Potter to the Stars and US Presidents - Wes Muckey

From high school art class to the White House and beyond, Master Potter Wes Muckey's 40-year journey crafting exceptional ceramic art has made him one of America's premier traditional craftsmen. As founder of Nolde Forest Pottery, Wes creates distinctive pieces that have found homes in presidential libraries, museums, and celebrity collections worldwide.

The spark that ignited Wes's passion came in 1985 when his high school art teacher introduced him to clay. Unlike other art forms, pottery's practicality captivated him - "You can eat off it," he explains, highlighting the unique intersection of function and artistry that defines his work. After apprenticing at Breininger Pottery, where he developed his decorative techniques, Wes eventually established his own studio to pursue his distinctive vision.

Working primarily with specialized red earthenware clay - a carefully formulated mixture of six components delivered in hundred-pound boxes - Wes creates traditional pieces using techniques like scraffito and slip trailing. Among his most compelling creations are face jugs, sculptural vessels with exaggerated human features that trace their lineage to Southern slave potters from the 1800s who made them for ritualistic purposes. These distinctive pieces have become collector's items, with some enthusiasts amassing hundreds of his creations.

The prestigious reach of Nolde Forest Pottery extends from the White House Foundation, which has commissioned work for six presidential administrations, to museums like the Zurich Museum in Switzerland and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Perhaps most surprising is his roster of celebrity clients - Wes has created custom pieces for rock legends like Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N' Roses, and Rob Zombie, as well as actor William H. Macy, who personally visited his studio.

Whether crafting commemorative plates for presidential libraries or teaching pottery classes in his studio where visitors can decorate their own pieces, Wes remains driven by an unwavering artistic passion. "You don't retire from being an artist," he insists, embodying the timeless connection between craftsman and clay. Explore Wes's remarkable work at NoldeForestPottery.com or schedule a studio visit to witness firsthand how this master potter transforms earth into enduring legacy.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:31

All right. Here we go From real estate, the market as a whole, which then sometimes will affect the temperature Right, the real life. We all learn in different ways. If you think about it, wayne Dyer might not attract everybody, and everything in between.

Speaker 2 0:49

The mission was really to help people just to reach their full potential.

Speaker 1 0:52

The.

Speaker 2 0:53

Brad Wiseman Show, and now your host.

Speaker 1 0:56

Brad Wiseman. All right, we are back. Thanks for joining us every Thursday. We really appreciate it. 7 pm there is a new show every Thursday at 7 pm, right Hugo.

Speaker 2 1:08

That's right, that's right. Yeah, that's righty.

Speaker 1 1:10

And that's because Hugo makes me come in here and do this every Thursday at 7 pm. But no, we have a guest that I've been talking to for a while. I've known him forever. I mean, I used to do all kinds of fun things as kids with this guy. We would go to different dance clubs, we would be drinking together, we'd be partying together, all these things. And I've been talking to him for a while about you got to come on the show, got to come on the show and we finally got the date together. And we have Wes Mucky here from Nolte Forest, pottery. How you doing, buddy, really good.

Speaker 2 1:41

Really good. Good to see you too.

Speaker 1 1:43

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I was going to really get into depth about the stuff we did. It's probably not a good idea.

Speaker 2 1:49

You know, fortunately Incriminating. Yeah, we didn't have cell phones.

Speaker 1 1:51

That was a good thing, god oh my god, remember the car that the shit used to fall down. The top of the car would fall down oh yeah, I had like 50 rock and roll yeah because the top of the car would come down, he'd be sitting in his car and the material was hitting your head, so he would use uh, rock and roll like buttons, pins, to keep it up yeah, yeah, the 71 cutlass supreme, yes, yes it was a classic. I love that the gas line fell out at your house.

Speaker 2 2:17

The gas line fell out and that was the end of the car. Oh my God, I kind of remember that it was parked outside your house, I do remember that. That's where it died. It died in your house, Wow unbelievable.

Speaker 1 2:29

Well, at least the car died and nobody Holy mackerel, all right, so no. So you have this pottery company called Nolde Forest Pottery. You've been making pottery for 40 years, right, 40 years Unbelievable. So you know the first question I had. You have a timeline that you gave me and the thing that I was just blown away with. Your first pottery experience was in 1985 with the art teacher.

