Reprinted from a 2008 story in The Lakeville Journal.
NORTH CANAAN - Joey Jablonski describes the functional pottery she and her students create as "everyday joy." From the fun of making it to using the dinnerware, bowls and even bathroom sinks, there is always a place for it in life.
Jablonski is in the process of moving her Ashford, Conn., studio and Funkware Pottery to her new home on Trescott Hill Road, [in Canaan, CT] where she is accepting students for wheel-thrown pottery classes that officially begin October 1.
Her artfully glazed pieces, from berry bowls to mugs with frog-shaped handles, were on display at the Railroad Days professional crafts show. Jablonski greeted customers with her brilliant smile, one that gets even brighter when she tells The Journal of leaving the corporate world behind to apprentice with John Macomber at Greenleaf Pottery in South Windsor.
The East Hartford native with an MBA went back to school, taking sculpture classes at Lyme Academy and the University of Connecticut, where she later taught continuing education classes. She finds affirmation in that many of her students continue to take her classes well beyond their need for instruction.
"I have students who hang around for years. It becomes addictive. Forming a piece of clay on a wheel is such a stress-relieving, very meditative thing."
Yet there are other students she has helped start their own studios. She also enjoys the diversity of people who come to learn.
"A class I have right now includes a 70-year-old woman, a 55-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman."
Why Funkware?
"I just used to do, and still do, a lot of funky stuff."
Jablonski encourages her students to experiment with sculptural elements and other advanced forms of decorating wheel-thrown pottery. She also teaches hand building skills. Classes are limited to three, which is the number of wheels in her North Canaan studio.
For more information and to register for her morning and evening classes beginning in October, contact 860-933-1101 or funkwarepots@yahoo.com., or visit her Web site at funkwarepottery.com.
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