By Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY— It was after taking her first pottery lesson with her mom at Pottery 101 on South Main Street, Salisbury, that Rachel Gunsch discovered how much she loved pottery.

“I always loved art, crafts, anything I could do with my hands,” said Gunsch, crediting her mom, Carol Gunsch, and her grandmother, Dorothy Miderski, for introducing her to crafts and instilling her with that love to do crafts. Gunsch has memories of how they spent time together as a family doing crafts together.

And now, her dream, which she had when she was 16 plus her longterm goal of owning a gallery at middle age, have come true, as she is the new owner of Pottery 101, taking it over from Cheryl Goins.

The transition took place for Gunsch on Dec. 1 with a grand re-opening celebration held on Jan. 3.

Her journey to get to this point began when she was 15 with the first class, and at 16, she asked Goins for a part-time job, but said, with a smile, she got turned down. Gunsch said her grandmother convinced her to ask again, which she did, and “Cheryl happened to be in need of an employee at the time and so she took a risk on me and she said yes the second time.”

She graduated from Jesse C. Carson High School and continued working at Pottery 101 until she went to college at Warren Wilson College in Asheville where she studied with potter Leah Leitson.

Gunsch credits Goins for providing her with lots of tips on making pottery and teaching her how to center and how to do handles.

“She became my pottery mentor, and we became really good friends, and she even had a going away to college party for me,” she said.

Gunsch has studied abroad, in Japan learning handicrafts, and in Northern Ireland, which was a concentration on ceramics, spending most of her time in the studio working on her big class project.

After graduation in 2020, her plans to work in an art museum changed as they all closed and she ended up back in Salisbury. With nothing to do, her mom suggested she make pottery, and she started her small business, SunRay Pottery, with a studio in her parents backyard, selling her work, doing shows and teaching at multiple places including Charlotte, Concord, Winston-Salem and being hired as an adjunct instructor at Catawba College.

She partnered at Catawba College with her mom who was a chemistry professor, who taught the science behind the arts and Rachel doing the craft portion. They also took the students to Japan for 10 days.

Several accomplishments have been becoming part of the Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Guild in Charlotte and being accepted to the Piedmont Craftsman Guild in Winston.

“I really love teaching,” said Rachel, and was considering getting her master’s degree and becoming a professor when she was approached by Goins with the opportunity to take over the business as she was ready to retire.

Now, Rachel said she could teach classes and sell her work at the gallery.

“It was just perfect, and she (Goins) was just thrilled to have somebody who wanted to keep it in the family and continue Pottery 101 because she was afraid that whoever she sold it to, it could become something else entirely,” she said.

Gunsch said she plans on keeping the name Pottery 101, which reflects their location at 101 S. Main St., and build onto what Goins established at the business, “because she’s been such a pillar in Salisbury.”

However, she said, she does have some ideas for the business that she would like to implement, including having a featured artist every month.

Her plan is for the artist to bring in all new work, which would be displayed on the entire row of window pedestals. The work would be exhibited for two months after which they would take it with them.

“That way, I’ve got brand new artists that are coming through,” Gunsch said.

Plus, she is planning to host an opening reception on the first Friday of the month, providing an opportunity for the community to meet the artists. That date might change depending on holidays, she said.

These artists will not just be potters, she added, as she plans on introducing all kinds of handicrafts, including fiber arts, metals and jewelry, and not excluding any craft.

Not only will the items be on display, but they will be available for purchase as she wants to support local artists.

“I was an artist,” she said with a grin, “and it helps a lot to make money.”

Having a lot of teaching, she plans to teach longer eight-week classes, getting to know the students, helping them grow in their skills, and Ellie Lyle will be conducting the multiple one-day workshops.

Another feature Gunsch wants to offer are live demonstrations where the community can come to the shop and watch whatever she is working on that day.

“Sometimes it’s pottery on the wheels, sometimes it’s me painting, but I also do fiber arts, so I do weaving and I spin yarn and so I’m going to have my spinning wheel here,” she said.

Plus she wants her employees, Delilah Hatheway, and Lyles, who are very artistic, to participate in the demonstrations as well.

For additional details about the classes, times, and to sign up, visit the shop’s website at www.pottery101nc.com, call 704-209-1632 or drop by the business.

Gunsch is planning to offer painting workshops in conjunction with what the month is including painting Christmas ornaments or Valentine hearts.

She said a Boy Scout troop is scheduled to come and paint their scout emblem, which she cut out of clay.

The shop helps the community by providing space in the studio to RCCC, who, she said, doesn’t have a ceramics facility and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they come with their teacher and use the wheels and kiln.

Always loving art, pottery was special to her, Gunsch said. This love for pottery became a passion for making things she could use and after the glazed process, it looked professional when it came out of the kiln and the fact that it lasts.

“My love for it just grew and when I went to college I thought, what’s the coolest job that I could ever have and it would be to be an artist and I thought I would be disappointed one day if I didn’t try to do the coolest job,” which she did and which worked.

She said that she enjoyed pushing the limits when she first started, and then it became about functional art and it having a purpose.

She got a little burnt out for a while, she said, “because doing something you love so much as a business and relying on other people wanting it, is hard and so my creative energies were lower and then I found my new passion for it was the craftsmanship and the skill and the technique” thinking that she can get better as she thought, “I’m only 26, what is my work going to look like when I’m 50, and so it was more about that” which is how she got into the fiber arts.

“And so my creative, weird excitement that was the beginning of pottery became fiber,” she said.

When asked what her favorite things to make are, she said, she had stages of answers.

Mugs are a favorite because everybody loves a comfy mug and it’s satisfying to make, plus they are her top seller.

Jars are also a favorite because they are hard, getting the lid to fit just right is hard.

And, thirdly she said stacked pieces are hard, having to make these big items in multiple pieces.

“And I love that right now because I’m bad at it. I haven’t gotten good at it yet. I’ve had one or two successes, but it’s still hard for me and that’s fun. I love being bad at things,” she said.

Realizing her dream, Gunsch thanked her family, her grandmother Dorothy Miderski, who taught her crafts, her parents Carol and Mark Gunsch, for encouraging her and helping her make it happen, providing space for her studio in their backyard and her fiance Ben Moats, who she said is supportive.

“He says this is the coolest thing ever, you should absolutely go for it. And so without them, I could not do this.”

And she also credits Goins who “taught me everything” she said, from how to do her displays and all about pottery.

“She is an endless resource for me, but then she’s also such a good friend, and she really does feel like family,” she said, also telling how generous she is in the sale of the business and providing the equipment in it wanting her “to start out right and well and successful, and so I owe everything to her.”