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What he wanted to twist and bend was the clay which at that point he was making into kindergarten shapes. Now he forms clay into prize winning and fast selling pieces of pottery you might see in the shopping column of a national magazine, in a large well-known New York City store, or in an expensive gift shop on Cape Ann, Massachusetts.

This transition from a New York and Boston business man to a Gloucester, Massachusetts, craftsman resulted not only in a great change in a way of making a living but also in a complete change of ideas on a way of life. Bollman, his wife, Gladys, and their daughter, Annette, had been city people living a city life. He went up or down town to an office, he had a definite, secure income, regular hours, a life of using his head, but not his hands.

Now the Bollmans live on a hill overlooking the sea in a house they have remodeled and added to themselves. Bollman walks across the lawn to his garage studio. He works till all hours seven days a week or he sits down and just plain rests for a few hours if he feels like it. His income is far from secure, but the work he is doing with his hands and his head is not only paying for itself and his living, but is also paying off on the original investment in equipment.

This combination of an industry and a home is an ideal one, Bollman says, but not one which can be decided upon by a hobbyist without a lot of advance planning, organization and hard work.

THE BOLLMANS started their planning during the recent war when Bollman volunteered for the American Red Cross Arts and Skills Corps as an instructor in finger painting. Watching others teach clay modeling, he became increasingly aware of his never quite forgotten love of something molded with the hands. He decided to take up pottery as a hobby.

An illness, which proved he would have to give up gradually the pressure of the real estate business, encouraged him to think about going into ceramics seriously. Henry Bollman had artistic ability—his success with finger painting proved that. Art courses in college had given him some feeling for the ancient history of art and the early potters and he had a very slight knowledge of the ceramist's actual technique. But he knew this little knowledge was far from enough.

Consequently, Bollman settled himself to a year of concentrated study in Boston. He crowded in lessons from a first rate potter and lessons from a sculptor. He did a great deal of research in museums, art galleries and books. The method of self-education through books available in public libraries is one Bollman cannot praise enough. All the information is there, free for the asking. It just takes patience and determination to learn.

Among the wealth of material helpful for beginners in pottery, Bollman recommends the following five books as being particularly good:

"Practical Pottery," by R. Horace Jenkins; Bruce Publishing.

"Pottery Made Easy," by John W. Dougherty; Bruce Publishing.

"Potters Craft," by Charles F. Binns; D. Van Nostrand.

"Pottery Making," by York Honore; Viking Press.

"Complete Book of Pottery Making," by John B. Kenny; Greenberg Publisher.

BY THE end of the year everything was going according to plan. The student had learned his lesson well. He had given up his real estate business completely. He was ready to make pottery to sell.

And then Bollman discovered the fact which seems most difficult for many hobbyists to believe: a piece of pottery is not marketable just because it is handsome and lovely. It must also stand up against the competition and price of mass production pieces. It must go above the student level of pottery just for pottery's sake and have good sales and market angles. It can't be just pretty good. It must be good enough to be accepted by store buyers who, after all, can only purchase for their shops and departments those things they are sure will sell.

The Bollmans had some money to keep them going till he could start selling. To make this last as long as possible they moved from the city to East Gloucester, where living expenses would be cheaper. They did everything to keep overhead at a minimum, including giving up such luxuries as a car. The house needed repairs, so they made them themselves. They scoured the beaches for driftwood which could be used on the house. Bollman learned there are many problems to being your own carpenter. And Gladys Bollman learned that the life of first assistant to a self-taught carpenter has its muscle straining and difficult moments.

But the Bollmans had set their goal and they were willing to sacrifice to get it. They scrimped on everything except equipment. "I was willing," recalls Bollman, "to go primitive on anything but my tools. After all, your own two hands are primitive enough. This is the 20th century. I decided to take advantage of 20th century electrical equipment. I wanted the best."

