Unique New York… Stoneware
While humans have been making pottery since beginning to roam the earth…and have been making stoneware for about the last 4,000 years…on rare occasion, the craft is performed with such beauty and excellence and iconic reference that it is elevated to high art.
…Will Reardon’s stoneware is all that! The shapes are elegant. The red, green, and blue hues are rich. The fine craftsmanship is evident. And each piece seems to embody a combination of historic and worldly influences. While the practical items like the mugs are meant to be used - and even thrown in the dishwasher, there’s no mistaking that Will Reardon’s work is worthy of any art collector’s attention.
It’s called New York Stoneware…
and it’s based in Bedford!
“Fortuitously, at about the same time we were moving into our house on Guard Hill late last Summer, Lyn’s childhood friend from grade school at Brearley in Manhattan, Brett Cameron, who co-owns La Maison Fête, mentioned that the retail store right next to hers, on Court Street in Bedford, was available…and we opened New York Stoneware in November!” Will explains.
“Being in Bedford, and being able to own and operate a retail store right here in town, is actually beyond my best dreams! Our kids, Lola and Jack, are both really happy at Rippowam Cisqua, and having the store, and having my work to offer, has helped us to feel more established and less like newcomers in this great community. And professionally, while I’ve been selling my stoneware online and through galleries and wholesalers across the country for over a decade, it feels more personal and more immediate and somehow more gratifying to meet the customers, and to connect with the people buying my work…and I feel like I’m finally living the life of an artist! I love having the space to show series of my work, and seeing people’s reaction to my work when I’m in the store is rewarding!” Will proclaims.
“We’re both New York City kids,” Lyn says, “and for many years I ran my own womenswear business, Lyn Devon, based on 66th Street in Manhattan. But trading-in that life for our new country life in Bedford was the right thing to do for our kids…and for Will…and for me. And our first year here has been more than I could have ever imagined! I walk to the shop to work every day! It all feels right, and I feel so lucky! I’ve always run the business side of New York Stoneware, and now I manage the store and the retail operation as well. And our kids like to come by the shop after school to help out, and sometimes even bring friends by. It’s a family business through and through, and that’s a good feeling!”
“Funny thing is,” Will begins to describe his artistic journey, “…until our new reality in Bedford came about, I couldn’t quite visualize what being an artist looked like, and in the alternative I’ve devoted a lot of time to other interests, including music, woodworking, printmaking, and architecture. My dad fancied me becoming a portrait painter, and used to take me around the City to museums and galleries and art auctions, so I gained an appreciation for art at an early age. And I went to a private all-boys elementary school called St. Davids, which was a culturally nurturing school with a liberal arts bent. In 5th grade at St Davids, a fabulously motivated and smart woman, named Mary Minor, first taught me how to work with clay, and was very encouraging, and first made me feel at home as an artist.
…But I was mostly into music. And Mary Minor was also my first guitar teacher. I played in every band I could in high school, and my last-minute decision to go to the Art Institute of Chicago, instead of Boulder, was based more on where my girlfriend at the time was going than on any particular interest in applied art. I started-out thinking ‘maybe architecture’, but that got tedious, quickly. I kept asking, ‘when do we learn about making buildings’?
…And then I took an elective in ceramics…and got the bug! All of a sudden, it just clicked! I had some great teachers, and I really liked how making ceramics is so craft and material based, and honest and straight-forward, and completely satisfying! I began to study art, and learned as much about putting conceptual meaning into things as about the how-to’s of making applied art. A teacher named Charlie Jahn taught me a ton about the history of craftsmanship and fine ceramic makers. I became focused on the idea of communicating through art. It gave art more weight for me. …I graduated with a degree in Ceramics, and returned to New York in 2008.”
“Back in the City, I met Lyn, and we were married in 2013,” Will continues. “For our wedding, I made all of the wedding cake plates and bud vases, stamped with our initials, for every guest. While I’d gotten back into the music business working in recording studios and working for the great guitarist Jim Campilongo, I wasn’t performing, and I focused more and more on making fine stoneware. I studied art pottery and the studio pottery movement, and became engrossed in the work and teachings of Bernard Leach and his Japanese friend Hamada Shoji, who was a major factor in the renewed interest in ceramic crafts in the mid-20th Century. With those models, I’ve tried to develop my own design language and style, make my work my own, and add my own pieces to the broader conversation.”
Will’s claybody is made with a unique red stoneware clay baked in a two-step 48-hour bisque firing and cooling process, and then fired again to oxidize a glaze at an extreme heat called Cone ^6 or 2168 Fahrenheit. Will has developed unique glaze recipes that combine mixes of clays, minerals and oxides, yielding a glassy finish with an almost translucent quality. While the pieces are remarkably light for stoneware, and comfortable in the hand, Will’s stoneware is quite durable, and can go in the oven - a real ‘melting pot’- and in the dishwasher.
“I’d describe my work as both traditional and contemporary, clean and sophisticated, and focused on form and line,” Will says. “I try to both accentuate and simplify elements of traditional design, and I take a lot from architectural principles in terms of proportion and weight. I’m incorporating Japanese, Greek, Scandinavian, English, and American - even specifically New York-based, influences. For me to say my work is refined sounds pretentious, but I’m working hard at producing an elegant homage to traditional pottery from around the world.”
“To celebrate Bedford, and to reflect how happy we are to be here, I’ve etched an image of the famous 500 year old Bedford Oak onto a series of blue and amber stoneware. For me, it evokes an American tradition. I hope my work becomes seen as a part of the fiber of the community,” Will aspires. “We have already worked on collaborations with three amazing local shops. We’ve created candles with La Maison Fete, custom pitchers with Ohho - marked with their new beautiful floral logo, and our bud vases decorate the tables at LMNOP! And now that I’m becoming comfortable with the idea that I really am an artist, I’m also getting back to spending more time playing music for pure pleasure! We’re all big music freaks in our house. Lola is blaring Taylor Swift on vinyl on the stereo, and we listen to everything from Zappa to Sly to all sorts of ‘Roots’ inspired music. I even run a Podcast called the Fretboard Journal. My son, Jack, who’s 8, plays guitar, and just did a deep dive into Elton John and Michael Jackson. He’s really creative, verbal, funny and loving. And my daughter, Lola, who’s 10, sings freely at the piano and is a dancer. They’re blossoming in the Bedford environment! I hope they feel as nurtured as I did…it’s wonderful to be supported as a kid!”
