I have been a studio potter for over 50 years, and taught in academia for 35 years. In 2018, I retired after 24 years running the clay program at Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft, a satellite campus of TTU and part of the School of Art, Craft, and Design. My wife Linda (an American historian) and I retired to the Chapel Hill area, where our son Morgan teaches at UNC. I make slab-built functional pottery and large coil-built vessels. Most of my work features intricate impressed pattern created with bisque-stamps that I carve. I select glazes that show off this 3-D relief in the firing process. I fire my work to cone-6 or cone-10 in a cross-draft LPG soda kiln. You can find a lot more information about my work at my website (vincepitelka.com), and please contact me if you have questions or comments or wish to arrange a studio visit to see my work in person.
