Nan Rothwell
I started working in clay when I was 19 years old and visiting friends in England. Potting proved an immediate and powerful addiction. Within six months of making my first pot, I enrolled in the Harrow Studio Pottery Course, a full-time intensive training course near London. While not in school, I worked in potteries in England and Ireland. After returning to the U.S. in 1972, I potted in a studio in Crozet, Virginia and taught pottery at Piedmont Community College, for the City of Charlottesville, and in private classes. After Carter Smith and I married, we moved to Nelson County, Virginia, where we lived and worked from 1978 until 2016. Carter and I have have two grown children – Alan and Rachel. Since he retired from making cabinets, Carter helps me run my pottery business, doing office work, glaze mixing, and multiple other jobs as needed.
We now live in Charlottesville, Virginia, in a 1950’s house that Carter renovated. I have a small studio in the basement and a separate kiln shed. Except for one break from potting while our kids were small, I have made functional pottery all my adult life. For many years, most of my pots were salt glazed. Since we moved to Charlottesville, I work in cone ten reduction, which I fire in a small Bailey gas kiln.
