Containers of Clay
Chelsea Phelps molds life, career with celebrated pottery
The studio is quiet, save for the spinning wheel with a single smack of clay centered in front of Chelsea Phelps. “This all feels like a dream,” she says, smiling, as she pushes on the pedal of the potter’s wheel to keep the tempo consistent.
The midsummer sun crests the open windows, casting a bright light onto the hundreds of paint samples tacked to the walls that her husband, Jared, constructed. The quaint but functional studio is tucked beside her home in downtown Driggs where she lives with Jared and their two young boys.
“When I first moved here eight years ago and I saw the Tetons [in person] for the first time, I was like, ‘This is where I want to be,’” says Chelsea, as her arms and hands move back and forth in a familiar rhythm, commanding the clay material to a new life. “But I didn’t have a vision of what I wanted. It took me some time to practice and figure that out.”
Using a wire cutter, she lifts the fully formed cup from the wheel before placing it on a drying rack next to a dozen others of the same size and shape. “I’m gradually getting better every time,” she says.
Chelsea is the creator and owner of Chelsea Pottery Co., a business she shares with Jared, as they both work in cadence to care and provide for their family of four. She describes her creations as functional products that are timeless, everyday pieces. Using food-safe glazes, her cups and dinnerware are made to be used and loved—and, for the growing audience of admirers of her work located locally and nationwide, both collected and cherished.
Chelsea’s passion and commitment to practice, as well as her efforts to “figure it out,” are reminiscent of the story of so many mountain dwellers, keeping the tempo steady through the seasons of dreaming and building, birthing and babies. And as she works to carve out a life with the artistic fortitude like that of many modern-day pioneers, she offers up the kind of work that reflects the spirit of creativity often found tucked into the foothills and valleys of the rugged Rocky Mountains.
“You have to be very resilient as a potter,” says Chelsea. “You have to be steady with this work. Clay has memory, so if I’m trying to dry too quickly, the clay will remember I didn’t do all the steps correctly. Pottery is not for the weak and I wish I was always perfect.”
A New England transplant, Chelsea studied printmaking in college. When she moved to the Tetons, she took to the mountain slopes where she worked various jobs during the ski season, in between finding her own time on the snow. After a bad turn on the ski hill, she replaced her ski boot with a cast and took on a job nannying. Then, she had the time to devote to learning more about pottery and realized quickly that she would have to lean into her skills as an artist if she was going to stay in the Tetons.
“I went to school for printmaking, but I had my hands in every art form,” Chelsea says. “Then I took a community pottery class at Teton Arts and thought, ‘I could do this.’ And then I said, ‘I’m doing this.’ I love pottery and I love to do it every day.”
Life took shape for her as she made connections through the art community and started working for the late local potter Darin Kerr at the farmers market in Driggs, where she’d sell his work for a commission. It was a foot in the door, so to speak, as she learned the arts of creating and selling. In the meantime, she continued to work and learn through Teton Arts, using the community kiln to practice and find her rhythm and that signature style that now sells out within minutes online and ships around the country.
While Chelsea’s work includes platters and bowls and other household items, it’s the cups and mugs that continue to be her most popular items. Each piece is handmade with slightly unique variations in design and color. Stars and moons, Tetons and rainbows, flowers and snow are hand-etched and dipped in bright glaze with a glossy finish. She says “Ira Blue,” named after her older son, is probably her favorite color of glaze.
“I love this place and I want that represented in the art that I make,” Chelsea says. “I want people to have a little piece of the Tetons every time they pick up a cup or mug that I have made.”
It’s important to Chelsea to create products that are usable, and she admits to spending a lot of time picking up coffee mugs in various locations, always exploring the feel for the perfect hand hold.
“I want these mugs to give people joy when they grab that cup of coffee in the morning,” she says. “And that means having a good handle to hold, too,” she adds, laughing.
Chelsea now has a kiln next to her studio that she fills with work for farmers markets, art fairs, and online orders. It takes about four weeks for her to craft enough pieces to fill and fire up the kiln.
“The hard thing about this process is that I can lose all of this at the end,” she says. “There are a ton of little steps to get to the end and, again, I can’t try to rush or skip a step. You have put hours and hours of work into these pots and then the glaze firing can be a disaster, or the pots come out split on the first firing. It can crush your soul.
“I kind of think, though, that maybe that’s the appeal for me,” Chelsea says. “There are so many variables to the art of pottery. I’m pretty good at this now, but then something happens, and I have to work to figure it out.”
She’s happy that sales are good, but also laments that there is often not enough time during the days to produce as much work as she would like. It’s a good struggle to have as she points to a table of postal boxes that Jared will address and pack later after the little ones wake from their nap.
“I’m in love with everything I make,” Chelsea says. “All of this makes me
happy.”