Speaker 2 2:53

Yeah, mr Cazala, mr Cazala.

Speaker 1 2:56

Yeah, connor Weiser. Okay, so did you go? Wow, I'm making clay and I'm like this is it? This is what I want to do the rest of my life.

Speaker 2 3:03

Well, I was oil painting at the time, oh. And I finished all my projects and I always watched him make pottery, yeah. And then I said, hey, can I do that too? Yeah, and so he got me started and so he made pottery in the class. I didn't even know that he made like a birth plates, wedding plates.

Speaker 1 3:19

Get out of here.

Speaker 2 3:19

He made stained glass.

Pottery beginnings with Mr. Cazala

Speaker 1 3:21

He was he was quite an artist, yeah, yeah, very, very artistic. So that's so. But you? So now you go and you start doing clay. You're working with the clay, just working with it. Yeah, hand molding it, yeah.

Speaker 2 3:32

Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 3:33

Because they didn't have wheels there. Yeah, right, yeah, and did you?

Speaker 2 3:38

feel something like ah, this is kind of fun. Yeah, I liked that you could use the finished product.

Speaker 1 3:44

Oh, interesting.

Speaker 2 3:45

You can use it. Yeah, it's actually for real. Yeah, you can eat off it. I mean what?

Speaker 1 3:52

other artwork can you do that with Not many Cause. If you do that with an oil painting, it could really be a mess.

Speaker 2 3:57

Plus, people get pissed because if they have a really nice painting, you're eating like pizza off of it, Not, not so good, Not so good.

Speaker 1 4:04

So right away, let's just you have some pottery here for to show. Why don't we just show this right away, Since people can see it on the table? If you're watching the show, just show what you have here.

Speaker 2 4:15

Okay, so these are like the traditional pieces, okay Made out of redware, okay Wheel thrown the techniques, the decorating is called scraffito and slip trailing, two put together.

Speaker 1 4:29

Okay, okay. So you made this product, you made this thing right here, so you actually threw it on the wheel and you painted it and everything, everything, and then you put it in the kiln. From the ground up From the ground up and the red clay is something different, because a lot of times we're used to working with like I think if you go to like a little pottery shop to make something, it's usually not red clay, I don't think.

Speaker 2 4:51

Probably not Is.

Speaker 1 4:51

Probably not. Is it the gray stuff? It's like gray.

Speaker 2 4:53

That's partially because this is staining. Your clothes become pink. Okay, but is it natural? It's not like the red clay you see in the yard People say oh, that's in my yard. Right, this is mixed. There's a lot of chemistry involved. Okay, so there's six different things in this clay and it's mixed in Indiana.

Speaker 1 5:13

For me there's six different things, like different dirt, that's what I'm thinking. Different chemicals, there is clay.

Speaker 2 5:17

There is clay, yeah, and there's other things added to it. Get out. So you know how you want it to be, yeah, and how much moisture I want in it when it's delivered to. That's crazy, right.

Speaker 1 5:29

It is cool, see now, that is something I've known you forever, never asked that question, never knew. I'm thinking there's some clay place in the ground that they're cutting up big squares, because I do remember seeing you get it delivered, like how big it is. It's big, yeah, a hundred pound boxes.

Speaker 2 5:46

Yeah, like it's a lot yeah.

Speaker 1 5:48

And I just thought that that just came out of the ground.

Speaker 2 5:50

No, some of it does Like their initial part of it. Yeah, no way. Which is easier to work with gray or the red?

Face jugs and traditional pottery explained

Speaker 1 5:58

probably for me, the red, the red because you've been at it so long. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, very cool, but you said that you use other clays besides the rest?

Speaker 2 6:05

yes, I use what? So this is called red earthenware. Okay, so I make these, these vessels, a lot of times out of white earthenware. Oh, is that? Is that? So that's what it is on the bottom. Yeah, so I can use these intricate glazes on top and get really great bright colors that you can't always get with this, because you're starting with red in the background.

Speaker 1 6:24

Is that? Why got it?

Speaker 2 6:25

so it's like a clean slate, clean slate, perfectly white when it's fired.

