Bill Mansperger
Pottery
www.sunrisepotterystudio.art
@sunrisepotterystudio
510-316-6673
[email protected]
When did I begin being a potter? It all started when I was a young child, like 3. As a family we’d travel out to the Borago and Mojave deserts to look for Indian artifacts such as arrow heads, grinding stones, bits of ceramic pots, interesting stones and to identify all the various plants and wild life. We traveled to places like 29 Palms, Kelso, Houser beds, Bautista Canyon, Old Woman Mts, Chocolate Mts, Palm Mts, Amboy Crater, Fish Creek Mts, Chuckwallas Dunes, Vulcan Copper Mine and more. There we’d find minerals like Feldspar, Iron Pyrites, Quartz Crystals, Calcite, Manganese, Jaspar, Copper and Uranium. These are all part of the ceramic minerals I would latter use in clays and glazes. Geodes, Opals, Desert Rose, Mica, Petrified Wood, Travertine, Flagstone, Tourmaline, Dendrites & Flagstone are sone of the other stones and gems we collected. All of which set fire to my imagination… how was all of this created?
I did take 1 semester of pottery in collage along with a design class. I was an art major. Seemed easy as I was already a Maker and could use my hands well. In the 70’s & 80’s I had 3 different pottery shops in the Sonora area. First, when I was 22 years of age, on Stewart St in Sonora. Then up the road to Rancho Paquito’s and Oak Tree Center. In the 90’s I had a studio in Menlo Park where I made the production kiln I still use today. Built to last. I made pottery & gave lessons at the Palo Alto Cultural Center part time also and was working as a night vision technician in Palo Alto. Yes, I made night vision goggles for the military for 10 years. Fascinating!! For the next 15 years I put pottery on hold and worked as the system integration and test specialist for Cognex. An inspection system integrating electronic hardware, software, networking and video all based on my knowledge of making computerized ceramic kilns. Fun stuff!! In 2013 I started building my pottery studio here at my home in Tuolumne City. This is where I have the large production kiln and smaller test kiln that I designed and built myself in 2023. My studio has 5 potters’ wheels, a spray booth for glazing my work and the slab roller. I make utilitarian to architectural pottery, mugs, bowls, plates to sconces, rain catchers, wash basins and more. Commission work is available too. You can go to my website for information on lessons for wheel throwing, slab and hand building, making clay bodies and glazes, glaze applications and spraying techniques or kiln building.
Pottery
www.sunrisepotterystudio.art
@sunrisepotterystudio
510-316-6673
[email protected]
When did I begin being a potter? It all started when I was a young child, like 3. As a family we’d travel out to the Borago and Mojave deserts to look for Indian artifacts such as arrow heads, grinding stones, bits of ceramic pots, interesting stones and to identify all the various plants and wild life. We traveled to places like 29 Palms, Kelso, Houser beds, Bautista Canyon, Old Woman Mts, Chocolate Mts, Palm Mts, Amboy Crater, Fish Creek Mts, Chuckwallas Dunes, Vulcan Copper Mine and more. There we’d find minerals like Feldspar, Iron Pyrites, Quartz Crystals, Calcite, Manganese, Jaspar, Copper and Uranium. These are all part of the ceramic minerals I would latter use in clays and glazes. Geodes, Opals, Desert Rose, Mica, Petrified Wood, Travertine, Flagstone, Tourmaline, Dendrites & Flagstone are sone of the other stones and gems we collected. All of which set fire to my imagination… how was all of this created?
I did take 1 semester of pottery in collage along with a design class. I was an art major. Seemed easy as I was already a Maker and could use my hands well. In the 70’s & 80’s I had 3 different pottery shops in the Sonora area. First, when I was 22 years of age, on Stewart St in Sonora. Then up the road to Rancho Paquito’s and Oak Tree Center. In the 90’s I had a studio in Menlo Park where I made the production kiln I still use today. Built to last. I made pottery & gave lessons at the Palo Alto Cultural Center part time also and was working as a night vision technician in Palo Alto. Yes, I made night vision goggles for the military for 10 years. Fascinating!! For the next 15 years I put pottery on hold and worked as the system integration and test specialist for Cognex. An inspection system integrating electronic hardware, software, networking and video all based on my knowledge of making computerized ceramic kilns. Fun stuff!! In 2013 I started building my pottery studio here at my home in Tuolumne City. This is where I have the large production kiln and smaller test kiln that I designed and built myself in 2023. My studio has 5 potters’ wheels, a spray booth for glazing my work and the slab roller. I make utilitarian to architectural pottery, mugs, bowls, plates to sconces, rain catchers, wash basins and more. Commission work is available too. You can go to my website for information on lessons for wheel throwing, slab and hand building, making clay bodies and glazes, glaze applications and spraying techniques or kiln building.
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