Jack Boyle has been turning lumps of clay into works of art for the better part of his life.
His first encounter with pottery came when he was just a little boy.
“My mother’s brother, Uncle Al – he and his partner owned Jug Town Pottery, up in Seagrove, North Carolina, in the midst of about 120 potteries.
“As a child, I would go there. I would make little bowls,” he said.
(Fred Bellet/Photos)
Then his uncle would fire the pots and ship them to Boyle’s house, where they’d be used as ashtrays by Boyle’s mom.
The San Antonio man said he isn’t sure if those early experiences helped to mold him into the potter he became. But then again, he said, maybe they did.
Boyle has spent the past 44 years creating art from clay.
He began dabbling in ceramic sculptural work before arriving at the University of South Florida in 1972.
When he walked into the pottery studio there, and saw the teacher working at the wheel, he was instantly enamored.
“Part of it was that old clay smell,” Boyle said.
“The thing about pottery is that it is so incredibly challenging,” Boyle said. “When you see me centering clay, you’re going to think, ‘Oh, piece of cake, I can do that.’ ”
That assumption would be wrong, he said.
“I cannot stress to you how difficult it is to get any level of expertise in pottery making,” Boyle said. “There’s a thousand things that go into making a successful pot.
“When you first start out, it’s anything but beautiful.
“There’s no such thing as a shortcut in learning how to make pottery. You can’t read a book about it to be a better potter. You’ve got to put the time in,” Boyle said.
Every part of the craft has its own set of demands, he explained.
“The first thing you do with clay, is you wedge it up – which is the process of homogenizing particles in the clay body as well as eliminating any air bubbles in the clay.
“Then it goes on the wheel, where it has to be centered.
“The act of coaxing the clay up through the cylinder is a coordination of the cylinder of the wheel with the subtle application of pressure, with the most pressure at the bottom, and you release it as you go up, synchronizing that rotation with that release of pressure,” said Boyle, noting it took him about 20 years to put that process in words.
Working on the wheel is just one aspect. Then there’s the finishing, the trimming on the bottom, the handles, the decorations and so on.
“Then it’s dried, and it goes into the first kiln, which is a bisque kiln. It’s fired at 1,800 degrees,” Boyle said.
Next, comes the application of glazes.
A lot can go wrong there. Glazes can be too watery or too thick, for instance, or they can be fired for too long, he said.
The second firing is in a gas kiln, at 2,400 degrees, he said. Generally hundreds of pieces are being fired at once.
“You go through the entire cycle of pottery making, and the last stage is taking them out of that pottery kiln, and after weeks of effort, there’s bubbles in the glaze or the glaze has dripped off onto the kiln shelf,” he said. “That’s probably my least favorite thing.”
Over the years, Boyle has created thousands of pottery items, which he has sold at art shows including Gasparilla in Tampa, the Mainsail in St. Petersburg, and shows in Virginia Beach and Pennsylvania, to name just a few.
“Back in the old days, when I would do these big shows up North, I would fill my van and rent a trailer,” he said.
He’d pack hundreds of pieces, unpack them, display them and then break down the displays. And, that was the easy part.
Producing the works to sell was significantly more demanding.
Generally, though, he said he got into a rhythm when producing for big shows.
When he’s doing a production of 50 mugs, the work can be almost meditative, Boyle said. While immersed on artistic, sculptural pieces, he’s in a zone and his mind is elsewhere.
Boyle said he enjoys switching back and forth, to stay mentally alert.
Sustaining a pottery business is a different kind of challenge.
Boyle said he never turned down an opportunity to market his works.
“I did art and craft shows for 40 years. I sell in gift stores and galleries. I do a lot of custom work,” he said. “Pretty much anyway you can think to make a buck in the pottery business, I’m either doing it, or I’ve tried it.”
It’s essential, too, to keep promises, Boyle said. “To be successful in anything, you have to be true to your word. You don’t make promises you can’t keep. You take an order, you deliver an order,” he said.
Providing quality is important, too, he said.
There’s an unpredictability that goes along with handmade pottery, Boyle said. “Sometimes it takes more than once to get it right.”
Being competitive matters, he added.
He considers the cost of materials, the value of his time and how his prices fit in the market place.
“You can’t be much more expensive than your neighbor,” he said. Price points are important, too. “I would rather sell 100 items for $20 each, than hope to sell one item for $2,000.
“What I tell my fledgling pottery friends is, ‘You’re not going to go broke making pottery mugs.’ You’re not going to get rich, but you’re going to pay your bills,” he said.
Now that he’s stepped away from the art show circuit, Boyle is focused on teaching classes and making pots at his San Antonio Pottery, his studio for 38 years.
It’s not a venture he would necessarily recommend, but he loves it.
“I have a passion for it,” Boyle said.
“I make people happy. Not a lot of people can say that people are genuinely happy with your labor.”
He’s planning to keep at it, too.
“I can’t retire,” Boyle said. “I’ll do this until I fall into a pile of spinning mud.”
Published December 2, 2015
