Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Ceramics is her cup of tea

Photos and story by James Hill

With the whir of the potter’s wheel and a little elbow grease, 83-year-old Shirley Mattraw is making quite a name for herself inside the world of the Rock Creek Campus ceramics program.

Mattraw takes instructor Jim Johnstone’s ceramics class every Saturday and a few open labs during the week. At these times you can catch her grabbing a chunk of wet clay and setting up “her” potter’s wheel in Building 3’s ground ceramics lab. There she throws on her clay-crusted, never-been-cleaned towel to protect her clothing from flying debris. As the wheel revs up, she presses, pokes and sculpts the whirling clay into a form of a gray cup in a matter of minutes.

“I should be called advanced for the number of years I’ve been at it, but I don’t consider myself advanced,” she said. “I do one type of thing; it’s what I specialize in.”

That thing is raku, a special type of fast fire ceramics that originated in Japan. She learned raku in her previous home of Carmel, Calif., where she took classes from an instructor at Monterey Peninsula College who was an expert in the field.

“Whenever I travel I buy a home-made mug,” she said of her inspiration. “There was a big collection of mugs from this instructor in Carmel so I wanted to fashion my work after what he did.”

Mattraw moved north eight years ago to be closer to her two children who live in Portland and Seattle. Now living in Northwest Portland by the Fremont Bridge, she makes the journey across town to the expansive fields and rolling hills of the Rock Creek Campus. She may have left Carmel behind, but she brought her enthusiasm for the raku style and desire to make tea cups.

“Wherever I go I make a studio for myself,” Mattraw said. “After a few weeks though I don’t want to be alone and decide to work with a group of people at a school. I was told about an art class at Rock Creek and when I went I fell in love with the area. The school and facilities are very nice and rival that of Monterey Peninsula College, which at the time I had thought was the best. This is as good as that one.”

Mattraw, who retired from ABC Broadcasting in Los Angeles 20 years ago, never displayed her mugs until she was prompted to put them on show at Rock Creek. Because so many people inquired, it led to her selling the cups at Northwest Portland’s Urbino, a high-end home furnishings store. “They say the cups are flying out of the shop,” she said.

Jim Johnstone has witnessed Mattraw’s journey. During his first class, the then 79-year-old Mattraw showed up and it was she, not he, who laid down the rules.

“I learned there was a very limited area of working with clay she was comfortable with,” he said. “Actually, she was adamant about what she was going to do and said things like, ‘I only use this one clay,’ ‘I only fire my pottery using the raku process,’ ‘I only use this type of potter’s wheel,’ ‘I don’t make functional pieces,’ or ‘I don’t do decoration.'”

This self-imposed narrow scope caused Johnstone to become curious as to why. He said Mattraw’s ability allowed for exploration and, as time passed, she continued creating the tea cups within her comfort zone. But one day, she suddenly asked him if she could try different types of clay. This switch surprised him, as he was glad to see her new willingness to explore. From that day, Mattraw went on to try a variety of clay that the college offers in the ceramic lab and it became apparent to Johnstone that she was having fun exploring.

“Shirley was coming of age with clay,” he said. “It took her a couple semesters to develop a mug style she was happy with. Countless prototypes fell to her hammer, literally. Shirley came to me one day and explained she had never glazed anything functional; she asked for a demonstration. I was thrilled as she began another quest, this time to find the perfect glaze combination. Since she has been here at PCC she has grown immensely in her self confidence.

“Her spirit and tenacity are contagious and many beginning students gain a unique view of creativity that is not available in other ceramic classes,” he added.

Mattraw makes eight cups a week. It takes her an hour to make the mugs, performed mostly in one sitting. Once the day’s work dries sufficiently it goes right into the kiln. She dips or sprays the pieces with glaze and then goes back into another kind of kiln. Without the glaze, she says, the mug wouldn’t be usable.

“I consider each one an experiment,” Mattraw added. “I don’t consider them good enough to give to anybody. I just like the method and the feel of working with clay, the community and the process of making art.”

But what does the future hold for this grandmother of three? Will she continue?

“Oh yes, I will do it again and again,” she said with a confident smile. “The class here is very casual. There is no pressure. I came from paradise but this is a different kind of paradise.”

Related Pages:

Art Program, Summer Arts institute, Community Education