Speaker 1 6:29

Yeah, so okay, so these are very different very different if you're looking at this on YouTube or whatever, this is great. But if you're in your car listening to the podcast, he's got a very like what you would normally call like a vase type thing. And then he's got this face jug, jug, face, face, jug, face, jug, face jug. There we go, we'll go with face jug. Jug face face, jug whatever, but those are very different. They are. This is more like your typical stuff when did that come from?

Speaker 2 6:58

So all this stuff. I'm also a history geek, right I?

Speaker 1 7:02

know that so.

Speaker 2 7:02

I studied so the vase. Those came from European designs.

Speaker 1 7:07

Okay.

Speaker 2 7:07

European traditions, gotcha. So these face jugs are. This is a really great story about these. Yeah, so around 1800s there were slave potters in the South that were making these. Okay, and for them it was ritualistic. Yeah, and there's a lot of mystery to them. Yeah, they did them for burials. They put them on your porch when you were sick. It kind of has that kind of look to it. It's what it is Exactly. It's supposed to scare things away. It kind of has that kind of look to it. It's what it is exactly. It's supposed to scare things away. Sure, yeah, and as they say, it scared the children from the moonshine inside.

Speaker 1 7:39

Well, yeah, I'm scared of it every time I see one.

Speaker 2 7:42

They're a little scary. Oh yeah, they're a little scary yeah.

Speaker 1 7:44

I have one now. Yeah, I know you do. Yeah, he's kind of happy.

Speaker 2 7:52

He's got big teeth.

Speaker 1 7:54

I like that. He's going to need some dental work. They're just scary looking, but they're happy, but they're happy.

Speaker 2 7:59

So that's where that came from. That's where it came from. I mean, I have, I have friends and customers. I call a lot of my customers friends. Yeah, of course, I mean they may have up to 300 of these, and do they drink out of them?

Speaker 1 8:10

No, they just display them all over the house, display them everywhere. Yeah, very cool and we'll get into some of the people that have your pottery.

Speaker 2 8:16

Yeah, that's really interesting.

Speaker 1 8:18

So that jug. Did somebody ask you to make that first or did you just?

Speaker 2 8:23

come up with it. Well, I don't know. If you remember, my grandmother was Southern. Okay, so I'm always like, okay, so look at your roots when?

Speaker 1 8:29

do your roots come from.

Speaker 2 8:30

Yeah, you know where are they, and my grandmother was Southern and I look into Southern art and these are everywhere, like in books. Yeah, books, and I'm like you know what I'm going to get into this, really. You know, I made my first one at Brininger's and he did not like it and he said please take that out of here and never make one again here. Oh, maybe he was like a little scared of it. He may have been.

Speaker 1 8:51

Oh, maybe he thought it was kind of worshiping or something.

Speaker 2 8:54

Yeah, because he believed in a lot of different hexes and things.

Speaker 1 8:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Well, now that you brought up Reininger, so that is the first studio you basically or whatever you want to call it that you worked in so you go from Mr Gazzala, who was the art teacher, from there you started doing Reininger pottery, which was very famous, which was very famous. Yeah, absolutely it was. I mean, you know at that time and I think until this day I still see some of his stuff oh, yeah, and so you started working there. Now, when you started doing his pottery, yes, were you throwing it or were you doing the artwork?

Speaker 2 9:26

Just the artwork, that's what I thought, Because that's where I met Greg who ended up being my business partner in the future. And he was like, like the master guy, he was the only guy. Yeah, he was the master wheel guy and I'm actually my teacher. A lot of people are like, oh, you apprenticed under Lester.

Speaker 1 9:42

I'm like I honestly didn't see him very often. I remember he taught school, yeah, and I remember that and I remember that was part of the the the. The issue sometimes is I remember you saying and hopefully you don't mind me sharing that, some of this stuff but I remember you saying that you know you would be at these shows and somebody that got all the credit wasn't even there or or you know, didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 9:58

Right, right, right, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 10:00

Yeah. So it kind of as an artist, You're pouring your heart and soul out into something. You at least want the credit that I did it. Absolutely yeah, Not not just the guy's name on it, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:10

And that's what. That's what ended up starting a business, not to jump so far ahead, but no, that's, that's right that was like I couldn't take that anymore. Well, here we are making these pieces with. He has nothing to do with yeah, it was even our ideas. Now, yeah, right, and that's where and I remember that and I had a lot of customers, really good customers, said if you do this on your own, I'd rather buy it from you. Oh wow.

