Notable edibles: Beach to Table: Wildflower Pottery

“After the strongest ocean storms,” says Rubyanne Calderwood, “My Dad and I would trek the Nauset Beach flats searching for dark patches of sand. The very blackest grains we could find had the most iron content.”

Calderwood’s father, Clay, a potter (and that is his real name), taught his daughter Ruby to incorporate those particles of sand right into the clay body. When fired, these iron flecks bleed through the glazes and emerge as dark speckles. This magical patterning was one of the many techniques Clay learned while being mentored by the renowned potter Harry Holl of Scargo Pottery in Dennis.

Obsessed with clay at a young age, Clay created his first pottery on the sly, digging up clay in the New York State foothills, and firing it outdoors over a campfire. While in high school, Rubyanne helped her Dad with his signature fish platters that he had created to celebrate his own wedding. Yet she didn’t experience the same spark he felt. Heading off Cape as soon as she graduated, she became a CNA, imagining it as her first step towards a career in medicine.

Unexpectedly, Ruby found herself quickly longing for the Cape, visiting more and more frequently on the weekends, and ultimately returning home full time. Loving flowers, she opened a landscaping and gardening service. Now, her studio windows open onto a huge garden lush with dahlias she’s planted, and a chicken coop just beyond.

As her father began to cut back his time in the studio, then called Clayworks, Ruby began to help out, working alongside him. Her skills grew, and bit by bit, so did her passion. Only after completing a full apprenticeship to her Dad’s specifications, including throwing on the wheel, hand-building, glazes, and kilns, did she shift her profession from gardener to ceramic artist. In 2018, with Clay’s blessing, Rubyanne renamed the studio Wildflower Pottery, named for the local beach she often walks with her dogs.

“My forms and glazes are so influenced by the land and sea around me,” she says.

Wildflower Pottery sits on Route 6A in Brewster, “Where,” she says, “I’m one of many of Cape Cod’s contemporary potters including the Kemps and Dianne Hart, that were mentored by or taught the techniques of Harry Holl. We keep his artistic influence alive by exploring some of his techniques and glaze recipes and making them our own.”

“My Dad,” says Ruby, “is all for utilitarian and casual pieces, like a simple colander that hangs on the wall with a piece of rawhide. He might say mine are a little bit fancier, yet I strive for functionality too, like the underlay plate I’ve added to my colander to catch the drips.”

Ruby produces many shapes and vessels, including bowls and platters, utensil holders, colanders, berry bowls, spoon drips and cake plates. All of her pottery is food safe and can be popped into the microwave and dishwasher. A recent addition was a ramen bowl, notched for chopsticks.

Surprised and enchanted with a vocation she never expected, Calderwood says, “It’s very grounding. Anything in your head you can make into a pot.”