“I have been a potter for the sheer, simple pleasure of making things with my own hands.” – Robert Briscoe

 

Although he’s been creating pottery for nearly 50 years, Clearwater potter Bob (Robert) Briscoe didn’t start out interested in the craft. 

 

At 19, Briscoe was attending college in Kansas and, against his will, taking an art appreciation class. His instructor brought in artists from the Kansas City Art Institute to demonstrate their crafts; one of them was a potter. 

 

“I was helping him set up his pottery wheel and I was just stunned,” Briscoe said. “I’d never seen pottery done.”

 

Seeking to obtain pottery for himself, he spoke with potter Jim Zandgriff at an art fair he was attending, who told him he should give pottery a try. He ended up apprenticing with Zandgriff for a year and a half and was hooked.

 

He moved to Colorado and started working at a studio with a group of artists.

 

“ We just taught ourselves,” said Briscoe. “No one had any money. None of us were any good. We were all just rookies, everyone was having a blast.”

 

In 1969 he started doing art fairs, which were new at the time, while working as a carpenter building pole barns to make money.

 

In 1972 he moved back to Kansas and started a studio. However he wanted a change, so four years later he moved to Minnesota, purchasing some land by Little Falls. From there he moved to Minneapolis, starting another studio, and then bought property by Cambridge, where he’s lived and had a studio for nearly 30 years before moving to Clearwater.

 

Twenty-four years ago, Briscoe was part of the group that started the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour, which turned into a phenomenon none of the people involved expected. 

 

“It just blossomed into this terrific event where 40 to 50 potters come together every year,” said Briscoe. “In fact, there were 57 at this year’s event.

 

Over 20% of the people who attend travel over 300 miles, there’s a lot of pottery lovers out there.”

 

“My pieces start off as ‘how would you use this,’” he explained. “I like the idea of making things that become part of people’s lives. It becomes a sort of partnership, you make the starting piece and someone else’s cooking finishes it.”

 

He makes almost everything, from small teacups to big platters and everything in between. He gives himself the most room to play with the vases he designs, but jars are his favorite pieces to create. 

 

“There’s something mysterious with an enclosed space,” Briscoe explained. “It asks the question, I wonder what’s inside? Plus they’re hard to make, the challenge is still there.”

 

His goal is for his pieces to come out of the kiln looking soft.

 

“I want people to know it [the piece] started out as something soft, something you could manipulate.”

 

Although Briscoe feels it’s an artist’s job to educate the public, he’s also learned from them.

 

“I used to do a big show in Oklahoma City, and there were a lot of people who didn’t know anything about anything, you’d get the most bizarre questions,” he explained. “One lady came up to me and asked if I made dinnerware and I was kind of dismissive with her. She came back with her husband after he got off from work all dirty and greasy. They liked my pots and ended up ordering a set of dinnerware, platters and everything else. It was the biggest order I’d ever done, and it turned out they owned the largest archery place around.”

 

“They knew what they wanted and they were sharp. It was a great lesson for me not to dismiss people based on appearance.”

 

Briscoe has made his living as a potter mainly from art fairs all around the country. He’s productive, making 2,500 to 3,500 pieces a year. He estimates he’s made 150,000 pots alone, which he’s sold at 400 to 500 art fairs over the years.

 

He plans on firing in his new Main St. Clearwater studio by July 1 and slowing down, doing just a couple big events a year. He’d like to start something in Clearwater. 

 

“I want to talk to the city and local arts and crafts people to see if we can start something here,” Briscoe said. “This is such a great street, and I’d love to have a celebration of people who are taking the risk to make things by hand, no matter what it is.”

 

“There’s something about human beings challenging themselves physically, mentally and financially to make something. I have a lot of respect for people who do.”