HAROLD & ROOFTOP POTTERY

Like many other potters I came to the craft by accident rather than design. I was on my way to becoming a dynamic explorer of other cultures in distant lands with intoxicating libations, sensuous foods, fascinating rituals and vibrant people as an anthropologist, much like Indiana Jones… when I took an elective pottery class my senior year in college. The rest (so far) is history.

After taking that class, I continued working in the same community studio at the University of Vermont. I both made pottery and taught classes there for about 7 years. I decided it was time to establish my own studio, and so began the arduous task of deciding what I needed for a studio and what I didn’t need for an apartment (2 separate places are still not in the cards for me). While the two are not mutually exclusive, they do not coexist easily.

In 1997, I found the perfect mix of bachelor chic and studio spaciousness when I moved into the Rose St. Artist Cooperative -- a renovated Bakery in the Old North End of Burlington VT. The pottery studio is carved out of my spacious apartment. It has lots of light and plenty of headroom. With views of the beautiful roofs of my neighbors and a little rooftop space for me to dry my pottery, Rooftop Pottery was born.

Careful attention was given to proximity to the windows, where the bedroom will be and how many times I have to go up and back down the stairs lugging water and clay to the potter’s wheel. Having your studio in your apartment keeps the overhead low but also requires daily upkeep. Never before has an apartment been swept and mopped as much as mine. Daily runs to the dumpster keep my legs and lungs healthy. I never thought purchasing an industrial mop and bucket would give me such joy -- when I wring out that mop a smile just spreads across my face, like when I’m looking at a sparkling lake on a hot summer day.

Who knows maybe when I move I’ll have to settle for Harold Kaplan Pottery... but not yet.