The clay’s the thing! Some gotta throw, some gotta mold … just ask the artists at the Midcoast Pottery Co-op. The Co-op members, Annette Stormont, Clark Griffith, Monica Tan and Mitchell Lichtenstein, have been using the basement of the former River Arts building on Route 1 in Damariscotta as their studio for four years.

“When River Arts was in this space, we sublet from them. When they moved out we decided to form a co-op and rent the space directly,” said Stormont.

Stormont, a former critical care RN, discovered pottery some 30 years ago when her husband Jim was transferred to Minnesota for work. “It seemed like he was being transferred every 18 months. When we were in Minnesota I heard about an art school with a pottery class. I went and I was a train wreck … I was determined to throw, but all I’d come up with were mud pies and covered in clay from head to toe! I don’t know why I didn’t walk away, I was just determined.”

After a few more work transfers and more pottery classes, Stormont was hooked. She opened her first studio in Marshalltown, Iowa and began teaching classes to adults and children.

When she and Jim moved to Boothbay Harbor in 2008, their home came with a two-car garage – perfect for a pottery studio. She filled the space with two kilns, shelving, a wheel, glazes, hand-building tools, and a lot of clay. But when the couple decided it was time to downsize into a condo, with her workspace soon to be in the rearview mirror, Stormont knew she was going to have to find somewhere to keep creating.

The ah-ha moment came when she remembered hearing the River Arts building had a large working space downstairs that was not used often. After a call to then-gallery manager Linda Morkeski, Stormont had found her new pottery space in the basement of the red brick building next to N.C. Hunt Lumber. That was four years ago.

Stormont prefers to create her totems, jars, mugs and whatever else jazzes her at the moment, by hand building. She rolls out the clay, makes coils and then builds them up free form, or over a mold to support the clay. Most of what Stormont creates is decorative rather than functional.

Stormont knew she wanted to work with other people, so when semi-retired architect Clark Griffith, who had moved to Trevett with his wife Ann, called and asked about sharing the space, she was thrilled.

Griffith was drawn to the wheel in college when he picked up some pottery courses at Skidmore over three summers. He did not revisit working with clay again until Ann gifted him with a pottery course while they were living in Lexington, Massachusetts. He said that all told, he’s been into pottery for about 10 years and, like Stormont, leans toward the decorative rather than functional.

“Working with clay is my relaxing time,” he said. “You know, when I would get sick as a little kid I liked playing with that Plasticine (modeling) clay. I’ve often wondered if that’s why I became an architect: I enjoy making something from nothing. It’s challenging. After you make the pot or vessel, you decide if you want to add appendages, what those appendages will be, what color glaze to use … you’re making something else into something more. When I come here, everyone is creating; you get to forget about the rest of the world … it’s like a getaway spa day for me.”

When Griffith isn’t in the studio throwing (working with the clay on a potter’s wheel), he and Ann are restoring an old farmhouse.

Tan joined the group a few years ago. She has a degree in fine arts, and loves making functional pottery. Tan is a house parent for Lincoln Academy and works full-time as a screener for Lincoln Health Miles Campus. Her husband Lu-Shien does international student recruiting for Lincoln Academy.

Tan said she had never really thought of herself as a creative person, unlike the rest of her family, until she took a pottery course in college that led to more through graduation.

“I’m more of a practical, analytical, logical-style person. My major in college had been foreign service and religion. My pottery teacher put some of my pieces that first course in a show at the school. And I thought, I really can do this. I had planned to go into the diplomatic corps, but after that … I audited classes off and on after college.”

While the Tans lived and worked with International schools in Malaysia for five years, there wasn’t an outlet to work with clay. That changed when the couple moved to San Francisco where there were lots of clay studios. Tan was throwing more artistic pieces, although she leans toward the functional variety, than she’d done previously. And yet, Tan said, the places she has lived haven’t influenced her design or style.

“If you look at my work over the years it is different in style, but I think that is a refection on who I was when I made that pottery,” Tan said. “Since we moved here in 2018, I’ve had more time to spend on my art. I’d never made a mug or planter before – and mugs were a challenge. Now my focus is on making simple shapes – brown clay is my favorite – and then playing with the glazes.”

Tan is also challenging herself to make one piece and then try to throw more like it over and over. Some of her work has been included in an online show LincolnHealth is doing for employees, and she has her work on Etsy.

Lichtenstein heard about classes Stormont was holding downstairs at River Arts during a visit to the gallery. Lichtenstein’s interest in pottery began in his teens. Years later, while living in New York, he would periodically take lessons and throw in various places in the city.

“I was happy to be asked to join the group,” he said. “Now that I’m here I have more time to explore it further, I’m also taking lessons from a potter nearby, and then try my hand at the studio. I like the unpredictability of it. It’s the blessing and the curse working in clay. I like to use slip-trailing to make the raised designs – carving out images or doing relief work. But, nothing is a sure thing … you just have to learn detachment!”

Stormont said other three-dimensional artists would be welcome – sculptors, metalworkers, or jewelers.And she sometimes offers classes in the space. The group is working toward setting up weekend sales, very casually. Be on the lookout for a sign outside the Route 1N studio. Check out the pottery and visit with the artists who happen to be there.