Paul Christiansen
Today, Jim Anderson is the main potter at the Shearwater, the potter's workshop and showroom founded by his father, the artist Peter Anderson.
Perched on a stool in the Shearwater Pottery workshop, James (Jim) Anderson concentrates on his hands and the undulating clay beneath them. Daylight streams through the window, illuminating the whiskey cup taking shape on the pottery wheel.
“My dad thought pottery should be pleasing to look at and functional—flowing, not stiff, with classic shapes and nice colors,” he explains. When he stops the wheel, the cup is perfectly shaped, with a gentle curve inward before slightly flaring out at the lip, ready for the next step in the laborious pottery-making process.
Jim is the main potter at Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. His father, the late Peter Anderson, founded the business in 1928, and two years later, his brothers Walter and James (Mac) joined the venture. Today, Walter is best known for his fantastical watercolors, many of which are memorialized at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in downtown Ocean Springs. But he earned his living at Shearwater.
The three brothers’ creative origins can be traced back to their mother, Annette Anderson, who studied art for many years at the Tulane University’s Newcomb College for women. In 1918, she visited Ocean Springs on a day trip from New Orleans and ended up purchasing twenty-four acres of waterfront land, where she hoped to foster an artist’s colony. She and her husband moved there four years later. The brothers, in their late teens and early twenties, eventually joined them and found inspiration in the waterfront town and its abundance of natural beauty.
“They called her ‘Mère,’ which is French for ‘mother,’” says Doug Myatt, former curator of the Walter Anderson Museum, as he gives us a tour of the Shearwater property, which lies at the center of town, overlooking the harbor. He tells us how Peter met the potter Joseph Meyer on Deer Island, just off of the coast of Ocean Springs. Interested in learning the art of pottery from a master, Peter asked him for tutelage. At the end of it, Meyer told him: “You know all you need to know, now go practice.”
His practice paid off. After establishing the workshop and showroom, Peter built Shearwater Pottery into a world-renowned company and a line of ceramic art found in collections worldwide. Peter’s focus was on the practical. He designed a full range of glazed, earthen tableware, while Walter and Mac created whimsical molds of animals and fairytale figurines, which were then cast and hand painted.
All three brothers have since passed, and a new generation of Andersons carry on the family trade. Jim takes the lead in the workshop, where, alongside his son and several staff, Peter's signature style of crafting functional wares endures.
“I’ve been working here my whole life,” says Jim. “When we were children, we played here. We hid in the rafters and ran all over the place. I had other ideas at one time, but I ended up in pottery.”
Tall and lanky with a quiet, Southern accent, he steps away from the potter’s wheel to walk the room as he describes his pottery-making process. Until recently, the Andersons dug their own clay in Mississippi and Alabama and mixed it with Tennessee ball clay to make it more plastic. Today, they buy the clay, but the method remains the same. The clay is then put through a mesh screen and poured (cast) in the original molds created by Shearwater’s founders. If not selected for casting, the clay goes through a filter press, which makes it more solid—better for throwing on the wheel or jiggering (throwing on a wheel with a mold).
Once a potter creates the shape, they stack the piece on a board alongside dozens of others, before placing them all in the kiln to be bisque fired at about seventeen hundred degrees. This creates enough heat to dry up any remaining water. The pottery is then dipped in a tub of one of Shearwater’s signature glazes and fired again, this time up to two thousand and fifty degrees, to melt the glaze, rendering it as smooth and hard as colored glass.
“With bisque firing, you can stack multiples,” explained Jim. “Glaze firing is like putting together a puzzle without something to look at.” If the glazed pieces touch, the glaze will be ruined, so workers struggle to fit as many pieces as possible on the boards while keeping adequate space between each. After cooling slowly over a couple of days, the glazed pieces are finally ready for the showroom.
Next door in the Annex, Jim’s sister, Patricia Findeisen, and cousin, Adele Lawton (daughter of Mac), painstakingly create hand-painted designs on underglazed castware created from the founders’ original molds and even some, such as a small cat and an owl, created by the brothers’ mother, Annette. Patricia paints her own designs, often choosing to work on her Uncle Walter’s cat or seagull figures. Adele, on the other hand, enjoys recreating historical designs on Walter’s and Mac’s figurines—though she uses her free time to produce original work. One of her original vases, on display in the showroom’s museum, depicts her parents birdwatching at McIlhenny Island, where they spent their honeymoon and often returned to visit.
In the Annex, the artists use the stark white Tennessee ball clay. After casting it in molds and air drying it, the artists will either draw designs freeform or use stencils to first outline the designs and then carefully paint in the colors on what is known as greenware. Then, they place the painted pieces in the kiln to be bisque fired, before applying a clear glaze.
Other family members tend to the business side of the showroom. Another daughter of Peter, Annette Majorie Ashley, worked as business manager until her daughter, Beth Ashley, took over the job. Decades ago, Shearwater Pottery could be found in some department stores. Preferring to have the freedom to create each piece to be totally unique, Peter quickly reverted back to selling the pottery in-store only. Still, the demand is nearly always greater than the supply.
Aside from the main workshop, Annex, and Showroom, the property also hosts the homes of five members of the Anderson family. Walter’s former home resides here as well, minus the “Little Room” where he created his famous floor-to-ceiling murals, unbeknownst to anyone until after his death. The Little Room is now on display at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.
Another structure on the property, referred to simply as the “Barn,” is homebase for a print shop run by Walter’s daughter-in-law, Carolyn. Adorned with Walter’s blockprint designs, the silk-screened prints and printed clothing and textiles created here are sold in Realizations: The Walter Anderson Shop found in Ocean Springs’ old train station on Washington Avenue. After working in the Annex after college, Adele started Realizations in 1986. However, after Hurricane Katrina swamped the Shearwater property in twenty-eight feet of water and destroyed many of the original buildings, she returned to help the family rebuild and resumed painting at the Annex.
Nearly one hundred years old now, Shearwater Pottery carries on, propelled by the creativity of the Anderson family. Artistry runs in their veins and continues to shine in later generations as well, with grandchildren of the original three brothers developing their talents in music, painting, crayon drawings, and linen designs. And the beautiful, wooded Shearwater property, teaming with wildlife, stands as an inspirational backdrop to all.
Visit the Shearwater Pottery Showroom at 102 Shearwater Drive Ocean Springs, Mississippi from 9 am–5:30 pm Monday through Saturday, and 1 pm–5:30 pm on Sunday. shearwaterpottery.com.
