INTRO: As Michiganders watch the foundation of their economy crack they might ask: what do we have left? Tourism, agriculture, forestry and mining are still viable industries. And another industry based on the earth too: POTTERY. Michigan Now’s Chris has been to a local Michigan company that’s as old as GM or Ford and still going strong.
TRX1: Lots of grand architecture lines East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. It includes an English cottage built 100 years ago for the Pewabic Pottery Company.
AX1: “You know it’s all arts and crafts. If you were any other tile place you wouldn’t get to do what we’re doing. You’d be at a machine all day and pushing things on a conveyer belt. So it’s more hands on. It’s more fulfilling when you have your hands in the mud all day.”
TRX2: Robert McCann-Moran started working here at 14. He’s now 20. He’s got clay in his pores and his veins. He’s worked in the retail store in the front, so warm and colorful it’s called the gallery. He’s worked in the education department where classes for the public are held. He’s used to giving tours.
AX2: “This is our mixer right here. This thing was put in in 1906. We mix about 2,300 pounds of dry material that all goes through this big vat right here, down this tube into the floor and then there’s another mixer that’s about the size of this room. That hold all our wet clay and that comes up through the filter process which is that area right here.”
TRX3: There are only 2 other places like this in the country. Most ceramic tile is stamped out perfectly by the tens of thousands in factories. Katie Marcotte says customers like Pewabic’s colors and imperfections.
AX3: “We’re still using a lot of historic molds. So we’re recreating tiles that were originally designed by Mary Chase Stratton. So that has a tremendous history locally in Detroit as well as around the country.”
TRX4: Mary Chase Stratton founded Pewabic Pottery. She fueled the arts and crafts movement. Look around Michigan for homes built during the golden age of architecture: the one that ended with the stock market crash of 1929. Look for the colored tiles set into bricks above doorways and around fireplaces. Myla Chaput is keeping this tradition alive.
AX4: “Well I take the clay and first I smooth the top of the clay to make sure we get a good impression of the design. Then I will place the clay in the mold and pound it in with my mallet. Then I thumb around the edges to press the clay inside the mold to make sure we get all the edges and corners. And then it will sit in the mold for 10 or 15 minutes. The plaster will start to absorb some the moisture from the clay. And clay just natural shrinks as it dries so then it will pop right out of the mold.”
TRX5: Myla has made 20,000 tiles in 3 years. That’s slow compared to what modern technology can do. The pneumatic press can move a LITTLE faster. And the clay dries quicker, though it still has the trademark imperfections. Once a tile is fired and glazed, it looks shiny and tasty like a lollipop. Robert’s churning out a map of the lower peninsula.
AX5: “That is enjoy the beauty and bounty of Michigan. And that’s one of our most popular tiles. Any time they’re on this machine they’re pretty popular.”
TRX6: Pewabic fills custom orders. They’ll make tiles for baptismal fountains in churches. Tiles for public monuments, tiles for Comerica Park and the New Terminal at Metro Airport.
AX6: “We’re using 100 year old processes, 100 year old materials and 100 year old equipment so it is like walking back in time to work here.”
TRX7: It feels like someone’s house, as if all the employees live, sleep and eat here together. Upstairs, amateurs take pottery classes and just hang out for fun.
AX7: “It’s a bowl. It’s just upside down.”
TRX8: Larry Swanson has been coming here for 30 years.
AX8: “If you’re too much of a perfectionist you can’t do anything. So sometimes the clay wins and you have to just do what it does. You’re trying to get the best you can out of it but you don’t always.”
TRX9: The building has a woman’s touch. Young women like Alice Schneider are still inspired by Mary Chase Stratton.
AX9: “She was our founder 1903 she founded us. She was kind of feminist at the time. There’s so much to her different radical ideas that it’s hard to sum up in one little blurb.”
TRX10: Stratton’s radical ideas have worked. This century old cottage industry survived the first stock market crash, and it could be one of the few still around to survive what lies ahead.
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