A World of Pots

Potter Bill Gossman spent most of the 1980s in Denmark and Africa before returning to Minnesota and building his wood-fired kiln on the Crow River in New London, about 100 miles west of Minneapolis. In Swaziland, he and a Canadian potter had set up a pottery workshop using raw materials from the countryside: porcelain clay from an abandoned mine, a farm chalk that worked as a glaze, wood from a nearby sawmill. After winning awards in Danish and Scandinavian events in the late 1980s, the St. Paul native returned to Minnesota and worked as a production potter, launching his own business. He produces unadorned vases, pitchers, covered jars, bowls and other functional items priced between $15 and $500. "Simplicity is something I strive for in my work and my lifestyle," Gossman said. "There are no frills." Bill Gossman's website can be found at http://www.gossmanpottery.com/index.htm