Sean C. Morgan
Robert Wolchock, a newcomer to Sweet Home, is hard at work doing what he loves, making pottery.
“I’d been living in the Bay Area for the last 15 years,” Wolchock said. “I’d mostly raised my family there. Around this time last summer, all three of my kids reached a point where they’d grown up and moved out.”
Once he got over the shock of an empty nest, the graphics and web designer looked around and asked, “Why should I stay here? I asked myself what would I really like to be doing and where would I like to be doing it. I realized the most satisfying period of my life were the 20 years I was a potter.”
Wolchock had previously lived in Grants Pass, in the late 1970s. As a potter, he spent a good deal of time on the road to Portland’s Saturday Market.
“That was such a long drive,” Wolchock said. “It was killing me, too many miles and mostly when I was tired.”
He decided to look between Portland and Eugene where his pottery markets would be. He looked at properties all over the Mid-Valley before finding the perfect property on 47th Avenue in October.
“Years ago, I’d heard the name Sweet Home,” Wolchock said. “It’s the kind of name that sticks in your mind. I love it. From the day I arrived, everyone has just been incredibly nice. I felt very welcome here.”
He had lived in Cotati, in the Bay Area, he said. “It was much more urban, upscale and yuppyish. This is just right. It’s countrified.”
But not too much.
“I’ve lived where you had 20 miles to get to the nearest paved road,” Wolchock said. “Been there, done that. Don’t need to do it no more.”
Wolchock started making pottery in the early 1970s. Prior to that, he had been in the Army where he taught photography classes. He and a friend took each other’s classes, and Wolchock discovered he had a knack for pottery.
After leaving the military, “I drifted into pottery and it kind of took over,” Wolchock said. He moved to Los Gatos, an artsy part of the Silicon Valley and spent the next 20 years making pottery, which included time in rural Kentucky.
After his family outgrew Kentucky, he undertook plans to return to civilization. His children were hitting school age, Wolchock said. “I felt like I needed to give up pottery to move to the Bay Area because it’s so expensive; so I took a real job.”
That’s when he got into graphics and web design, which he enjoyed for 15 years.
“I’ve been very lucky,” Wolchock said. “All my life, I’ve always managed to have jobs that were exactly what I wanted to do.”
The only exception was one year when he sold insurance.
“I’ve got gray hair,” Wolchock said. “People ask me if I’m retired. I got to thinking about it. I’m doing what I would be doing if I were retired.”
His pottery is functional and utilitarian, Wolchock said. Everything he makes is intended to be used in everyday life.
Not only is his pottery durable, it’s pretty, Wolchock said. “I guess that makes people put them up.”
Wolchock gets a kick out of his cup of coffee in the morning. He knows as he takes a drink that there are tens of thousands of other people drinking from a cup “just like mine, and I made them all.”
Wolchock is what is called a production potter as opposed to an artistic potter.
“I make a lot of it, and I sell it at accessible prices, so people just like me can afford to buy it or people like you,” Wolchock said.
Coffee mugs are probably the most popular items he sells at Saturday Market, but teapots are popular gifts at the higher end. He also sells a variety of other items, including soup terrines, pitchers, vases, jars, pie plates – “anything you can cook, eat or drink on.”
He will begin attending craft fairs as well and will launch a low-key website. Coming up, his work will be at the mid-October Clayfest, a gathering of potters from around Oregon. He is the coordinating chairman for the event, which is put on at the Eugene fairgrounds. The show includes 50 to 60 potters.
“I like the fact I’m making beautiful stuff,” Wolchock said. “People are buying it to beautify their lives, and I make living.”
Wolchock’s studio is open to visitors. He invites persons to visit any time he’s working and learn about what he does, but he asks they call ahead though it isn’t requried at 367-3233. His studio is located at 1369 47th Ave.