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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
All Hands: Judith Enright works with clay to make a vase at her Black Leopard Clayware studio in Willow Glen.
Pottery studio celebrates two years of business in area
By Amy Jenkins
Driving through the residential neighborhood on Radio Avenue in Willow Glen, a yellow two-story colonial farmhouse stands out from the rest.
It looks like a regular house with a beautifully manicured lawn and a tile walkway, but upon closer inspection one will find a full-blown pottery studio in the backyard.
Judith and Jim Enright moved into the home two years ago from a condominium in Willow Glen. Judith, a potter since 1994, liked the house because the garage had the potential to become her studio, she says. She started getting into clay when she made tiles for the patio of the condominium, and she liked the experience so much she made tiles for the front steps of her new home, she says.
In February 2000 Judith left a legal secretary job she'd had for 15 years to turn her part-time pottery hobby into a full-time business.
"It was a great firm with great people," Judith, 48, says. "But I saw the years slip away. Like lots of women, when I turned 40 I dreaded the aging process. I wanted to embrace becoming older, and with pottery I feel younger and stronger."
So Judith started Black Leopard Clayware in order to pursue her dreams and to have an outlet to sell her work, make custom orders and teach classes to the public. The idea of teaching came to her while she was waiting for the results of a CAT scan that found a lesion on her lungs. Fortunately it was not cancer but the scare shifted her philosophy about life and allowed her to "discover a love of teaching."
Currently she has six students. Four of the students who have prior pottery experience take advantage of the 10-week, 20-hour course, while the other two students have never worked with clay and take a weekend intensive workshop together, Judith says.
What sets the studio apart from the rest is one-on-one, personal instruction and customized classes for each individual, Judith says. She prefers individual instruction over group lessons because she doesn't have to divide her attention among students. Also, the small size of the studio lends itself to personal teaching, she says.
"I had a hard time learning in group lessons I have taken because the instructor's attention was all over the place," she says.
With two fair-sized electric kilns, an electric wheel, coils and slabs, the students work on a wide range of projects. Right now most are working on bowls and lidded vessels like teapots. Several of the students have "caught the bug," bought their own wheels and make some of the work at home. They come to the studio to fire their work, get Judith's advice, socialize and gain a sense of camaraderie, Judith says.
She is proud of her students and boasts that one woman has progressed so much in four months, she went from barely being able to make a small bowl to working with 8 pounds of clay, Judith says.
Aside from teaching, Judith is busy with her own projects. She says her favorite things to make are clocks and tiles. Right now she is in the process of making a 3-foot birdbath for her backyard, where the bath is made using the wheel, and she made the middle structure by rolling out the clay on the slab. In order to appreciate her work, she decorates her house with many of the brightly colored clocks, bowls and teapots she has made.
One of her specialties that is also displayed in her house are tiles. But these are not ordinary tiles. She likes to make the tile three dimensional and "push the envelope with flat surfaces," she says. One technique she uses to give dimension to her work is applying objects onto the flat tile, such as doors with swinging hinges.
On Feb. 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. children from the San Jose Participatory Nursery will make tiles at the studio for their school. For more information about Black Leopard Clayware, or to have a studio tour on those days, call 408.448.4597, visit www.bleopard.com, or email bleopard@pacbell.net.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
