hands      Red Oak Pottery

Bill and Judy Heim - Lascassas, Tennessee

Red Oak pottery sign  About the Artists


Bill and Judy's scenic farm outside of Lascassas, Tennessee provides inspiration for their functional, contemporary pottery. The influence of nature is reflected in forms which often use a leaf, bamboo or a horse motif and the glazes which use ash from their wood burning stove.

Bill and Judy both hope that people experience a renewed connection with nature by association with a product shaped by hand and inspired by the beauty that is a part of their everyday life.

Bill throwing a vase

Bill first dabbled with "throwing" pottery in the late 1980's to relieve stress from his job in engineering. It was about the time he met Judy that his hobby started getting serious.

Although Judy had received an art minor in college with emphasis in clay, all that had been put away while she taught middle school reading for many years. That art background resurfaced years later when she and Bill met, married, and built a studio together. Since then, both have left jobs in the public sector to become full time artists with the establishment of Red Oak Pottery.

Bill pulling making a pitcher handle

All Red Oak Pottery is wheel thrown and hand trimmed.
After being formed and while the clay is leather-hard, Bill adds handles or shapes lids while Judy enhances the pieces by scribing or carving leaf designs.

 Judy carving a tall vase with oak leaves

loading the gas kiln

The particular stoneware used to form this pottery is a blend of white clays that is fired to a high temperature so that the glazes that are used for the blues, greens, white, and black turn to a form of glass.

The firing to 2345F in a gas kiln allows these stoneware vessels to be food and dishwasher safe.

 firing kiln the gas kiln

oak leaf design covered vase

Because the glaze on each piece reacts in a distinctive way to the firing, each piece is unique!

A true one-of-a-kind!

 black pitcher with scribed oak leaves