Studio 1: 911 Greenland Road
Handthrown stoneware & porcelain
potters@sliptrail.com
603.770.1500
Steve has been involved in the arts since he was a boy, pursuing art further as a profession, studying Graphic Design and Painting in college. He discovered clay while completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas and apprenticed at the Silver Dollar City pottery studio in Branson, Missouri with Harvey Bufford. The experience of performing and demonstrating the craft to hundreds of visitors every day at the theme park prepared him well for what was to come.
Moving to New Hampshire in 1987 with his wife Maureen Mills who is also a potter, they opened and operated the Pottery at Strawbery Banke on the on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum, creating unique, functional and decorative stoneware until 2014. His teaching skills, talent on the potter’s wheel and his natural sense of humor combined to present compelling daily demonstrations of his process to museum visitors. Today he continues to make pottery at their home studio in Portsmouth, NH and also teaches and mentors students in Portland, Maine.
Steve’s clay work continues the slip trailing traditions of Europe and mid-Atlantic Early- American wares. He has developed a line of stoneware that bridges Old World traditions with a contemporary sensibility imbuing both his functional and decorative forms with an elegant calligraphic style that is uniquely his. From stately urns to serving platters, his inspiration comes from a melding of cultures, drawing on a personal design aesthetic that stems from his Hungarian ancestry, as he creates work that is both elegantly functional and beautiful to look at.
Maureen and Steve are founding members of the Portsmouth Holiday Arts Tour, making this their 21st year participating.