DREAM OF POTTER'S GALLERY SHAPES UP
Published on January 14, 2002
© 2002- Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Byline: Amy Mertz The Capital Times
Another little artsy joint in this town, you say. Big deal.
Except that behind many of these storefronts are hard-working businesspeople, artists and crafters living out their dreams and surviving on hopes that you'll see something special in their talents. Like Sandy Hagist, owner of Exclaymations!! Pottery & Gallery. She fulfilled a 20-year dream when she opened a gallery in the enclosed front porch of her early 1900s house Dec. 1 at 212 W. Main St., on the locally renowned Trollway.
Her shop is a blend of her reasonably priced wheel-thrown functional ware glazed mainly in dark blues, greens and browns, and Mount Horeb artist/sculptor Mikel Kelley's funkier, more sculptural pieces. "That's why I thought our contrast would work well together," Hagist says.
The single mom does her work in the basement of her home, where she lives with Cameron, 7; Morgan, 6; and Phoebe the cat. Their adorable miniature pottery -- the children's, not the cat's -- graces part of a shelf in the gallery, at discounted rates.
Hagist moved to Mount Horeb in late August from Bayfield, where she had worked for 15 years at Eckels Pottery. The move was prompted by a previous visit to town to see her friend Kelley, who also has a studio here. The two decided a pottery business would fit into the shop scene well.
"I fell in love with Mount Horeb, and something told me (opening a gallery) was something I was supposed to do and this was somewhere to do it," Hagist says.
A native of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, she earned her bachelor's in art at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and worked as an apprentice in northern Iowa at a pottery studio.
Although Hagist didn't intend to pursue pottery, "once I got into clay, that was it," she says. "That was my new love."
Although the economy was sluggish and December obviously is not the peak time for travel to Mount Horeb, she knew the village had a pretty solid Christmas shopping season and took a chance.
It helps to live in the same house as your business, Hagist says, because you can be open whenever you're home.
Exclaymations!! is open from 10 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, as well
as by appointment on weekdays. "But just stop in and knock any weekday," Hagist
says, and if she's home, she'll open. MICHELLE STOCKER PHOTOS/THE CAPITAL TIMES
Sandy Hagist (left) opened Exclaymations!! Pottery & Gallery Dec. 1 on
Mount Horeb's Trollway. Her pottery and some works of Mount Horeb
artist/sculptor Mikel Kelley (right) fill the shelves of the small gallery.
Top: Hagist throws a vase in her studio, which is in the basement of her home.
Spice jars are among Sandy Hagist's pottery offerings at Exclaymations!!
Pottery & Gallery.
