Claudia Teachman Bio

I live on a dirt road off of another dirt road in rural southern Vermont. Most early mornings find me out walking these roads, clearing my head and getting my mind and body ready for the day’s work. I see wild animals and pass two farms with sheep, chickens, pigs, geese and cows. In the warmer months I collect fresh wild greens for my own chickens and rabbit to eat and come home with my arms full of tasty plants for them and my head full of ideas to work out in clay. The animals I see and interact with reappear in my pottery: as salt and pepper shakers, banks, bowls, mugs, as knobs on honey pots…you get the idea.

I usually spend part of most days at the Brattleboro Clayworks, a cooperative where I am one of the eleven members. I am the bisque kiln loader and also help out with loading and firing the glaze kilns. We share work space, wheels, glazes, tools and ideas. There is a lot of creativity and diversity and a constant exchange of ideas and techniques. We encourage each other’s passion for working in clay and watch as each other’s work matures and takes new directions.

It took me a long time to find my way back to clay from the two classes I took in college in the mid 1970’s. I think I got lost for a little while, but when I bought my first bag of brown stoneware clay from the Brattleboro Clayworks in 1995 and started to model small animals, I knew I had come “home.”

I feel really blessed that my “job” is my passion and that what results from my hands touching the clay puts a smile on my face as well as on the person looking at and touching my pottery. I think that is the connection that I needed; a silent way to bring a deep sense of happiness to others.

claudia teachman

2012

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