Speaker 1 10:33

And we're like hmm.

Speaker 2 10:34

That's interesting, right. So the name doesn't mean as much as I thought you know, like the Jirash Gene thing. That's exactly what I was thinking that.

Speaker 1 10:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:44

I still see those people today.

Speaker 1 10:46

That's really cool. That's really cool. So so you go from, from, then you're at, you're at at Nolte yeah, not at Nolte Fires, you're at Bridinger's. Then you decide you know what, enough, this is enough, yeah, and we need to do something else. Right, and you broke away.

Speaker 2 11:09

Yeah, yeah, I just wasn't in the. You know, I was in college and I was trying to figure out my way.

Speaker 1 11:15

Yeah, yeah. Anybody tell you you're crazy for leaving.

Speaker 2 11:18

No, no, no, I don't think no.

Presidential and museum collections

Speaker 1 11:20

I remember being very supportive. Yeah, oh yeah, cause we hung out a lot at those times, and I remember being very supportive, right yeah, so now your stuff, your pottery, norley Forest. You have another piece here that I wanted to just talk about, which is the what's this called Knob Creek?

Speaker 2 11:54

Yeah, knob Creek bottle. So I was lucky enough to become friends with Fred Ngo, who's the seventh generation owner of Jim Beam. It's amazing. So this is the Knob Creek bottle, so Jim Beam. It's amazing, so this is the Knob Creek bottle. So I make these for him and he puts special things in them. You're kidding me. What is he biting? What's?

Speaker 1 12:10

that what is he biting? It's a cigar. It's a cigar.

Speaker 2 12:12

Yeah, oh, it's a cigar, it's a cigar yeah, you were worried.

Speaker 1 12:15

He's like is that a big fatty? What is that? What is that? So the owner of Jim Beam, who owns Knob Creek, that's your commission to make those for him Right.

Speaker 2 12:26

And I met him through a mutual friend of ours, George Reppert. Oh, George.

Speaker 1 12:30

George is a great guy. Somebody that knows alcohol? He sure does. What's he called the chemist, social chemist, social chemist. Yes, yeah, that came back.

Speaker 2 12:38

Well, didn't you play one of his parties? Yeah?

Speaker 1 12:40

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 12:41

Those people came from all over. Oh yeah, you know Philadelphia everywhere. He never knew who was going to be at his parties. It's so cool though right, but that's how I met Fred now.

Speaker 1 12:50

So they actually put the alcohol and stuff in those, or they put stuff in that when they get them.

Speaker 2 12:54

It's amazing. Cork it.

Speaker 1 12:55

Unbelievable. Yeah, it's really cool. So let's get into where this goes, then. Which which is amazing, is that you now have pieces at the Zurich museum in Switzerland. You have pieces at the Harrisburg state museum, philadelphia museum of art. Let's get into how you also have commissioned, been commissioned for the white house foundation. You have given pottery to the white house. For how many presents? Six, okay. So tell me who, who you have done work for and where do they have this?

Speaker 2 13:26

stuff okay. Um, it started with, uh, when hillary critton was first lady. Yep, and I did ornaments for her christmas tree, amazing in the blue room but how'd they find you from the white? House foundation I was greg and I kept entering this magazine called early american life where you're recognized as, like, the top craftsman in the united states, right, right, and they looked at that and said, hey, I wonder if we can get these people to make oh, you know, american craftsmen to do the tree yeah, and that's what happened, you know.

Speaker 2 13:53

And they even invited every craftsman that was involved to the white house. Weren't you there?

Speaker 1 13:56

I was there yeah, so you actually did it like a craft tree or they did like an american, american made tree 100, because there's a ton of trees in the White.

Speaker 2 14:04

House. Oh yeah, there's tons. I forget how many we went through the tour and there was-.

Speaker 1 14:08

Yeah, gazillions, mm-hmm, that is so cool, so yeah, so you're there. So you basically made Was it the egg? What did you make? No ornaments you made ornaments.

Speaker 2 14:20

So mine's like Washington crossing the Delaware on an ornament.