And he got it. His eighteen-by-twenty-eight-foot studio is made from a secondhand garage he moved across town, and the shelves are made of driftwood. But in it there is everything a potter needs. He has two large electric kilns and two small testing ones. He has a blower to pull out the dust while he's sanding pottery and a dehydrator which cuts the pre-baking drying time from two hours to ten minutes.

"Of course," Bollman goes on to explain, "the best equipment isn't always the most expensive. The best for you may be something you make yourself. I like my clay stirrer better than anything you can buy and it's only a bent number ten tin can attached to a stick I picked up on the beach."

The blower in the sanding corner is another thing Bollman put together himself. He got on old kitchen ventilating fan, put it in working order and then enclosed it in a three-sided box. Because clay dust is heavy he found it easier to place the blower where it could pull the dust down instead of up. At little cost, Bollman had an efficient safety precaution against inhaling too much dust.

Realizing he had been wasting time with natural drying before baking, Bollman looked around for a dryer. But the cost was prohibitive and not until a truck man offered to sell him an apparently useless food dehydrator for $5 did he see the immediate chance of getting one. The food dehydrator, newly wired and cased, is now an important part of the studio operation. "The best and cheapest dryer I'll probably ever see," says Bollman.

BECAUSE MOST of his pottery is designed to be used for food or drink and consequently must withstand the daily punishment of dishwater and handling, Bollman makes only vitrified pottery of a semi-porcelain nature. For this he buys a mixture of four fine English clays which are blended in Indiana. This clay, plus long, high-temperature baking, yields durable pottery with a high ring when you tap it with a fingernail. Bollman is very willing to demonstrate the difference in the ring of pieces he made when he was first starting and the work he is turning out now that he is more sure of his temperature and baking time.

"You have to keep a record of everything," he cautions. "I did a lot of experimenting at first, but all the experimenting in the world won't do you any good if you don't remember what clay mixture you used, how long you baked a piece and at what temperature."

Bollman's first success was with what he calls, "The Gloucester Pitcher." This was a pint-sized container usually made in blue with white marine designs. Both the shape and the decorative designs were executed with great care. "You don't have to do everything on a wheel," Bollman explains. "I have a good 'foot-powered wheel and I love to work on it, but I also do a lot of work by pressing or hand sculpturing and by the use of molds.

"I work on my molds until they satisfy me as to hand marks and texture and then fill them either by pouring in a thin mixture of the clay or pressing in a thicker paste. These molds are particularly good if you want to make a number of exact copies. I like to make different shapes and some of my favorite and best selling pitchers were eight-sided ones made with molds."

No matter what the shape though, the excellence of design was always there. Sail boats skimmed across the water, fish leaped from the waves, gulls swooped down from the clouds, but never in a sharp, hit-you-in-the-face pattern. There's a soft, almost vague feeling to Bollman's decorated pieces which customers find very appealing. They rub their hands across the surface and on some pieces are surprised to find that the design has been cut into the clay in the old Greek technique known as sgraffito.

This technique requires practice and a sure hand, for a piece can be ruined by one mistake. For the white on blue designs which are his favorites, Bollman starts with a piece of pottery which is natural or white in color. This is then coated with a thick layer of blue engove (clay which is stained a deep blue). Once this coating is dry, the design is incised or scratched through the blue in whatever pattern is desired. The piece is then baked again and when completed shows white cut-in designs with a deep blue background.

LAUGHING WHILE he talks about that first year, Bollman recalls, "You really have to love your work in this business or else you'd never be able to stand the repetition. I think I made a thousand of those Gloucester pitchers in my first ten months. But I really didn't mind because I felt that I was learning something on each one. At least I know I was a lot smarter at the end of that year. And the pitchers were selling well in gift shops which is what counts. And bringing $8 apiece too."

