06/11/2026
Stories of the Studio
How Our Little Vase Jersey was Born
We just never know what’s going to happen in a day!
We always say it’s going to be a good day. We’ve woken up, we live in peace, we have our health, our workplace outside our home and we will do the best we can with our day! 😃❤️😃
It’s always a mystery how many people will come through our doors in a day, where they will come from and how long they visit with us. It varies from group to group!
Like Freddy’s Basket, or Zion’s Bowl or Robert’s Fuzzy Swirl Creations, we just never know what kind of learning is going to take place in our Studio or what might be created next! 😃😳😬🙄😱🥴😂😄
Working with pottery has unlimited emotions!
We start off with purpose and focus always positive that something great is going to be created by our fingertips! 😀😁😇
Usually it is the pottery that talks
“I don’t WANT to be a bowl!”
“I don’t have enough support”
“You bumped me” You rushed me”
That shows you immediately with a collapse, a crack or breaking in the kiln or falling off a shelf onto the Studio floor 😵💫 that really makes for lessons by potters in the Studio!
Robert has been working with pottery for 50+ years and from time to time a pot decides “I really don’t want to be a bowl. I really want to be a vase!”
That’s just what happened with the Tays Family’s experience in the Studio.
I’m sure they did not figure on spending close to an hour or more when they pulled in the driveway!
First customers of the morning!😀😀😀
It was just by chance that they saw the highway road sign that read Robert McMillan Pottery. Their love of pottery was brought them by the gallery that morning!
Before the introductions were made they didn’t get to see the finished pottery first! I whisked them away down into the Studio! And before long everyone was talking to Robert as he finished up preparing some glaze and moving over to throw some pots!
It was red clay he was going to use that day and the women got comfortable and settled into watch the demonstration. As it goes in our Studio, Robert is very good at answering questions about clay, clay bodies and how they react while he sits at the wheel and demonstrates.
As I take videos and pictures I sometimes have to remind people to breath as they hold their breath as Robert makes his pulls on the clay!
Robert has a very kind and gentle way about explaining the relationship he has built with clay and some of the things he has learned through his evolution with working with clay but also in the process of glazing his pieces and how the newer pieces are created!
Many times through experimentation, or mistakes come beautiful unexpected discoveries.
This was about to happen!
The bowl Robert was working on and looking so beautiful all of a sudden took a shift! Robert could feel it in his hand that guides the rim, a quick look and a comment of doubt, and then waiting a few seconds and the whole bowl collapsed on the wheel!
We all looked with amazement and that few seconds of condolences😥but then our positivity rang through as we looked at the new flatter shape and ideas of a chip platter/guacamole plate spring to mind!
But then there was the comment Robert made “Maybe it doesn’t want to be a bowl!” He folded up the clay and wedged the clay on the wheel much to the surprise of our guests!
“Maybe it wants to be a vase!”
The silence turned to smiles and laughter as the clay took a new form under the direction of Robert’s hands.
And so the little brown vase was born. She is called a Jersey Vase after our visitors who came from Jersey and her name is Flo short for Flori because the Tays family is from Florida!
And thank you Adam for indulging the ladies on their long studio tour 🤭 you did a marvellous job taking care of that sweet baby in the car! 😁 glad you got to step in and choose a mug! You deserve it Adam!
Somehow pottery is a good metaphor for life and it is these learning points for our visitors and our way of showing people how resilient pottery can be, we, as humans can learn many lessons from the clay!
Be what you want to be, follow your passion, do what you are meant to do, accidents happen, move on, learn from mistakes and use them for your next opportunity to grow and evolve!
It is through these Studio tours that the most powerful stories are shared with one another and before we know it, the whole world outside has slipped away and we have spent time together as a group of open people learning a bit more about pottery but life too!
Time just magically slips away at Hope River for Robert and I, too. Before we know it the workday has done because we are having fun following our passions and we are spending time together creating!
Last week I had a couple of girls from out west sit in my rocking chair just listening to music on the record player and chatting in no real hurry to go!❤️😀😃😁
My gallery is the very best workspace to be and feels like a big living room to entertain: the radio, the record player, the piano, hutch and all Robert’s beautiful pottery and the rocking chair. It just has that homey feel to it!
So if you do happen by our Pottery Gallery and Studio. Do come in to stay awhile! As you enter our doors, let the world slip away for the time you are here and come in and enjoy the experience!❤️
I think you’ll be glad you did. You will walk in as strangers but leave as friends!
If you have come by please leave a comment. We’d love to hear it!❤️
Have a great day!
Luv and Hugs
Robert & Pam McMillan
The Potter’s Wife of Hope River!😁
Potter’s Wife of Hope River
Robert McMillan
Robert McMillan Pottery
