As a young girl, Cynthia Deering would take clay from the creek at Camp Moneto when her family visited Brown County for church gatherings. She’d go home, form and fire the piece in a kiln with the help of a ceramicist she’d assist. Now, she has a studio of her own just outside of town.

Facing State Road 46 East in front of the Red Barn Jamboree, the building housing Hesitation Point Pottery has been home to a Mexican restaurant and a bike shop in recent years. Since 2019, Deering has been creating and hosting classes for those interested in learning the art of throwing and shaping clay.

While foot traffic may be alluring to business owners looking to open in Brown County, Deering wanted a large space off the beaten path, with enough room for a gallery, studio and the ability for students to park for free. When she and her husband Cary came across this property, they knew it was the right choice.

They closed on the property in early 2019, and she retired from FedEx after 22 years in October the same year. She opened for her first six-week series of classes in October 2020.

This is not her first foray into the world of studio instruction. The equipment in her studio has been acquired over a 30-year period of teaching.

Deering graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in pottery in the 1970s. When she finished, she moved to New York for an apprenticeship working in production pottery.

“They paid a dollar a pot and rent was $1,000 a month, and that was 40 years ago,” she said. “I loved it.”

She lived on Long Island, in an apartment situated on a lake that fed into the bay, just 15 minutes from the ocean. Working in the art industry, she said she found out what she didn’t know and what she needed to to know.

She returned to Indiana for a master’s degree from the University of Evansville. There she met her first husband, Paul. The two became business partners, got married and had two children. He passed away in 2013.

They opened an art school called Expressions as well as Wright-Newcomer Pottery. Cynthia also taught at Monrovia Mudworks.

“I love teaching,” she said. “I get a charge to my own energy from students.”

Pottery has been her profession for a number of years, but creativity is woven into the fibers of her life. She also writes and paints, and has raised llamas, spinning and weaving their wool.

“Art in expressive forms … my whole family’s that way,” she said. Her daughter is a writer of stories, poetry, music and more. Deering hopes to add some of her daughter’s writings to her gallery shop to be sold among other works in the space.

In addition to offering classes at the studio, Deering sells her own work, as well as clay and glaze that other potters may need. She’s also looking to sell sketchbooks, canvas, paint and more.

With a courtyard and room to move about, her aim is for the grounds to be a gathering place for artists to create together. Whether it’s a picnic on the lawn or creating sculptures in the “mudroom,” Deering wants to curate a space for artists to have a sense of community.

One of the things she enjoyed about school instruction as a student was the feedback and advice she received from her peers. When she moved to New York, she didn’t have that.

She’s also willing to open the studio for $10 an hour for experienced potters to come in and throw. Her classes range from about four to six students and she has enough room in her studio for 20 students to have their own shelves.

There’s a full class right now, but if more students became interested, she would open up another.

Because of the unknown nature of the Salt Creek Trail phase under construction right outside her door, she hasn’t put up any signage in case the sign needs to come down in the future. For now, she’s getting the word out through social media and word of mouth.

“When I was at IU in the early ‘70s, I had all kinds of people tell me this is where I needed to go,” she said. “John Mills was setting up his studio and said, ‘You should really come to Brown County!’”

She’d spent every summer as a child in Brown County, at a camp which her father later named Camp Moneto.

After she married Cary, they spent two winters on her 1888 farm in Cataract Falls before they decided to move to Brown County. Now, they live just off 135 North.

Before finding this studio space, she’d looked at the Barnyard Shoppes on Jefferson Street as well as a storefront on the north end of Van Buren Street. But no locations had ample parking or outdoor space to run a raku kiln or do pit firing.

“This place had it all,” she said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Hesitation Point Pottery” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Location: 51 Parkview Road

Facebook: facebook.com/Hesitation-Point-Pottery-110903371079325

[sc:pullout-text-end]