PEOPLE OF INTEREST
proximity to the ocean to stimulate and embody her art.
“If I’m sculpting an animal, or a turtle, it just kind of comes
to life and talks to me.”
Her home studio is an all-inclusive workshop that expanded
90
over the years, coming together piece by piece. From
a friend she acquired a wheel to throw pots. Then, for Christmas,
her sons and husband made her a wedging table, a flat,
canvas-topped space for working clay or drawing out designs.
A rolling table for adjusting clay thickness was added,
and a work bench with colored ceramic tablets, meticulously
ordered in graduating hues, that demonstrate how white, tan,
or dark brown clay will respond to different colored glazes.
“I like to paint, so sometimes I use a plate as a canvas,”
she explains. “Glazing is just painting on the piece so you can
create a lot of cool things just with a glaze.”
A large kiln, capable of firing clay above 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit, completed the studio.
Hill’s early works seemed to embrace family history.
Sculpting and drinking wine with friend and fellow potter,
Valerie Risher, she began creating replicas of shoes and boots.
“My mother’s father had vineyards in Hungary, and my
dad’s father was a master shoemaker. I thought it was ironic
drinking wine and making shoes out of clay.”
Then the hobby became a full-time profession.
With expanded inspirations her art thrived and extended to
participation in a charitable effort supported by local ceramicists.
For the last 20 years, Hill has donated her art to the annual
Samaritan’s Soup Bowl fundraiser. Her octopus-themed
tureens became well-known and sought-after raffle items.
Hill didn’t work on a wheel much in the early days.
“I wasn’t very good at throwing, so I’d camouflage my
heavy, lopsided bowls with wax resist designs and hoped no
one would notice they were off center,” she says. “I’m more
asymmetrical and off-centered myself. But, over the years,
especially because of the Samaritan’s Soup Bowls, I’ve finally
learned how to throw, and I enjoy it now.”
And creating patterns with wax resist became her signature
style.
The opportunity to do commissioned works brings her the
most gratification.
“With a commissioned piece I’m creating something I
haven’t done before, and it takes me outside my comfort
zone,” Hill says. “That’s an exciting challenge.”
Her commissions have ranged from replacements for a
HEIDI HILL
Age: 58
Lives in: Vero Beach
Occupation: Ceramic artist
Family: Husband, Geoff; sons,
Brett and Max
Education: Bachelor’s degree,
University of Akron, foreign
languages, French major, German
minor
People
Hobbies: Painting, photography, belly dancing
What inspires me: “Recreating the beauty in nature and
bringing other peoples’ visions to life.”
Something most people don’t know about me: “I’m known
for my knoblauch cream of garlic soup.”
People
Hill donates her work, including large soup tureens adorned with octopi,
to the Samaritan’s annual Soup Bowl fundraising events.
client’s broken or lost piece, to intricate cascading bonsai pots
with specific criteria of wiring and drainage holes. Her art
contains a user-friendly approach.
“I like to be accessible to people who have a special need
or request.”
And her own creations occasionally come from deep psychological
recesses laced with humor.
“I hate snakes.”
So naturally, some of her prominent sculptures are hors
d’oeuvres snakes.
“I thought it would help me get over my fear, but not so
far,” she admits.
And when she began in ceramics her children were very
young.
“Everything I made ended up looking like a naked baby’s
behind,” she says. “I think it was because I was changing so
many diapers at the time.”
Hors d’oeuvres
snakes haven’t
yet alleviated
Hill’s fear of
reptiles, but
they make for
colorful party
serving options.