Caledonia Argus

A love of the land, a love of pottery

Posted: 4/20/04

By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

Part of the attraction of a studio art tour is viewing the beautiful countryside on your way to the artistsí homes.

That at least was the case for me as I sought out Allamakee Wood-fired Pottery in rural New Albin.

Hallie Hite, who owns it with her partner, Nate Evans, sent me on a series of country roads south of Eitzen that twisted through valleys as pretty as the Driftless Region can offer.

And at the very end of Blair Road, which is off Sleepy Hollow Road, is where youíll find Allamakee Wood-fired Pottery and two very friendly owners, Hallie Hite and Nate Evans.

Their studio will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday as part of the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour.

The beauty of the area is what drew them to this spot. They studied art at Luther College in Decorah. Their pottery professor, who lives just down the road, told them about a farm house for rent nearby.

That led to them buying 113 acres of land four years ago. They started building a house on it last year, with a studio downstairs, and moved into it three months ago.

ìItís great to have our own place and do what we want to do,î Hallie said when I arrived. It summed up a good part of their life.

What separates Allamakee Wood-fired Pottery is stated in the name of their business: They fire the pots and pitchers, bowls and boxes with a wood fire.

They burn white ash, using slab wood from an Amish sawmill. The wood goes into the front of a kiln they built themselves which is the size of a small car. That kiln is still at the farm that they rented a half-mile away. They are in the process of building a new kiln at their new home. The old kiln will be dismantled soon and its bricks used in the new one.

Firing is a huge undertaking

Firing the kiln to harden the pottery is a big process. It takes days to complete and uses 3-1/2 cords of wood. Temperatures are slowly increased in the kiln over two days to a maximum of about 2,400 degrees.

It is more complicated, and more work, than electric kilns, Hallie said. ìYouíre there nurturing the kiln along through every degree. That closeness to the work is one of the things we really like.î

Heat is kept moving from the back of the firebox to the chimney by inserting wood in the front and through holes in the side of the kiln. They work in four or five hour shifts so that no one will be too exhausted for the end of the firing.

The wood fuel, with its smoke, ash, and flames, is one of the main factors in producing a pottery that has many hues of brown and blue. ìEvery single piece, theyíll come out completely different because of the flame movement,î Nate said. He likes that element of unpredictability, and the fact that it is a more traditional form of pottery.

The kiln, which is tall enough to stand up in, can hold 900 pots at a time. It takes two months to make that many pots. Nate and Hallie do about four firings a year. Even placing the pots in the kiln seems like an art form, like knowing what glaze turns out well in what spot. ìEvery pot and every glaze will have its own spot in the kiln,î Nate said.

Pots are stacked on shelves or on each other, with small balls of a clay-sand mixture called wadding under each pot.

After the pieces have cooled, Nate and Hallie spend 3-4 days cleaning them up. They sell their art at shows, and spend a lot of time on the road at art fairs in cities like Minneapolis. They would like to cut down on their travelling, and hope their new studio, where they have a nice display area, will help them do that.

They work at separate wheels in a large room in the basement of their large home. Hallie makes things like bowls, boxes, wall vases, kitchen creamers, lamps and tumblers. Nate often makes bigger pots. Their styles are similar. ìItís hard to tell who made what,î Nate said.

They use Minnesota clays, although not local ones, which have too much lime. Eventually they will mix their own blend of commercially available clay.

Their glaze is their own recipe of indigenous material, like clay from Mankato, wood ash from their furnace, and granite dust from a quarry in Wisconsin. Part of the fun -- and challenge -- of pottery is figuring out how much of each material to use and how it will react.

ìUntil you actually fire that day, you donít know what itís going to do,î Nate said.

Tours are helpful

Art tours like the one this weekend, and a bigger one that takes place in the fall, are important for studios like Allamakee Wood-fired Pottery. They bring in both local people and people from as far away as Kansas City. Many times those people will return on their own.

As our interview ended, I asked Nate and Hallie if they were worried that their studio was too isolated. Nate said they knew they would have to travel to art fairs to make a living. In a sense, it doesnít matter where artists like them live. So why not in their favorite spot in the world?

ìWe love this area. We love the hills and the valleys,î Nate said. He and Hallie were sitting on the deck of their new house, with open fields leading up to hills and trees all around. Their two friendly dogs sat nearby, and one of their five cats sat on Nateís lap.

ìThis is where we always saw ourselves,î Hallie said.

Itís hard to make a living, Nate said to my question hinting at that. ìWe live very frugally,î he said. Then after a pause, he added, ìItís a great way to make a living. We work very hard. We love doing it.î

How to get there

The best way to get to Allamakee Wood-fired Pottery from Caledonia is to go to Eitzen, take County Road 2 four miles east to Wheatland Road; turn right onto Wheatland Road until you come to Sleepy Hollow Road; go right on Sleepy Hollow to Blair Road, then go to the end of Blair Road and take a right. Their address is 2856 Blair Road. Their phone number is 563-544-4378.

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