Amanda Sedgwick-Maule

Teaching and creating with clay is my passion, I love how it feels working clay with my hands and I love the completed look. Creating beautiful shapes
sculpting or on the potters wheel, putting on the final
touches from carving to glazing, I love it all!
I love to share my craft with others and teach them to
follow their heart and to find their passion. If it is with clay I am happy to share what I know and to learn together.

JIM BASS

              Contact me at:  209-754-4550                                         Email:  jfbass42@gmail.com

    Jim Bass has 40 years of pottery experience.  A graduate of Pepperdine University, he taught art and ceramics at Calaveras High School in San Andreas for 33 years.  He also has done teaching at Columbia Jr College, Delta Jr College, as well as UC Davis.  Jim creates functional pottery with wonderful detail.  Some of his most popular pieces are made with four different clay bodies, Quyle Kilns Silverstone, Sandstone Buff, Redstone, and a local black clay.  Jim blends these clays to create handsome wheel thrown swirl designs.                      Jim continues to reside in Calaveras County and lives with his wife Linda in Mountain Ranch.       

          HEIDI GAISSERT

   In my early twenties, I lived in a small, lake-resort town in Germany and saw some beautiful pottery in the lakeside art gallery. Next, I went to their pottery studio and fell in love with their whole operation. The property had been in their family for generations of potters and when the present artist was digging in his yard for clay, he sometimes found chards of things that looked interesting. This way, he started re-creating old patterns and forms, but also worked on unique modern pieces of his own. Needless to say, I became a good customer.

   When I immigrated to the United States and found Foothill College in Los Altos Hill, CA, I realized that this was one way that I could get my hands into clay. Over the years, I have enjoyed being exposed to a variety of teachers and a large number of co-students from whom I have also learned a lot. It’s nice, if I don’t have to make all the mistakes myself!

   In my early years as a potter, I dreamed of being able to throw large vases, but as my abilities grew, the desire waned. I find myself much more drawn to smaller pieces that have character – something I can identify at one glance as being one of mine. I also find that I like to experiment with hand built pieces or pieces I can make from rolled slabs.

   Now having a potter’s wheel and a small kiln at my house, this opens up a whole new chapter in my work with clay. It is an interesting journey, I get pretty muddy (if not, my husband suspects that I am not having fun), and I am looking forward to many new creations to come.

   Being part of the clay community at Quyle Kilns certainly has helped me to define more of what I like and dislike. I get support and mentoring as I set out on my continuing journey with the “training wheels removed.” While spending generally one day a week at Quyle Kilns, I also discovered that I like decorating. Something I had never expected, and now I am curious where the journey will take me. While I am staffing the gallery, I get to talk to people about pottery and my own work, and when someone decides to buy one of my pieces, it makes me happy. It is one thing to receive compliments, but it adds much more sincerity, if someone is willing to part with their money.

   Generally, I am at the Quyle Kiln’s gallery and studio on Mondays. If you stop by and I am not there, I am most likely traveling, which besides ceramics, cooking and gardening is one of my favorite past times. 

             MARY SWAN



          CAROLE WESTLAND



  In Loving Memory of Carole Westlund   

     Carole was involved with clay for 34 years.  She received a BA from San Jose State University with an emphasis in ceramics.  She studied with such potters as Michael Frimkus, John Leary, Robert Fritz and Jim Lovera.  Her pieces have been sold to buyers/collectors all over the country and have been shown at Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts.

     Her work has sold at the Menlo Park's Connoisseur's Marketplace, Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, Walnut Creek's Art on The Main, the Gilroy Garlic Festival and the Saratoga Rotary Art Show.  Many of her pieces have shown at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.

    She taught art classes at the Pleasant Hill Recreation Dept, the San Leandro Recreation Dept and at the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Dept.  She also organized and participated in Christmas in the Studio, one of the Bay Areas finest holiday art shows.

     She created a line of hand thrown, functional stoneware pottery with waxed and taped designs using oxides and glazes.  Her pieces are high fired in a reduction atmosphere, giving a rich warm color to the clay and glazes.

     Carole was continually challenged by the idea of creating pieces that are aesthetically pleasing, yet functional. The possibilities of clay are endless and Carole loved the excitement of the mystery, unpredictability and challenge of working with clay.

  

   My serious art studies began in 1970, when I went back to college after our three children were in high school.  I enrolled in Delta College, and when I took a sculpture class from Roland Cheney, I became forever passionate about clay.  Sculpture of people and animals are my consuming interest, often with a bit of whimsy.

   I was born in Stockton, CA and I lived there most of my life.  After graduating from Delta College, I commuted to CSU Sacramento, earning a BA in 1981, took grad courses there, then went on to UC Davis to study with Robert Arneson, and to CSU Stanislaus to learn from Lisa Rinertson and Tony Natsoulas.  

   My husband, a woodworker, and I moved to Murphys in 1994.  We both love living and working here in Calaveras County.  My portrait busts of Dr. Dante Albasio and Dr. Ben Smith are in the permanent collection at Mark Twain Medical Center in San Andreas, CA.  My bust of our local naturalist Verna Johnston is in the library in Arnold, CA, as well as my, nearly life size, figure of a young reader.

   Teaching clay sculpture classes at Quyle's for the past three summers has been fun, fascinating, and inspiring.  I especially enjoy working with human and animal figures, but will help students build other types of hand-formed work. 

   You are invited to visit our classes any time.  We have interesting people to meet and their ongoing work to see.  I can often arrange special class times for folks who are not available during our posted times.  I look forward to meeting you. 

           TIM HANRAHAN

     

       DONNA LYNN KEEVER



   Donna Lynn Keever, is a resident of the Calaveras County community of Mountain Ranch, Ca.  She creates beautiful , Dichroic Hot Glass Jewelry.  Dichroic coatings on glass are thin films of materials such as titanium, silicone, and magnesium.  These materials are first evaporated, then vacuum deposited onto sheets of glass in such a fine degree of thickness that certain wave lengths of light are allowed to pass through while others will be reflected.  Dichroic coatings have diverse applications that range from components in solar cells, to photographic lenses, to use in heat seeking missiles.  To achieve the multi-colored effect I desire, I kiln fire many different pieces of dichroic glass together at varying high temperatures and times.  You can see some of my jewelry on display at the Quyle Kilns in Murphys.