In 1961 in Wellington, New Zealand, my husband and I attended Doreen Blumhart's evening course which inspired Ted to made the weighty kick wheel that we took to the United States in 1962. In Wellington, pregnant with Christopher, I couldn't get close enough to the wheel to do much good but two years later while living in Swarthmore, PA.as post-family tragedy therapy I started again.
An enthusiasm for raw materials - ash, stone- frequent reference to Daniel Rhodes "Clay and Glazes for the Potter" and a small electric kiln produced continuously experimental stoneware. The products of his phase - self-taught except for a three week summer workshop with Karen Karnes at Haystack - quickly established a need for an outlet beyond my studio showroom.
In 1965 silversmith Ruth Hogan, weaver Ursula Brown, a pottery collective working with Paul Berenson in the Swarthmore College ceramic studio and I. opened "The Hogan". This informal co-operative, housed in a basement level space, had two successful but miniscule galleries managed by Betty Gayley. Works by members of the co-operative were sold from one gallery, the second reserved for invitational exhibitions by noteworthy regional craftspeople.
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