A potter since 1975, Winthrop Byers throws, trims, glazes, and fires each piece at his studio in Rock Springs, Wisconsin. Winthrop studied pottery at Cornell University while getting a degree in labor economics, but is mostly self-taught. 

Statement

        Using a potter’s wheel I throw simple forms. With ribs I remove throwing lines from functional surfaces but leave them elsewhere as evidence of the process and my hands. After drying my pieces to leather hard I turn them on a potters wheel (just as a wood turner uses a lathe) trying to create a sense of grace, balance, and rightness of weight. I finish drying my pieces, bisque fire them, and then spray multiple layers of matte and shiny glazes and wood ash. Finally, I fire them to about 2400º F in a reducing atmosphere. In my glazing I try to create timeless surfaces like lichen on granite--not flat color. Although many people buy my work to put on a shelf or wall, I am heartened by those customers who come back to tell me that they use my pieces regularly for serving food.

Publications

Surface Design for Ceramics, Maureen Mills
500 Plates and Chargers, Linda Arbuckle
Making Marks:  Discovering the Ceramic Surface, Robin Hopper
500 Bowls, Suzanne J. E. Tourtilott
Ceramic Spectrum, Robin Hopper
Wheel Thrown Ceramics, Don Davis
The Ceramic Design Book, Val Cushing
The Best of Pottery: Volume 2, Angela Fina and Christopher Gustin
 

Exhibitions

Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA
At and After the Factory:  Arts/Industry, ARTspace of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Kohler, WI
Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, DC
Mud: Handmade in the Midwest, Racine Art Museum, Racine,WI
Elevating Clay:  From Wheel to Wall, Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, WI
American Craft Exposition, Evanston, IL, Chicago Botanic Garden
Works in Clay:  The Paoli Family, The South Dakota Art Museum
Paoli Family Show, NCECA, Milwaukee, WI
Winthrop Byers:  Yankee Potter, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI
Earth Origins, Gallery 110 North, Plymouth, WI
Monarch Clay National, Birmingham, AL
Masterworks, Artisans Gallery, Paoli, WI
Functional Ceramics, Wayne Center for the Arts, Wooster, OH
Clay: Everyday Plus Sunday, An Exhibition of Functional Ceramics, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
The Studio Potter, Wustum Museum, Racine, WI