Speaker 1 14:24

Very cool. That's awesome. So you made them for all the friends. So you have one here Ford Carter, bush, sr Bush Jr, clinton and Obama.

Speaker 2 14:33

Yes, unbelievable. So the foundation kept contacting me like will you make an anniversary plate, will you make this, will you make that? So it became like their potter, that's really really cool.

Speaker 1 14:43

And the Jimmy Carter one was actually just put in his library permanently, and that to me is a big deal, because he just passed.

Speaker 2 14:50

So now his library is it stays there. It stays there. Yeah, they actually called to make sure, like the print was right, my name was spelled right. Wow, and I was. What an honor is. It's never going to probably move from there. No, it's there for whatever's. A nose usually stays there. Now, will you? Did you go see it? No, one day I will, yeah, you should sure.

Speaker 1 15:08

Oh, and a picture, like a picture of yourself, like in front of that pottery in the museum. Oh, it's a must how many people can say they have something in a presidential museum?

Speaker 2 15:15

I don't know, not too many. I guess it's crazy.

Speaker 1 15:17

No, not at all, it's unbelievable yeah, it's something to be said and that you're a part of history, big part of history, when you think about that. I hope so.

Speaker 2 15:24

Yeah. Yeah, it's not about living forever. It's what you leave behind. Yeah, it's your legacy.

Speaker 1 15:29

It's that thing so.

Speaker 2 15:30

I leave behind this pottery everywhere.

Speaker 1 15:32

All this dirt everywhere.

Speaker 2 15:33

It's all over the world, I mean my dad had put up a map and started putting pins in it. If you see that map, if you're over, sometime you'll be like japan and all over the place.

Speaker 1 15:51

Yeah, you said you're in. Uh, what is it? How many countries? I think you? You said that you're in, or whatever six, I think it's six countries, yeah, yeah, no antarctica, so no, no, yeah, stuff will freeze, it just cracks, all right. So, yeah, let's keep going. So nordic forest has been named the best, the one of the america's best traditional american crafts, by early american magazine, six years in a row. Yeah, that's unbelievable. It was yeah, and was that for a certain piece, or was that for?

Speaker 2 16:12

like all of your stuff. Every year you have to submit four pieces. Okay, and every four pieces kept getting accepted. Wow, it may have kept going. I don't want to sound like yeah, but we just quit entering Right. Right Got sick of winning.

Speaker 1 16:26

You want to just give somebody else a chance, like the Patriots or something. That's hilarious. No, but that's something to be said that's amazing. I'm sure you have copies of all the magazines for that. Yeah, that's really cool. And you talked about the face jugs. They're at the Lehigh University, the Zoller.

Speaker 2 16:42

Arts Center. They were. It was an exhibit, I did there Okay. And what was neat about that is those ones, I told you, from the 1800s. They were in the same exhibit as mine, which is like, oh, wow, like meant the world to me. Wow, you mean the original, the original from the 1800s, 1850s. We still have these things. Yeah, I have a poster, so my, my jugs are in. Oh my god. So I'm there with like the what started it all neat. And those, those potters came from the congo.

Speaker 1 17:10

Wow, now, do you keep? Do you have any original pieces of anything? I mean, it's probably very expensive to have it, but like, do you have any? Like old pieces that you?

Speaker 2 17:19

that you have of your own. Yeah, I have like civil war era pieces. Oh, you do, yeah, oh, okay, very cool.

Celebrity encounters and custom work

Speaker 1 17:25

Now let's get into the. This is going to be cool. This is going to blow you away here. All right, you're going to be blown away. So you have been commissioned by a lot of people that have found your work. I mean, I'm just going to name some of them, and there's a story that I want you to tell about one of them Billy Idol, brett Michaels, guns N' Roses, rob Zombie I saw pictures of that. That's pretty cool, but you and most of these that I'm talking about, you have pictures with them with your pottery.

Speaker 2 18:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always make a deal, I deliver the piece smart.

Speaker 1 18:06

I like that.

Speaker 2 18:06

Very smart, very smart. You got to get a concert out of it.

