John and Nancy Gertig have operated Prairie Springs Pottery for nearly 40 years.
Ashley Luke | Collegian

When Nancy Gertig was five, her mother enrolled her in a pottery class. Now, she’s owned a pottery business with her husband, John, for nearly 40 years. 

Prairie Springs Pottery is nestled under a small grove of oak trees in the heart of Osseo. It is an unassuming structure — a long, white building next to a rectangular brick home. But inside, under a blanket of clay dust, are pieces of pottery that are the result of a lifetime of love and hard work for the craft. 

“I don’t know how much longer we’re gonna be doing this,” Nancy Gertig said. “We’re old, you know.” 

Gertig continued working with clay throughout high school, ending up at the University of Michigan’s art school, where she focused on pottery and painting. After college, John and Nancy bought materials and tools from a potter going out of business and opened their own studio. 

The Gertigs named their new studio after the street they lived on in Texas. 

“When I found out the old name of the street was Prairie Springs, I said, ‘Oh, that’s so cool! I would put that on my truck: Prairie Springs Pottery,’” Nancy Gertig said. 

The Gertigs worked out formulas for each piece they were going to make, noting the weight and glazes for each. The recipe pages hang in a delicate garland of yellowed paper beneath the studio windows. 

After that, the Gertigs started selling their pieces at various craft fairs in Colorado and later in Texas when they moved in the late 1980s. 

“We found out, ‘Oh my goodness, people really love this,’ and it kind of evolved from there,” Nancy Gertig said. “We never, never would have dreamed we could start a business.”

On the side, Nancy began teaching pottery and art classes for homeschooled students, while John worked for Vought Aircraft Industries Inc. as a senior engineer building Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. When John retired, he decided to help Nancy with Prairie Springs. 

“When we first got started, we had to convince our parents that this is what we really wanted to do,” John Gertig said. “My father kept saying, ‘You’re an aircraft engineer, what are you doing that for?’” 

Each piece of pottery that Nancy makes begins with a block of clay, which is kneaded until malleable and all the air bubbles are removed. Then Nancy forms the clay into a rough cone shape. 

At one point, a large company tried to buy a wholesale order of 20,000 candle cups from Prairie Springs that the Gertigs had made and painted by hand. The store suggested they manufacture the cups in China instead of making them by hand. Nancy said she and John were appalled. 

“I said no,” Nancy Gertig said. “Our business is so personal, and our customers develop such a personal relationship with us, it wasn’t any fun for me to make pieces for a shop and not know who is buying it. We never sold wholesale again.”

This connection they have formed with their customers when selling at various fairs is part of what has kept the Gertigs going for nearly four decades. 

“I would say being successful at a business is building a rapport with your customers,” Nancy Gertig said. “People would come into the booth and introduce me to their friends and say, ‘This is Nancy, she’s my potter, she’ll make you whatever you want.’ Well, if you don’t have that kind of rapport with them, that’s a loaded statement.”

In her studio, Nancy has a pie dish ready to be sent as a replacement to a customer back in Texas. The original dish was bought more than 20 years ago.

“She is special. I know who she is. I remember what she looks like. So of course I’ll make her a pie dish,” Nancy Gertig said.

Making this particular dish is truly a labor of love for Nancy. She has had surgery on tendons in both hands, making it hard for her to throw in the same way. 

Throwing is the term potters use for the second stage of molding the clay on a wheel. Using a bit of water, Nancy will work her hands up and down the little cone of clay until it is the basic shape she wants. Bowls, plates, and mugs, among other things, are made through this technique. According to Nancy, it takes over seven years to learn and master proper throwing techniques. 

“I thought I was never going to be able to throw again, so the fact that I can even throw is such a blessing,” Nancy Gertig said. 

Sophomore Jillian Rudolph met the Gertigs through College Baptist Church and lived with them last summer. She said she enjoyed getting to know the couple and hearing about Nancy’s story with pottery. 

“It has been cool to see Mrs. Gertig work through her struggles with her hands,” Rudolph said. “Her hands are part of her business and her passion, and then she couldn’t use them for a while, but with slow perseverance, she was able to build back up to working with them. It was neat to see how she didn’t give up on pottery.”

The Gertigs moved to Osseo in the late 2000s, where they renovated the garage on their property to house Nancy’s studio and a small showroom. The studio houses two kilns that heat to 1,825 degrees. Once the pottery has dried after throwing, it is called greenware. After it has finished firing, the pieces are called bisqueware and are ready to be glazed.

The studio is filled with shelves scattered with bisqueware and greenware waiting to be finished. After the pieces have been glazed, they are fired again at around 2,000 degrees, which melts the minerals inside the glaze and changes its color. The whole process takes about three days. 

In their prime selling days, the Gertigs traveled across Michigan to various craft fairs. They received mail orders for sets of dishes and other pieces from customers back in Texas and across the country. 

“We would get orders through shows and orders through the mail. We shipped all over the country. We did it full-time. That was our business,” Nancy Gertig said. 

Because of recent health concerns, the Gertigs have transitioned to selling mainly at Hillsdale’s Farmers Market, yet Nancy said she is still impressed by the range of people her pottery can reach. Families from across the country who are in town for Hillsdale’s events or summer vacations will stop to buy her pieces and share them with friends back home. 

“This farmer’s market is way above what I ever thought it would be,” Nancy Gertig said. 

The Hillsdale Farmers Market will open May 9 this year, but Nancy and John won’t be there until the week after. The Gertigs are members of College Baptist Church and serve as “adoptive parents” for eight Hillsdale students. Several of these students are seniors this year, and the Gertigs will be at graduation to celebrate with them.  

“We have just been really, really fortunate. We have a wonderful group of kids,” Nancy Gertig said. 

Rudolph said that the Gertigs’ generosity is especially evident through their adoptive student ministry. 

“I had just met the Gertigs a couple of times at Bible study before they invited me along to lunch with their students. I know that at one point, the number of unofficial students they scooped up outnumbered their official students,” Rudolph said. “They are so welcoming.”