Finding Balance Between Modern and Rustic
Jill Zeidler Ceramic Art's hand-built pottery
Jill Zeidler’s pieces start their lives as midrange stoneware clay, which she gets from the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. | Photo: Tori Pintar
Jill Zeidler’s elegant ceramic artwork seeks out balance. Each piece reconciles ideas that can often be opposed: Function versus beauty, playful versus sophisticated, modern versus rustic. Characterized by natural lines and warm colors, every design is thoughtfully crafted to work as a decorative piece and to be put to use, whether it be a serving bowl, mug or vase. Zeidler started her artistic journey as a painter, but after a ceramics class in college, shifted her focus to clay.
“The science of clay, glaze chemistry and firing was so intriguing,” she says. “I felt this is what I wanted to spend my time doing. It still feels like that. As with many great things, Jill Zeidler Ceramic Art had small beginnings. The artist started with a kiln in her guest room, where she taught pottery and developed her own designs. “I really hit the ground running,” she recalls. As she taught, she sold her work at local art shows like the Jackson Hole Art Fair, Art in the High Desert in Bend, Oregon, and Sweet Pea in Bozeman. Her business grew, and she built herself a bigger studio from which she sold her work wholesale as one of the very first ceramic artists on Etsy.
Working with an organic color palette and elegant, natural lines, Zeidler crafts ceramic art- work that will be equally at home as artistic shelf pieces or on a dinner table. | Photo: Tori Pintar
Unlike many ceramic artists, Zeidler doesn’t “throw” clay on a wheel. She builds and molds all of her work from slabs of midrange stoneware clay. Zeidler’s series of gourd bowls, for example, begin as slabs of clay on her wedge table. She hand-stretches the slabs into shape. A slump-mold uses gravity to form the curved base of the bowl. She forms the bowl’s walls from a longer second slab before joining them together. Once the piece is assembled, Zeidler kiln-fires it at least twice and applies her proprietary glaze to add her distinctive colors. The designs that appear on some of her work are one-of- a-kind mono prints taken from old images. “They’re all vintage photos that inspire me or make me happy,” says Zeidler. All told, the process takes about four weeks, depending on the piece.
This hand-building technique stems from her background in more sculptural ceramic work, and it gives the finished pieces their characteristic rough-hewn, rustic feel. Every arc and curve has a gentle unevenness, each lip and wall a soft warp that renders them unique. These imperfections are not only evidence that they’re handmade, but also a testament to Zeidler’s artistry and an integral part of their organic beauty.
Zeidler produces a wide range of pottery in all sizes, from small ramekins, carafes and mugs to larger serving platters and vases. | Photo: Tori Pintar
“I started from the ground up,” says Zeidler. She began with more sculptural pieces and eventually moved into the functional body of work she makes today. | Photo: Tori Pintar
Today, Zeidler shows her work in the Gallatin River Gal- -lery in Big Sky, Montana, and at Workshop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as well as at local art fairs. Emphasizing the importance of her community, Zeidler also attends a local farmers market on Wednesdays, where families have collected her pieces over generations. In the early 2000s, she moved her business into the Big Sky retail/studio space she uses now, where she splits her time between the storefront and crafting her artwork. “There’s so much to know and learn,” she says. “It keeps me interested in the process.”
The exposed seam visible in this vase is a hallmark of Zeidler’s work. The intentional break in the smooth wall reveals that the piece is handmade, drawing attention to the living clay it’s made from. | Photo: Tori Pintar
Zeidler crafting a new spherical vase design. “I wanted to do something that was more of an object for a shelf,” she says. While still functional, these pieces lean toward the purely aesthetic. | Photo: Tori Pintar
In soft, wavering contours and minimalist forms, Zeidler’s work marries a rough-hewn, rustic sensibility with a refined, modern design. | Photo: Tori Pintar
Zeidler carefully applies her glaze, one of the last steps in the process. | Photo: Tori Pintar
“Slab building is the heart of my work,” says Zeidler. Nothing is thrown on a wheel. Everything is carefully designed and then shaped, molded and built by hand. | Photo: Tori Pintar
