The whimsy of clay

Amanda Neal’s husband James didn’t know what he was unleashing when he gave his wife a pottery class for a birthday present 20 years ago.

Amanda had plenty of art and crafting experience growing up in West Virginia, learning from her mother and grandmother.

“I would sit on their laps and sew and crochet,” Neal said, and even created outfits for her Barbie dolls.

Her father painted, and she tried painting in oil and acrylic.

She always wanted to learn how to make pottery, and the Fredonia resident got her chance while living in Pennsylvania.

“Then it just went crazy,” she said while sitting at her kitchen table on which sat books of designs for various pieces.

Bowls and other items adorn shelves and tables in the house — many built by James, who loves woodworking — and their basement is loaded with the results of  Neal’s hobby.

Finished plates of all shape and sizes, gnomes, magnets and mugs fill tables that sit next to a wall of Christmas ornaments ready to be purchased.

Cookie cutters hang on several hooks above a desk adorned with multiple cups storing paint brushes of all kinds.

Shelves hold bottles of glazes, embossed rolling pins and porcelain pieces waiting to be painted.

When it comes to pottery, Neal loves that “you can just create it from a blob and you never know what it’s going to be. It has a mind of its own.”

Many pieces are planned. Neal made a bunch of Bigfoot items and contacted her friends Louis and Laurel Petolicchio, who started the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum in 2021. She even attended the annual Bigfoot Festival.

“They’re big sellers,” she said of her pottery and stamped items.

“She (Laurel) just sent me the check from last month, which was wonderful.”

West Virginia’s legendary Mothman pieces are popular items, and Neal has cookie cutters shaped like Wisconsin for more local interest since moving here in 2022 due to James’ career at a pharmaceuticals company.

Neal’s techniques are as varied as her inventory. She doesn’t have formal training — she has an accounting degree from West Virginia University at Parkersburg — but often takes workshops and watches YouTube videos to expand her handicraft horizons.  This week, she will attend the Fired Arts Expo in Waukesha.

Last fall, she created pumpkins using liquid clay — called slip casting — by pouring it into a mold. She added creases with a tool and applied a crackle glaze for effect.

For flat Christmas ornaments and charcuterie boards, Neal rolls out clay like she’s making cookies and applies a texture roller that has a design or pattern etched into it. Cookie cutters of different shapes provide an array of patterns.

The rolling pins are also used to make designs on plates and dishes.

Textures come from many sources. Neal once used a thin afghan she received from a friend.

Just as with cookies, she tries to makes something out of the ends left over after cutting out her pieces.

She uses fondant tools to help sculpt and add detail to some of her work.

To do peacock glazing and give a piece a design like the bird’s tail, she uses a flux, a flowing glaze that runs. She dabs in other colors to add to the piece.

Her favorite mug was made from a mistake. The top started to collapse, and she added more clay, then put in indentations with her finger around the edge. She glazed it with different colors to show the layers.

Different clays produce a variety of appearances. Neal uses speckled and white, and she wants to try black clay.

Despite two decades of experience, Neal said trial and error is still prevalent in her craft. She doesn’t know exactly what she will find when she opens her kiln.

“Once I started it was like, oh my gosh, it’s like a surprise,” she said. “It will either be a very good surprise or very bad.”

Neal has a solution for most of the latter.

“If its crappy, just refire it. Sometimes it comes out great and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind piece,” she said.

She often doesn’t draw designs for her pieces, preferring to throw caution to the wind. “I just do them. You never know what you’re going to get,” she said.

Inspiration can strike at any time. “I’ll wake up at 4 a.m. and go down there and start stuff,” she said.

Neal manages her hobby around her job an educational aide at Port Washington High School and recently subbed for the ceramics art teacher.

She still spends hours a day on her pottery passion.

“I love it. I would do it all day long,” she said. “It’s relaxing.”

Neal also sews — supplies and a sewing machine fill one room of her basement — and makes items using patterns, including handbags, oven pads and key chains and other items.

Neal recently began offering classes. The one on making gnomes, which have taken the decor community by storm the past few years, is popular. She’s planning on class on jack-o-lanterns.

Neal’s items are for sale in a few area stores, at area craft fairs and online.

For more information, visit Neal’s Clay and Stitches Facebook page or contact her at clayandstitches@gmail.com.