Speaker 1 18:10

Yeah, I like that. That's a good one. That's a good one, so, yeah. So the one that really hit me, though, is you actually had one of these celebrities visit your pottery. Sure, pottery, I was going to call it Pottery Barn because it is a barn. Easy, watch it. Watch it, I'll get sued. Watch it. We have nothing to do with Pottery sponsor. We're in good shape, but no. So this person actually visited. Tell me the story about William H Macy.

Speaker 2 18:40

So my business partner, Greg, was a huge fan of his.

Speaker 1 18:45

I got to admit I didn't know much about him. Yeah right, a whole lot.

Speaker 2 18:47

And that was about the time when Shameless the show was like through the roof.

Speaker 2 18:51

Oh my gosh, greg would come into work and talk about shameless all the time. I said what is this shame? Yeah, right, I never got to see it. So we get a phone call and and the gentleman on the other line is like are you open today? I said yes. Do you have anybody else there today? I said no. By the way, it's just my business partner. I were working. Yeah, um, so he goes. I'd like to bring by the, the actor william h, and I thought still didn't ring a bell. I was in the middle of working.

Speaker 2 19:18

I hate to say so I got off the phone and Greg and I played a lot of jokes on each other. Oh, no, so I said hey, this actor, william H Macy's coming and he's like that's a good one. Yeah, that's really funny, wes really funny. Oh my God, that's good. So he shows up, I meet him downstairs in the studio and he's the nicest guy in the world and I said you've got to do me a favor, you've got to run upstairs and open the door and introduce yourself to Greg and he almost fell back off his wheel. He was.

Speaker 1 19:45

Oh yeah, I mean, how many times do you have a star? I mean I consider him, he's pretty, he's A-list.

Speaker 2 19:55

I mean.

Speaker 1 19:55

I see, pretty, he's a list. I mean yeah, yeah, I, I see I remember from back in when he was in fargo, which was one of the most was a morbid movie but funny. When I saw him then you're like, okay, yeah it's just the nicest guy in the world and he wanted to know the process like I love sharing that. Yeah, yeah I love.

Speaker 2 20:07

And here he's he does woodworking oh no way. So he has a process yeah, right, but real nice, super nice. But who would have thought? And then we went to take. Like he goes, you want to take some photos together and he's like, oh, we got to get the lighting right, we got to we got to do the angle right and that is hilarious. He was there for a while and it was funny, because my kids are walking by and they're like they had no idea.

Speaker 2 20:39

No idea to now is like, yeah, growing up seeing deaf leopard when they were little, yeah, I remember. And then they'll see like the age one class with all of them. Hey, those are those guys, dad, I'll go. What guys he goes, the guys we went to see at that, yeah, that's them, yeah, and they're like wow, they're pretty big yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty big a little bit.

Speaker 1 20:47

That is so amazing, didn't? Didn't he um? Wasn't he buying pottery? Or his brother was buying pottery?

Speaker 2 20:52

brother. Right, he was at his brother's and saw our pottery all over the house, right, right, and he said, oh, I got him and his brother I think lives in leicester or something like that. Yeah, an effort.

Speaker 1 21:01

Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, so who was? Who was the? The was the most like. It floored you when you met them because you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm meeting this person well, probably david roth I going to say it was always my favorite.

Speaker 2 21:15

You never thought you'd meet those people you know, yeah, but you know the the. The one of the kindest was Ozzy Osbourne. I got to sit on a couch with him. Get out of here, and just the kindest man like nothing, like the stories you hear.

Speaker 1 21:27

Yeah, I can believe that, not at all that's so weird, right, yeah, and I remember when you met David Lee Roth, I remember, and I thought you really didn't. You were not as happy with him as you thought you were the first time. No, first time, that's right.

Speaker 2 21:39

First time. No, it was kind of like standoffish a little bit Standoffish yeah. I think he was trying to be undercover and I caught him.

Speaker 1 21:45

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 21:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 21:55

Because, but in the future I met him again with his sister and and it was really really kind. Yeah, so if somebody wants to do their own custom piece, can they do that? Come into you and say hey, I want to, I want to do something custom, whatever.

Speaker 2 22:03

Sometimes it seems like I'm 75% custom and the rest is made for the shows I do.

Speaker 1 22:08

Wow.

Speaker 2 22:08

Yeah, custom work is.

