Centennial keepsakes made close to home

As many of you already know, Betsy has been the local art teacher for both Goodridge and Grygla High Schools for many years. She stated that her mother was a painter, and that art was always a part of the home growing up for her and her eight siblings in Park Rapids, Minnesota. However, Betsy didn’t get her start in pottery until she was a teenager when her high school art teacher encouraged her to take up the craft. She recalls spending all her free time at school in the art room. “If I finished a math assignment early, I would go down to the art room and work there,” she exclaimed. Betsy later went on to study art in college while obtaining a degree in teaching. She then went on to say that teaching was another passion sparked by her high school art teacher.

“When I’m not making pottery, I’m thinking of making pottery. It’s so deeply a part of who I am; I can’t imagine not doing it.” Betsy told me. This was something I got to experience first hand as she was literally making pottery in front of me during our interview. I continued to ask her how much of her day is spent making pottery. “On a good day, all day,” she smiled. 

“It wasn’t easy at first,” Betsy told me. She actually showed me some of her early work, “I keep them to remind myself how far I’ve come.” she said. “There are no shortcuts, you’ve got to put in the work,” Betsy remarked. Although it was easy for her to laugh at all the small errors in some of the first pots, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the pure talent poured into them. Despite the fact, I thought they were great. Those pots were pale in comparison to the Grygla Centennial mugs she is working on now! 

“I think making these mugs have really honed my skills. I like to challenge myself,” she remarked. I was fortunate enough to get an inside look at the process Betsy uses to create these mugs. 

She first starts by preparing the clay. Once the clay is ready, she then “throws” the clay. Betsy explained to me that “throwing” is when you shape the clay on a pottery wheel. After that, she lets the mugs dry to a certain point and stamps them with the Grygla Centennial logo. Once the mugs have dried naturally for about a week, Betsy then puts the mugs into her kiln oven to bake. The final step to her process is glazing the mugs. “When someone buys a mug, they probably don’t know all the steps that are involved in the process,” she presumed.

Betsy started the process of creating the Centennial Mugs about a year ago. As of now, she has taken around 400 orders. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, don’t worry, Betsy is taking orders up until mid-July. You can order yours today by going to her web page https://bettspottery.wordpress.com/ or by giving her a call at 218-294-6282. Mugs are available in three colors: blue, yellow, and orange. They are priced at $17 with additional personalization costing an extra $2. 

If you are interested in purchasing any of Betsy’s other pottery, her work is available on her web page or at a number of area stores including The Riverwalk Art Gallery in East Grand Forks and The Shed in Thief River Falls. 

I, for one, am very excited to have these Centennial mugs grace my countertop soon! 

Make sure you check out the Grygla Eagle Newspaper Facebook page to watch this amazing pottery process in action as a live video was taken that day.