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Living and working in
rural Antrim County, Michigan, Cynthia and Ron Tschudy have been
creating pottery for over thirty years. In 1976 they moved to northern
Michigan after Cynthia had completed her MFA in ceramics at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond. Both began teaching in public
schools, Ron in Bellaire and Cynthia in Elk Rapids. Cynthia continued
to teach in Elk Rapids until 2007. She taught art in both Lakeland and
Mill Creek Elementary Schools and in 1998 transferred to Cherry
land Middle School and the High School. Working with the Elk Rapids
children and watching them mature into young creative artists was a
wonderful experience, Cynthia often said she had the best job in the
entire school system.
In 1979 Ron left his
teaching job and began creating pottery full time. All of the work was
slab-built and in the early days of the business Cynthia airbrushed
and drew images onto the pieces. The images were mostly based on
plants and flowers native to this area. In later years the work was
still slab-built and based on nature, but the images were created by
pressing clay into hand carved press molds. After Cynthia's retirement
in 2007 the work took on another style: it is still slab built,
but the pieces are formed using slabs that are much softer. This
creates pieces that have gentle folds and are almost cloth-like in
their appearance. Decoration on these pieces is created by using
laces, crocheted trim and some leaves and stems of plants. The pieces
are glazed and fired to cone 5-6. All glazes are lead free and
food safe.
Both Ron and Cynthia
feel incredibly fortunate to work at home in this beautiful
countryside setting making decorative and functional stoneware
pottery.
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