ABOUT
Doug Johnson opened Pepperwood Pottery in 1974 in Anderson Valley in the small town of Navarro, California.
For over 45 years Doug has created and sold thousands of ceramics in a wide range of artistic styles including crystalline glaze, wood fired salt glaze, high fired stoneware, raku fired luster glaze, and low fire burnished. The studio and showrooms are surrounded by architecturally landscaped gardens with grape arbors, fruit trees, stone and brick pathways. Blooming throughout the year the showrooms and gardens offer an array of eye catching colors.
Pepperwood Pottery is located in Mendocino County beside the scenic Redwoods on Highway 128 at mile marker 14.68 which runs along the beautiful Navarro River.
DOUG'S STORY
I have been a potter for over 45 years. Although most of my training has been alone at home in my shop and through reading from books or articles, I have been inspired by many incredible teachers and artists throughout the years.
I had the good fortune of being introduced to Mollie Poupeney, a fulltime potter who made burnished ware. We did "pit firing" on the beach of the now closed Richmond Brick Yard, in California.
In the summer of 1968 Mollie convinced me that I was meant to be a potter and that I should take a summer ceramics class at College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland with a teacher named Corky. In the fall of '68, I began school at Diablo Valley College, a Junior College in the Bay Area. Bob Hodgson was the ceramics teacher.
I moved to the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, California in 1971 and got a job as a ceramics teacher at Clearwater Ranch, a home for emotionally challenged children.
Pepperwood Pottery was opened in 1974, at first, mainly selling planters. I then began participating in craft shows for the next 4 years. It was difficult to make a living through craft shows, therefore, I decided to open my own showroom. In addition to my shop in Navarro, in 1980 I opened Pepperwood Pottery on Main Street in the town of Mendocino, which I ran for 6 years with, my then partner, Kristy Gould.
People often ask me if I ever tire of making pottery and the truth of the matter is: I am more passionate about making pottery than ever before. There are so many aspects to the pottery business. I make crystalline glazes, high lime glazes and many other stoneware glazes spring summer and fall. Then in the winter it is time to do salt glazing. When it is time to go to work on salt glaze pottery, I always have a hard time stopping what I have been working on, since I always have so many experiments I'm doing. Then when I finally do stop the one and go into salt glaze pots, I'm just as passionate about that.