classifieds] [classifieds] Pottery Raffle at the Woods Hole Public Library

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Pottery Raffle at the Woods Hole Public Library 



The Woods Hole Public Library is happy to announce a raffle of pottery donated by their favorite Woods Hole potters. This has become an annual event gleefully anticipated by fans of these generous potters: Anne Halpin, Ron Geering, Tessa Morgan , Ann Newbury, and Hollis Engley (who, although his studio is in Hatchville, has been claimed as one of Woods Hole’s own because of his many affiliations with the community). 




All of these potters exhibited at the Woods Hole Historical Museum in a stunning exhibit this past summer, and their fame reaches well beyond the borders of Precinct 1. Ron, Hollis, and Tessa were included in a Cape-wide exhibit at the Cape Museum of Art last spring, and Ron and Hollis have also been chosen to be part of an exhibit marking the 25 th anniversary at the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit for the next two months. Ron has won national awards for his red-ware, which is based on a colonial technique, with a modern quirky twist. 




These Woods Hole potters are an accomplished lot, each specializing in his/her very different technique. Tessa Morgan’s work is wheel-thrown white high fired clay, decorated using sgraffito technique. Sgraffito is the art of carving through a colored slip to the contrasting clay body beneath. After she forms her pots on the wheel, she carves the surface away, leaving a raised design, usually depicting animals. (After all, her business is called Flying Pig Pottery!) However, her donation this year features a mermaid swimming around a shallow serving bowl.. Ron Geering’s work is based on historical red-ware, evolved into a unique contemporary folk-art, which must be seen to truly appreciate his wit. Ann Newbury’s stoneware pieces are beautifully and solidly functional, blending art and craft into a useful piece. Her donation is a platter of more than eleven inches in diameter glazed in her signature blue. Anne Halpin is influenced by early American and Oriental pottery working in stoneware and porcelain, producing pieces of utilitarian beauty, often in a green reminiscent of celandon. Hollis usually makes functional work, also: “Good pots for good food”, as he likes to say. His pots are often glazed with ash glazes made with wood ash gathered from friends’ woodstoves, but he also uses glazes influenced by Japanese traditions, including a deep brown temmoku and a variety of shinos. 




Besides being geographically bonded, this group is similar in all being avid borrowers and members of the Woods Hole Public Library. This is the fifth year that they have freely donated to this seasonal event. Each year they all agree to contribute the same type of piece. One year it was mugs; another it was plates; another it was pitchers. Last year it was vases, and this year it will be serving pieces, which should be even more attractive than usual as a raffle item. 




Raffle tickets are available in the Woods Hole Public Library. Open hours are Monday 12-5:30 p.m., 7-9 p.m., Tuesday 3-5:30 p.m., Wednesdays 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and 7-9 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays from 3-5 p.m., and Saturdays from noon to 5:30 p.m.. For more information call the Library at 508-548-8961, or visit the website at www.woodsholepubliclibrary.org. 



Jennifer S. Gaines 
Woods Hole Public Library 
Woods Hole, MA 02543 

508-548-8961 
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