We recently connected with Katie Rattigan and have shared our conversation below.
Katie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I essentially got into pottery by taking a risk. So, the town I grew up in has a strawberry festival every June which oftentimes coincides with the town’s celebration festival. Like a mini carnival/street fair hybrid. We’re talking a parade, a bouncy castle, live music, strawberry short cake *and* funnel cake, Artisans, games, puppets, raffles, the whole shmear.
I showed up at age 16 fully expecting the same’ol-same’ol. I’d get some strawberry short cake, check out the 2nd hand goods booth, try and sledgehammer the emblem off whatever car the fire department was letting people rage at this year, find family and or friends, listen to some music and call it a day, only this year something was different; this year there was a potter.
She was all set up with her wheel just throwing clay right on the side walk! I was *enthralled*. I had never seen this kind of artform before! I had so many questions and had to know more. And so I started to talk to the potter. It turns out she had recently acquired a space at our town’s local hub and was still setting everything up.
This was it, this was the moment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that jazz, so, I asked if she perhaps needed any help…and she said yes! Thus began my pottery education.
Katie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Katie Rattigan, and I’m a ceramic artist with Wild Thing Pottery. I started learning the art of ceraimcs at the age of 16 under the tutelage of a local potter, and continued to pursue Ceramics in highschool and in college, eventually graduating with a BA in Art and Archeology with concentration in the Studio Arts (specifically the Ceramic Arts). I launched Wild Thing Pottery in 2012, found a semi-local studio, and got to work. I got a job teaching handbuilding to Senior Citizens, left that studio, handbuilt peices at my kitchen table for a couple years, and finally established a home studio in 2018. COVID forced me to give up teaching seniors and establish my website. Currently, I teach handbuilding to middle schoolers. Currently, I teach handbuilding to middle schoolers at a Montessori school and vend at various events across the Maryland area.
Wild Thing Pottery is my way of making everyday practices fun again. Need to use fresh herbs in the recipe you’re making but want to save your thumb nails? I make an herb stripper that can help save your hands and cut down on prep time. Drinking some tea? I make heavily textured dragon scale mugs where the handle is the dragon’s tail. Missing nature but you’re stuck inside for some reason? I make a series of heavily textured vessels that resemble trees complete with bark/woodgrain texture, branches, and even mushrooms! Feeling like you need a little extra encouragement? I’ve got a batch of wall plaques that are hand stamped and hand colored with an encouraging saying to help get you through the day. Essentially, I make fun and functional, nature inspired whimsical pottery that seeks to bring joy.
I’m incredibly proud of the textures I’ve developed over the years. They’re especially useful if you’re a person who needs to be moving in order to listen. I also find tracing the carvings to be quite meditative which can be helpful if things are overwhelming.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The ability/option to change, and adapt (and also to fail). Being a creative, to me at least, means I get to improv. To try new things. To improve. Is there a specific handle shape I saw in an art history textbook and I want to know if it still holds up after all this time? Let’s do it! Do I know someone who’s said they would use more cups if they had a slightly tweaked design? Let’s brainstorm new shapes and go from there! The fact that I get the chance to innovate when I feel the need is delightfully freeing. And on that note: Sometime things blow up! You can try something new and it may not work. Pottery is a tricky business where you can do everything right, and pieces still crack or chip or literally explode, but you *always* learn something that will help you in future creating.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to unlearn all the preconceived notions we as a society have about rest. Rest is essential-full stop. Because is started throwing pottery so young, I ended up with some pretty bad habits in terms of body placement. This led to me developing tendonitis in both my wrists. Now, I have wrist braces and a warm-up cycle I do before I throw, and I’ve changed aspects of the way I throw, but the fact remains, if I don’t rest when I feel the need to, I will be forced to rest when I inevitably get injured. Rest is so SO important.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.wildthingpottery.com
- Instagram: Wildthingpottery
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063503625671&mibextid=ZbWKwL