Your internet browser does not support Javascript. Therefore you are unable to use all of the features on DaWanda. Please change your browser settings in a way, that javascript will be accepted.

YogaGoat's Profile

About me

(0)

Rating

Items in shop

Sold items

Members pinned this shop

29.02.2008

Member since

Rochester,
USA

Location

Profile Shop

About me

I have always been interested in making things. Growing up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, I wanted to be an anesthesiologist, and, briefly, an accountant like my dad.

It was the making of things out of clay that came naturally to me, however. Long before I understood what pottery really entailed, I was in my bedroom sculpting objects out of white clay from the hobby shop. I painted them with water colors and sealed them with a mysterious “sealant” purchased in the same shop. (The pieces I made then are probably still off-gasing some noxious fumes.) I gave these small pots as heartfelt presents to my loved ones.

I was intrigued by the wheel and longed to take a pottery course at the local YMCA, but the class was only open to me if my mom would sign up as well. We couldn’t afford to do that, so I went about my business of high school college prep. courses and AP exams.

Ten years ago, I transferred to Slippery Rock University in western Pennsylvania and signed up for my first ceramics course. I decided to major in Fine Arts shortly thereafter with a concentration in Ceramics. Our shop was not state of the art, but there was a core group of devoted individuals during my years in the Slippery Rock Ceramics Department, where I studied under Richard Wukich. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2000.

After graduation, I held several (10 to be exact) insignificant and poorly paying jobs, from Salt Lake City to Gainesville, and back to Pottstown, PA. (all in about 6 months!)

In 2001, I moved to Vermont to work at Simon Pearce Pottery in Windsor. I was employed as an apprentice thrower. The next year I was moved to the Quechee, VT location. I was happy to go; the shop is housed in an old mill, along a river. It draws quite the crowd, and I spent my days honing my throwing skills, gazing out my window at a spectacular waterfall, and speaking with the public.

In October of 2003, I bought my house in Rochester, VT. I bought it from another potter who had almost set up a pottery there. At any rate, it came with more than enough space for me to live and work. There was almost no land, but it did include a small shack which used to be a sugaring house (perfect for a gas kiln, eventually).

In the fall of 2003, I took a job with Miranda Thomas Pottery in Bridgewater, VT. It amounted to a pay cut, but included the benefit of being able to make and sell my own work using the company’s equipment. I made the most of this benefit, and, by saving every cent I made off of my own work, was able to afford to put in my electric kiln in January of 2006. Money earned from that kiln paid for my Bailey gas kiln, which was installed in August of 2006.

In 2005, I took YogaGoat Pottery as my business name. YogaGoat comes very simply from a doodle I did in a notebook of a goat doing yoga. I have always wanted to call my pottery by that name. On the plus side, it is memorable, fun and easier to spell, and pronounce, than my last name. Even though the company is just me for now, I see the possibility of hiring others in the future. I wanted to have a company name that could mean something beyond just me.