Over the last century, Detroit was home to monumental manufacturing prosperity before experiencing deindustrialization, violent riots and the biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history.
Yet, through it all Pewabic Pottery has stood the bumpy test of time.
Founded the same year as Ford Motor Company in 1903, Pewabic focused on individual handcrafted products instead of the mass production that turned the city into the epicenter of American auto manufacturing.
Its survival was anything but assured and most other famous pottery studios have long since closed their doors.
The early years in Detroit
Pewabic Pottery was founded by artist Mary Chase Perry and kiln specialist Horace Caulkins in a Detroit stable. Their first employees were a German-born potter named Joseph Heerich and Julius Albus Jr., a 12-year-old boy who did odd jobs. Both would spend the rest of their careers there, a pattern other employees would repeat over the years.
When looking for a company name, Perry picked “Pewabic,” which was the name of a copper mine near her Michigan birthplace. The word comes from the Chippewa — or Ojibwa — language and means either “metal” or more specifically “iron.”
The pottery started producing lamp bases, vases, planters, cups, bowls and tabletop cigarette boxes. Tile production came a little later and would eventually prove to be an important source of income. These tiles were used as ordinary floor coverings or eye-catching architectural accents like fireplace surrounds or friezes.
The growing business soon needed more room, and a custom-built factory opened in 1907. It is a half-timbered building that doesn’t look like a traditional workshop. And despite the challenges of working in Detroit during turbulent times, Pewabic hasn’t budged. It expanded the facility in 1911 and 2018.
It’s all in the glaze
At a time when women didn’t run many businesses, Mary Chase Perry was good at selling and not afraid to take on large-scale projects. Pewabic’s co-founders combined art, technology and entrepreneurship.
This let them experiment and create new, iridescent glazes — each attempt meticulously recorded in notebooks — and those glazes allowed Perry to “paint with fire” as she often said.
Pewabic set itself apart through its nearly 600 glazes. These glazes plus creative firing techniques led to unexpected colors and textures. Many pieces had a crackle effect that was smooth to the touch. Other times the glaze melted and flowed down the sides making it more tangible to the touch.
Pewabic tiles are found in homes, libraries, schools, fountains, churches and public buildings across the country. Its vases are in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Made of more than just clay
As Detroit’s fortunes ebbed and flowed so did Pewabic’s.
The Great Depression and WWII had a big impact on the workforce and their output as people scaled back spending. When people stopped building big homes or left the city altogether, the business suffered more. Later Detroit went into a steep decline and its population dropped by two-thirds from its 1950 peak.
While the world changed around them, Pewabic clung to their traditional ways.
They kept making clay with the same belt-driven mixer and filter press first installed in 1912. They still pressed their tiles into molds by hand. Vessels, a general term for vases, bowls and cups, were still hand-thrown on a wheel or slip cast, which means pouring liquid clay into a plater mold.
Breaking and keeping the molds
Today, around 50 employees work at Pewabic; 16 of them are artisans and four work on the design team. The rest are in education, retail or administration.
In the workshop, there are three big gas-powered kilns big enough to walk in. Exposed shelves are tightly stacked with tiles and objects ready to fire, which usually happens overnight three times a week.
The next room is where they mix the 3,000 pounds of clay needed every week. Other spaces are full of pottery in different states of finish and niches for glazing. Another area is reserved for tile making and storing hundreds of molds.
Everything from glaze making to unloading the massive kilns happens in a coordinated way. Important information is imparted on tiny slips of paper that everyone understands. Teamwork, individual judgement and trust are important.
Arts and Crafts still in style
Pewabic has always been a proponent of the Arts and Crafts design movement, which flourished between 1880 and 1920. The idea is a return to craftsmanship instead of industrial mass production.
It was a reaction “to the dehumanization of workers through mechanization, division of labor, and the prevailing ugliness of machine-made goods resulting from the Industrial Revolution,” wrote Thomas W. Brunk in “Pewabic Pottery: The American arts and crafts movement expressed in clay.”
Under Perry’s leadership Pewabic did not print catalogs or standardize their work. Today, they still make some iconic pieces that the co-founders would recognize, but their work is more standardized.
Before something new goes into production, the entire team votes on the design, says Amanda Rogers who is head of marketing. Potters are also free to use extra clay to make one-of-a-kind pieces.
A 120-year-old business plan
Mary Chase Perry worked well into her 90s and died in 1961. Total sales for the first six decades came in at just over $1 million (€870,000). Of that, 65% came from tiles and 17% from vessels. The rest came from firing and glazing for others and selling materials like clay and glazes.
The Calkins family took over the pottery and gave it to a university to look after. After 15 years of struggling, the business was turned into nonprofit in 1981. Renewed interest in Detroit and the Arts and Crafts movement plus big civic projects revitalized the business.
In 2024, the pottery had its best year ever and made nearly 9,500 vessels, 40,000 architectural tiles and almost 33,000 art tiles, according to executive director Steve McBride. Store sales and architectural commissions brought in $3.38 million, a 42% increase since 2018. Events, fundraising and education services brought in an additional $1 million.
The pottery was founded as the industrial age was gearing up, and it went against that trend. Now as artificial intelligence is reaching new heights, the pottery is still standing its ground.
As people rediscover the value in handmade goods, they want to reach out touch them, says Rogers. This appreciation could keep Pewabic in business another 120 years.
Edited by: Uwe Hessler
