The “Baby Steps” of Door County Art & Door County Business

If I needed to give another reason as to why my life in Door County is pretty wonderful most days, it would be this – I live in the upper flat of an Egg Harbor farmhouse that is over 100 years old, pay pretty minimal rent for the greatness that is my apartment, and, to make matters even better – my landlord, Renee Schwaller, is a potter.

Perhaps the best thing about living above Renee and her family is that I get to see, first-hand, the life of a Door County artist. Sometimes when I come home from my waitressing job on a summer night, I can see a tiny light on in the granary she uses for her gallery and studio, which usually means she’s up late throwing or glazing. For a single girl like myself, what I always find most remarkable about Renee is that she is able to produce a large amount of intricately beautiful work for her business and still has time to care for her husband and her two children, tend to a huge vegetable garden during the summer and fall, and market and advertise her business herself.

Schwaller grew up in Little Chute and attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, graduating with a degree in Communications, but her Door County story begins in 1988, when her parents began to build a cottage on the peninsula. “After I graduated high school and every summer that I was in college, I would come up to Door County and work. I worked at the Cookery, and I also worked at the Potter’s Wheel. That’s when I really became interested in pottery,” says Schwaller. “However, my job at Abe and Ginka’s was really just the retail side. I never actually threw a pot while I was there!”

After graduating from college, Schwaller traveled extensively throughout Europe for a couple of months and lived in Glacier National Park for a summer. She also migrated to Colorado for two winters (“I was a big ski bum!” she says), but her path would always lead back to Door County for the summer.

“I had always been an artist – I painted and drew – but a few years out of school, I realized that I wanted to learn how to throw pots,” Schwaller says. She went to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and through a program at the university, landed in Hawaii to study pottery for a semester. Upon returning from Hawaii, Schwaller and her boyfriend Steve found themselves in Door County, looking for property. They fell in love with a century-old farmhouse on County E in Egg Harbor and purchased the home in December 1996. The two were married the following May, and set about fixing up the house and transforming the small granary in back so it could house Schwaller’s work. Schwaller named her gallery Off the Wheel for the pottery connotation, but also because the gallery was off the “beaten path” of Highway 42. The gallery opened for business in May 1998 – roughly a year and a half after they had initially purchased the property.

Schwaller laughs about the quick opening of the gallery. “Looking back on it now, I know I opened the gallery too soon,” she says. “But I was so excited – I was in love with the process of pottery, and I wanted a way to show that. It’s actually kind of ironic, seeing that after that quick start, the building of the gallery and my studio really has been a slow process – very much a ‘baby step’ kind of progression.”

Schwaller’s first child, Ava, was born in 1999, with Wyatt following in 2004. Although it was difficult at times to work on her craft and juggle the responsibilities of being a parent, she still found ways to create work for the gallery every summer. “Before I built my existing studio onto my gallery, my studio was in a small room that connected our house and our garage. I would drag my wheel out to the gallery, and I’d take Ava out there in her baby seat. I became very good at multitasking – out there, I could look after Ava, throw a few pots, and be in the gallery to talk with customers.”

Just as her life has gone through many changes from when she first decided she wanted to work with clay, Schwaller’s body of work has changed quite a bit as well. “I started with low-fire work, using low-fire clays such as terracotta…I found that my work really lacked depth. So I switched to more high-fire work with slip, overglazes, and underglazes.”

Schwaller’s use of slips, overglazes, and underglazes is best understood with an example. If she is making a mug with a design on the front, Schwaller will throw the mug body and the handle separately. Because of her early love of sketching, Schwaller found that she could carve designs and shapes that would translate well to the bodies of her pots. This carving technique is referred to as sgraffito. She paints a square of the front of the mug with a black slip and then carves a design onto the slip, revealing the white clay body underneath. When she is finished with the design, she does a bisque fire and then uses wax resist to cover the design. Then, she dips the mug into a particular overglaze color. When the pot is fired for a second time, the glaze of the mug does not distort the design Schwaller carves. The end result is a beautifully carved black and white design on a color mug. A simple mug might take her 10 minutes to decorate, but a large piece may take hours to underglaze, carve, and overglaze.

“I love the contrast of the raw unglazed clay with the glazed. My pots have a certain tactile quality,” Schwaller says.

Schwaller is also well-known for her “people pots.” She makes several different styles, shapes and vessels (vases, teapots, and jars). She will throw these pots on her wheel, adding the arms and feet to the vessels by hand.

“I always used to sketch people, and I didn’t want to abandon that just because I had migrated to a three-dimensional medium,” says Schwaller. “I never have an idea of what these people will look like when I begin them – I just start creating, and the personality of the pot comes through during the creative process. I love the fact that I develop a relationship with the piece by the time I’m through.”

Now on the cusp of her 10th gallery season, Schwaller says that the balance of her family, personal, and artistic lives are due to a few different endeavors. One was the addition of her new studio, which was built in spring 2006 with the help of her family. Another was the decision to show the work of other ceramic artists at Off the Wheel. “It got to the point where I was so busy that I couldn’t fill the gallery by myself,” she says. “It works out well for me, because potters love the work of other potters. It has been fun to seek out other people to show in the gallery, and be able to talk with them about their work.” Besides Schwaller, seven other ceramic artists show at Off the Wheel.

What seems to be the most personal endeavor for Schwaller is the creation of Women Create, a group of female Door County artists she is a part of. The group consists of eight visual artists and one musician and was initially started with a distinct goal in mind.

“Women Create was started because all of us wanted to know how to market ourselves better,” says Schwaller. “There was a ‘Marketing for Artists’ plan on a website, and we would get together and download a new lesson every month. Gradually, the group started to mean much more than that. The ages range from 20s to 60s, and it’s been a wonderful experience to get together and discuss not only our own artwork, but also the challenges we face in taking care of a family and a household while also trying to be recognized as artists.”

With all of these events, Schwaller’s small gallery in Egg Harbor has flourished. “Each year, the gallery grows a bit, and I am just a bit busier than I was the year before. I feel so lucky to be able to create my pottery from start to finish just steps from my home, and I also love having my inspiration – my family and my surroundings – so close by. It’s a great situation, and I’m grateful that I took my time in building it.”

Off the Wheel Pottery is located at 4234 County Road E in Egg Harbor, and is open mid-May through October from 10 am – 4:30 pm, Monday through Saturday. In honor of Off the Wheel’s 10th season, Schwaller is hosting a 10th Anniversary Party on Thursday, June 19 from 6 – 8 pm. For more information please call 920.868.9608 or visit http://www.offthewheelpottery.com.