Studio Visit: G. Wolff Pottery, in a Converted Barn in CT

Off the side of Route 202 in Bantam, Connecticut, a Colonial-era red building beckons gardeners with stacks of flower pots. You might be tempted to call it a barn, but if you pull over to G. Wolff Pottery, you’re likely to meet Guy Wolff himself, who will inform you it was actually a domicile dating to sometime in the mid-1700s that he has restored as a shop and pottery studio. A master potter, Wolff will gladly spend an afternoon chatting about the history of flower pots, building restorations, and Litchfield County’s mid-century creative heyday when Wolff’s parents hobnobbed with the likes of Alexander Calder and architect Marcel Breuer.

Photography by Laura Fenton.

Wolff describes his penchant for historically-inspired pottery as a reaction to his parents’ modernist sensibilities (his father was an artist who was a part of the Chicago Bauhaus). Wolff has been making pots since the 1970s, both for himself and, earlier in his career, for well-known companies like Smith & Hawken, and he has many bold-faced-name fans in the world of design—including Martha Stewart, who once gave Oprah some of his pots on television.

Up front in the shop, you’ll find Wolff’s redware and salt glazed pots; his signature white clay pots with a mineral wash are in back. In the space in between are his son Ben Wolff’s pots (@benwolffpottery). A master potter in his own right, Ben began selling his pottery at just 15 years old—and like his father, Ben’s work is something of a reaction to the previous generation’s creations.

While Guy describes his work as “historical fiction” loosely inspired by the pottery from the past, with no two pots identical, Ben says he wanted to make simple, classic forms, and strives for almost machine-like consistency in his handmade pots; his signature clay hues are a minimalist gray and pure white. 

Through an open door at the back of the original 18th-century building, customers will glimpse the studio, where the Wolffs’ pots are thrown and fired. While Ben maintains his own studio in nearby Goshen, he comes to the Bantam shop and studio most days to throw pots there. “Otherwise, we’d never see each other,” he jokes. (The senior Wolff’s home sits just up the hill from the studio, so his commute is minimal.)

If you want to buy a pot thrown by Guy Wolff, you’ll have to purchase one in the shop on your visit, but as younger generations are wont to do, Ben has expanded his horizons, selling wholesale to over thirty shops, including Milton Market in Litchfield, CT, up the road and John Derian in New York City, and he also offers ready-to-ship pots directly to consumers (a pastime that bewilders his father). Ben and his wife, who is also a potter, have also experimented with casting in concrete, and customers will find whimsical concrete garden ornaments and minimalist votives for sale. Tucked on a shelf behind the register, you’ll even find small clay bowls thrown by one of Guy Wolff’s grandchildren, a third-generation potter in the making. 

Wolff Pottery, 1249 Bantam Rd Bantam, CT  is open 12:00-5:00 Tuesday to Sunday.

See also:

• Shopper’s Diary: A Botanical ‘Speakeasy’ in Freehold, New York
• Studio Visit: Claverton Cloches
• Shopper’ Diary: Sandy Mush Herb Nursery, Off the Beaten Path in the Blue Ridge Mountains