The end of "that year" also saw Bollman as a prize winner. Gloucester is located on Cape Ann, a section long known as the home of many artists and craftsmen of all fields. When the Bollmans heard there was to be a fair open to all craftsmen of the Cape, they decided to enter some of Henry's pottery, partly to see how it would stand up against other entries and partly because there was the lure of a $200 first prize. The Bollman exhibit of pitchers, beer mugs, cocktail cups, ash trays and tea pots was identified by a handmade tile with his name and address. His entry drew high praise from all visitors. It also drew first prize from the judges on the basis of originality and variety of design and great talent in the use of color.

It became increasingly easy to place Henry Bollman pottery in gift shops. "With the exception of a few neighborhood gift shops which you can contact and sell to yourself," advises Bollman, "the only way to sell to a great number of gift shops is through a sales organization which has a good reputation with the shop owners. I placed my pottery in over a hundred gift shops by exhibiting in the gift shows which are held for buyers in Boston and New York. And then I employed a salesman on a commission basis."

BOLLMAN WARNS that it is very difficult for a small production craftsman to make a great deal of money by selling to gift shops. "You have to sell at half price," he explains, "and then that is less twenty per cent to the salesman. This means that an article you might sell at a dollar from your own studio to a retail customer only brings forty cents through the gift shops. You also have to figure on a thirty to sixty day wait to get paid though you must pay your salesman immediately."

Despite all this, Bollman feels the craftsman gets invaluable experience by having his pottery in gift shops. "The gift shop is the guinea pig for the craftsman," he says. "I gained publicity and public confidence by having my work in first-class shops though I did not make a great deal of profit. And of course, from local shops there is always the possibility of special order business and visitors to the studio."

Visitors did flock to Henry Bollman's studio. Direct sales such as these were pleasant because they did provide helpful personal contact with the customer, but even with Mrs. Bollman acting as tourist guide and salesman, studio visitors ate into the productive and creative hours to an alarming degree.

Having rejected direct sales because it required more time than it was worth, and the wholesale gift market because the choice was to set a price too high to compete with large manufacturer competition or too low to make a fair profit, the Bollmans felt they had one market which was ideal for them; mail order business.

It was on this the Bollmans decided to concentrate their greatest efforts. Bollman meant mail order on a national scale, and for that, as he says, you have to think nationally. "If you are going to get your product in a national magazine, then it has to be usable any place in the country," he explains. It has to be styled and done in colors which are selling. And even that is not enough: you have to look and shop and study and then guess what will be selling at least six months ahead."

This study of the market is one of Mrs. Bollman's important jobs in her husband's business. She is the one who takes trips to Boston and New York to check the wholesale market, the exclusive shops, the big department stores. She is the one who looks for new trends in colors, not only in pottery but in home furnishings, in decorating and in women's fashions. Together the Bollmans pore over magazines and library books. They read trade papers regularly. "There's a trade publication for almost every hobby or business," Bollman says "and it's impossible to really be up on what's happening in your field unless you read them."

BOLLMAN STARTED on his way to national mail order sales by having his "Better Batter Bowl" accepted by the shopping column editors of several national magazines. The batter bowl is made with a well designed lip so batter can be poured right from the mixing bowl onto the waffle iron or griddle, thereby cutting down dishwashing. The two-quart size in vitrified pottery and offered in a choice of five two-color combinations is listed at $4.75 plus express from Henry Bollman's studio at 53 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, East Gloucester, Mass.

The batter bowl was Bollman's selection for this first attempt because it met all the requirements of a national mail order product. It was attractive, functional, photographed well and it was something he was equipped to make in large quantities should there be that many orders. But most important of all, the bowl had a new sales wrinkle, it would make good copy for the shopping editor, it would be something new and different for women readers.

Shopping editors have hundreds of items passing over their desks each week. A piece of pottery not only has to be good to be outstanding in this competition, it also has to be well presented. Mrs. Bollman helps see to this. She writes most of her husband's publicity and when it comes to sending something to a shopping column she makes sure all the necessary descriptive material is enclosed.