Speaker 1 22:10

Yeah, what's the hardest work that you do? Which ones are the hardest? Actually probably the face jugs, the jugs, because it looks like. Let me just see that a second. If you can see these jugs and hopefully, oh, it's heavy, it's heavier than what.

Speaker 2 22:24

I thought it would be. You got to remember, all the features are solid. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 22:27

So this thing is just. I mean you look at this thing and there's a lot of detail in it. I mean it's got like a snake on across the head. It's smoking a cigar. There's a lot of detail in this. So I can see that it takes so long and you've got to make this. You have to make the handle and put that on.

Speaker 2 22:42

Yeah you've got to make the jug, the handle and then all the features Unbelievable and they stay in the back for about a week or two because you don't want the features to crack oh, and then when do you? Paint it. Um, you paint it when it's when it's dry and fired. Okay, okay, yeah, amazing, yeah, so that's probably most difficult and I do some giant big stuff, yeah, yeah and I've seen some of those.

Speaker 1 23:04

I've seen some of those. It's pretty amazing. So let me see here that was um. Out of the people that you've met, who was the most excited, you think, to get your pottery.

Speaker 2 23:15

Like there was like, oh my gosh, I can't wait, or I'm excited to get it um, I think I think one of the most exciting guys that really loves this stuff is richie katson. Richie kott, I love richie. Yeah, he's a local guy but he's local. Yeah, it was, but, um, and we reconnected because he bought some stuff at the ready museum and then emailed me, yeah, and at the time I think he had a studio and he wanted some more heads for the studio.

Speaker 2 23:38

Oh, that's amazing, and he has them in his house, like in special cases, and so I keep hitting this thing you're not.

Speaker 1 23:44

You're not the first person. You know. What's worse is when women come in with jewelry on right, right you go and they're hitting the table with their jewelry and then sometimes I'm like I want to go. Ah no, it's all right, you're allowed to hit things here. Just don't hit me, don't hit the hose, yeah, but he's pretty excited about the whole art of it, yeah.

Speaker 2 24:00

That's awesome I mean he's mentioned my stuff when he was doing his own interviews places like Japanese Guitar Magazine, and there was pictures of my jugs in the magazine.

Business evolution and pottery classes

Speaker 1 24:10

That's awesome. That sounded really funny. I have to say there's a picture of your jugs in the magazine, this guy. He hasn't changed. I'm like I can't let that go. Your mom and dad watch the show? Yes, they do, and my kids are great, oh man. So where do you go? I mean, do you have? Is there anything that you haven't done yet with this business that you want to do? Is there, like um, is there amount of time that you think I can do this for until this time? Then I'm going to be done, or retirement or just do it.

Speaker 2 24:40

You're right.

Speaker 1 24:40

I get that question all the time I said I don't think you retire from this like you don't retire from being the artist yeah, you know, I agree, you know, I agree, and now I'm at this point in my life, you know like my business partner passed yeah and and then it left me like this is almost like this is really being an artist, cause I don't rely on anybody.

Speaker 2 24:59

I do everything from the top, from the bottom up.

Speaker 1 25:02

Did you think when he passed and that was on here when he passed um, was that like a major setback? I mean, obviously somebody passes away. It's a setback emotionally, it's a setback, but for the business and for you going oh my gosh, do I want to do this alone? Do I want to hire somebody else?

Speaker 2 25:17

Right, Um, I never thought about hiring anybody, and he did tell me before he passed he goes. Don't worry about a thing, you're going to be fine and I'm going. Yeah, how?

Speaker 1 25:26

you know how am I going to be fine, yeah.

Speaker 2 25:27

Yeah, but you know, it just seemed to happen, yeah, like it kind of like I stepped into where I was supposed to be and I never looked back and in business didn't change a whole lot.

Speaker 1 25:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:38

I mean products did, yeah, but the amount of business didn't change, yeah.

Speaker 1 25:43

Yeah, and you're throwing your own clay. I mean, you're doing it yourself, I mean so, and really the only thing I can think is production wise. Like are you? Are you you're not able to make as fast? I?

