Jackie Sedlock Pottery

http://www.jackiesedlock.com

Jackie Sedlock has been making pottery for thirty years, and has lived at the end of Mason Hill Road in Pownal for ten. She began her career in graphic design, and while working in a company’s basement in Pittsfield during the late 1980s, realized she needed a fresh start and wanted to be a potter. She traveled for a few years and ended up in Williamstown where she met her mentors, Ray Bub and Susan Nykiel. Jackie became their apprentice; she learned how to throw pots and run a studio. Her education proved invaluable and the apprenticeship model inspired her current operation, Jackie Sedlock Pottery. After her apprenticeship, she received her BA in Bennington. In final year she started a pottery program at the Buxton School in Williamstown which she ran for eight years. 

In Jackie’s own words, since 2004, she has been “making pottery slowly.” She and her husband bought their house in Pownal in 2012, where they formed ideas about how to live; the landscape and their connectedness to the outdoors is important to her work. The building where her studio is now was originally used to house dump trucks. It was made of corrugated metal with a dirt floor, and Jackie’s husband, a contractor, helped transform it to a studio space with a residence upstairs. The residence has become a place for experienced artists and beginners alike to land and hone their craft. It can sleep eight people comfortably in bunk beds and has a shared kitchen and bathroom. Jackie believes that in the world of studio ceramics, the best way forward for students is education and practical experience; she wants visitors to explore themselves and the artistic process through clay. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackie passed her time making works of art in the wood-fired kiln just across the driveway from her studio. The kiln is an attraction for other potters, and some stay for months at a time to work. Jackie is willing to teach anyone what they’d like to learn, from how to throw a pot, to firing in the wood-kiln, to using ash glazes. 

Jackie explained that their property was once a dairy, Mason Hill Farm. The foundation for the farm house still exists on the property. It used to be open to visitors for $1 per night, and people would come to draw and paint the expansive views from the once-clearcut site.