Meet Sylvia Coppola | Duck Creek Pottery /owner and maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sylvia Coppola and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sylvia, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind the success of my pottery business is quality and honesty. I always try to please the customer with my hand made pottery and be honest in my business.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Duck Creek Pottery is in Indian Trail, NC. The pottery and our home is located on land that has been in my family for many generations going back to the early 1800’s. My day to day life here in the country tremendously influences my pottery forms and glazes.

My pottery is made from high fired stoneware, glazed in earthy colors of blues, greens, yellows, plums and browns and fired in my gas kiln in a reduction atmosphere. In some of my work, I use porcelain slips and wood ash glazes which create a landscape effect. I also use rutile blues and matte greens and toasty browns which go well together with the ash glazes. I strive to make work that is functional but is also decorative.

In the beginning of selling my pottery, I sold at lots of arts and crafts fairs and on consignment. In 2004 I began selling wholesale, to gift shops and arts galleries. I joined Wholecrafts,com which is now called Indieme.com. Over the years with them I had over 50 shops ordering from me across the United States and in Canada. This has kept me busy year round. Last year I was so busy that I was turning away orders, so I decided to stop being a member of Indieme. I still have enough regular customers who order from me across the US to keep me busy.

Being a potter is not easy. It is labor intensive work and you must be able to wear many hats such as, maker, glaze mixer and researcher, photographer, marketer, maker, kiln operator and repair person, studio cleaner, clay reclaimer and much more.
It also takes time to build relationships with galleries and gift shops and you have to be able to produce quality work.

You have to love your work to be a long time potter. Each pot I make contains a little part of my soul.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I had a friend visiting for a week, we would take a hike through our woods to view the wonderful nature of the land and creek. My husband Phil would cook a wonderful meal for them.

We would also eat at Vitner’s Hill in Mint Hill. (Good food and beverages.)

One day we would go to uptown Charlotte to visit the Mint Museum and eat at one of the many good restaurants in uptown.

If my visiting friend is a potter, then we would go to Carolina Clay Connection, our local pottery supplier.

Visiting my children and 4 little grandsons which is always a treat.

A pit firing is an exciting thing for a friend to experience. Pots are prepped wrapped in aluminum foil and put into the pit. Then a fire is started and goes on for about 4 hours. The next day the pots are unwrapped, cleaned and polished. No two pots are ever the same because of the reaction of the materials put against the pots which fume and smolder in the fire. The unwrapping is so exciting because you get to see what organic matter fumed and the colors involved.

When friends visit, they like to tour my husband’s two gardens and he always sends them home with veggies. He is an avid gardener.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When I first started making pottery in 1976, I was taught by Joan Byrd at Western Carolina University. Her teaching style influenced in the Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada tradition, has guided me in my pottery making throughout the years. The methods of making, using the correct techniques, gave me a strong foundation in pottery skills. At first you must be able to make a pot with skill and later you can alter and loosen your pots using that basic skill.

Another wonderful influence in my pottery making and learning has been Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Guild in the Charlotte area. I am a charter member of the guild and board member for many years. Yearly, the Guild invites well known potters to give workshops. From those workshops, I have learned many different methods of working with clay and glazes and have years of notes from the workshops that I still use as reference.

I’ve also taken clay workshops at Arrowmont, John C Campbell Folk School and many years of workshops at the NC Potters Conferences which enhanced my skill.

My husband Phil, has also been tremendously supportive of my pottery business. He has helped build my gas kiln shed and has built a huge pit for pit firing. He enjoys helping with the pit firing.

Website: www.duckcreekpottery.com

Instagram: @duckcreekpottery

Linkedin: @duckcreekpottery

Facebook: facebook/duckcreekpottery

Youtube: @sylviacoppola1989

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Sylvia Coppola