This should include price, color choice if any, how the article will be shipped, and name and address. But beyond that the Bollman's have found it helpful to bring out every selling point they can think of: the bowl's use, the fact that it has a handmade look, that it is vitrified and sturdy.

It sounds easy, but it is not so easy that it doesn't require a lot of planning and thought. Bollman selects the magazines he wishes to get his pottery in only after careful study. "Pick the ones which seem to suit your needs best," he says. "Concentrate on style, quality and price of items they feature. There's no point in sending a $1 item to a magazine that rarely features anything under $10."

Having selected your magazines, the next thing is to look up the name of the shopping editor. "Don't send the piece at first," advises Bollman. "Instead, write her a full description and offer to send her a sample. If she asks for a sample, send it at once. Don't worry about photographs. The shopping editor will have the article photographed herself. If she does not use it, the sample will be returned, but if she does use it in her column, in most cases she will keep it for reference."

SO SUCCESSFUL have the Bollmans been with this method that the Better Batter Bowl has appeared in such magazines as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Gentleman, House Beautiful, etc., and Bollman has learned just recently that House Beautiful plans to run it for a second time—only this time in full color.

This method is supplemented by advertisements in New England publications. For these Bollman uses only very short copy and a photograph of one item.

"This kind of business is like drilling for oil," says Bollman. "You never know when you're going to hit on something really big and I keep trying."

There's a chance he has struck his oil in a new idea which is just starting to come out of his kilns now. This is a squat cocktail mixing bowl with an attached ice strainer which is also used as a pourer.

That has the same sales features as the batter bowl, explains Bollman. "It's different, it works, and it makes good copy," he says. At this point, the cocktail mixing bowl has already been put in the catalogue of the New England Store, a mail order house specializing in New England gifts. By fall the Bollmans hope to have the mixing bowl in magazines as well as in one shop in each large city.

"The idea of one shop having an exclusive on a piece is a good merchandising angle," Bollman says. "Lewis and Conger, for instance, is the only store in New York City having my beer mugs." When a store is the only one carrying a line they often feel more inclined to advertise and push it as theirs alone. As a result the Bollmans have done a good business selling their $3 beer mugs to Lewis and Conger.

A GOOD mail order business on one or two large production items is fine, but like any craftsman, Bollman enjoys doing some special order jobs which allow him to express his originality and try new ideas. Because of local publicity on his work he was asked to do a set of fifty-two individually designed tiles for a home fireplace.

The idea was appealing and Bollman worked hard on the tiles. Each was a separate marine scene, but the colors were worked out so that in the finished design all fifty-two tiles blended and gave the effect of one large picture of life on and under the sea.

When he completed the project and had been paid, Bollman thought that was the end. But as he says, it's profitable to take any commission you can fulfill for you never know what is going to come out of it. Out of this particular job has come an invitation to do fireplace tiles for a model home being put up by an organization which plans to go into mass production building. To Bollman's business that means one thing—large scale orders for fireplace tiles.

It was also local publicity which brought the Bollmans a request to design and execute between 500 and 1,000 plaques of a Gloucester church, Our Lady of Good Voyage. The plaques are to be sold as part of a youth center fund-raising campaign. This is a church dear to the hearts of local fishing captains, but it is also a favorite tourist spot, which means the Bollman plaques will be bought by people coming from all over the country.

HENRY BOLLMAN signs all pieces coming out of his studio. He also packs and ships them, which is no little part of a business. At first he packed and shipped a little every day, but now he has found it better to set one day aside just for this. There is time set aside for bookkeeping, too, and Bollman grins happily when he says that that part of the operation is getting to take more hours a week all the time.

And it should, for Henry Bollman's pottery is selling well and at good prices. Small salt dishes sell for twenty-five cents, his pitchers up to $8.00. Lamps go as high as $25.00, beer mugs for $3.00 and the ever present batter bowl for $4.75.