Students show off their pottery at Huntington’s Gray Catbird studio

HUNTINGTON — The Gray Catbird Gift Shop and Pottery Studio at 22 E. Main St., hosted a show of student works on Friday evening, March 22, to signal the end of the winter classes. 

Proprietor and pottery teacher Dale Rogers of Montgomery said 24 students from six different classes displayed 150 of their creations from the latest six-week session. 

In her announcement to students, Rogers said a couple of months ago, she brought 500 pounds of perfect mud from Sheffield Pottery to the Gray Catbird Pottery Studio, which turned into “more than 150 happy, beautiful pots created by all of our marvelous student potters.”

Also present at the show was potter Linda Siska, who teaches one class a session. Siska, a long-time Huntington potter and Westfield State University art instructor, asked her students which pots they thought were loud and quiet, her assignment to the class.

Siska said she had originally visited the studio only to wish good luck to Rogers, but felt a connection to the people in the clay community and was drawn to participate.

After the show, the pots were wrapped up and taken home by the students, in order to make room for a new series of classes. There is currently a waiting list to get a space in one of the classes, but Rogers, who retired as an art teacher at the White Oak School in Westfield, encourages people to put their names on the list.

Rogers moved the studio and the gift shop, which sells the handmade works of 60 local artists and artisans working in pottery, jewelry, visual art, woodwork, textile arts, books and music, from the Montgomery Marketplace to Huntington last fall. The store has quickly become a local draw, not only for the wide array of gifts and cards for sale in the shop, but for homemade pastry and cookies by Montgomery baker Sweets by Jeannie.

The Gray Catbird Gift Shop is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3-7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays; and 2-6 p.m. Sundays. Upcoming events and monthly featured artists may be found by searching Facebook.com for “Gray Catbird Gift Shop & Pottery Studio.”