Speaker 2 25:55

can't keep up. But that's the whole thing as I when, I worked at Brian Ingers. That's what that was. Yeah, I always say that was like. That was like greasing and getting ready. What is that? Keith Richards call it the whiskey finger. Yep, when you play bars, yeah, exactly. So plates a day there sometimes. So it's more of a production and so I thought no more of that. Yeah, so these like the faces you're gonna never gonna get too alike.

Speaker 2 26:20

Yeah, um, maybe a vase will be the same shape and everything, but the design will always be different. Because I do that, I'd free hand the designs and that's cool yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 26:27

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so, looking back, you're so glad that you did not finish college. Yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 26:34

it's funny to say Not that I don't want people to finish college.

Speaker 1 26:36

No, no, no, we're not promoting that, we're just saying but no, but I think it's just. But you had a love for something and you decided that this is what you wanted to do I mean because a lot of times people can go to whatever school, do whatever they're going to do, and they never find passion for something.

Speaker 2 26:52

That's the key and that's the key Passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion Passion.

Speaker 1 26:56

Passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion, passion Passion.

Speaker 2 27:10

Passion, have an advisor at a vernier college and he said, look, I explained to him what I was going to do and he kind of like, didn't discourage me because just do me a favor, take these two business courses oh, no way, and then you can go interesting.

Speaker 1 27:23

You know what? It's a great mentor yes, yeah, great mentor, yeah because he realized that if this is what you're going to do, you're going to need these right, right, and I'll never forget him.

Speaker 2 27:30

You know there's a lot of mentors through my life and he's one of them. Yeah, that's amazing, really cool.

Speaker 1 27:35

So there's one more thing I want to say that I think is really cool and this is not as as uh, not as big as some of these other stuff but you received the distinguished alumni hall of fame award from connor weiser high school and I think that was pretty special, yeah yeah, it was, it came. We're both from weiser yeah, we're both graduating from there.

Speaker 2 27:51

Yeah, yeah, it was that's cool, quite an honor. I mean it really was yeah, and somehow someone yeah I'm an issue and um. It's because I did always represent wiser. Even today I always, mr gonzalez, the reason I'm here doing this which is really cool.

Speaker 1 28:05

Which is really cool, just shows you that you know high school uh, school can do, can, can set up your passion for something. So don't take it for granted that you're going to find it somewhere else. It could be right there in front of you.

Speaker 2 28:16

It's amazing.

Speaker 1 28:17

Very cool. Well, thank you, go ahead. How do people find it? How do people like if I was a company, if I was somebody wanted to create something special. How do they find you? How do they? Oh, just go on.

Speaker 2 28:29

NolteForestPotterycom Potterycom. Yeah, you can reach me there, okay, or you go to Facebook Nolde Forest Pottery page. Everything that comes out of the kilns is put up immediately. Yeah, no, that's cool.

Speaker 1 28:41

Very cool. Put it up right away. The website's nice. It's real easy to navigate. He's got pictures. You have the gallery that's on there. You can navigate all the stuff on there off on New Holland Road. I mean you can visit the studio too, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 28:54

Yeah, it's by appointment, you can call. I started also giving classes. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I do classes. You can come decorate your own plate, you can bring the kids.

Speaker 1 29:02

Wait, I think I saw somebody doing that. Was there a bunch of girls drinking wine doing that?

Speaker 2 29:06

Yes, you're allowed to it's BYOB. We have some snacks. I gave you a tour of the studio. I get all my tools out somewhere from like 200 years ago. Oh, wow so you get to see all these. I make a couple things and then you go down and decorate your own plate. That's neat. Any age can do it. You want to bring the kids sometime? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really cool If they like that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 29:36

I think like, ooh, not so good, not so good. Well, thanks so much for coming in. Man, it's great to see you. I love seeing your success. I love the pottery. Uh, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 29:40

Really is amazing and just keep doing it, keep doing it. I plan on it. Thank you, I hope so.

Speaker 1 29:45

All right, that's awesome man. Thank you. All right, there we go. Wes Mucky, or Wesley V Mucky, is what we have in here. Nolte Forest Pottery Check him out. He's on Facebook. Instagram. Are you on Instagram or no? Yes, yeah, okay, there we go. Just making sure Instagram Facebook. He's got a great website you can go to If you want something custom. He can make that for you and just check out all the stuff he has. It's pretty amazing, all right.