About Toby
Toby Fried
friedfired pottery
I started my new life at 57. Long ago I discovered pottery in college and spent hours upon hours in the studio. Then graduation, making a living, and middle school stepped in. Teaching 7-8 graders for 32 years took all of my energy, and I did not seriously pursue pottery again until I retired in 2006. Now, it is a passion, sometimes an all day one. I do electric cone 6 stoneware in my home studio as well as some raku, wood/soda fired pottery periodically at Maplecreek Artisan Center, and I am working with friends to get a cone 10 gas kiln running. I love to throw lidded pots and I am currently starting to include more functional ware. I think the continuing joy of this craft is that it can be incredibly fulfilling and relentlessly humbling at the same time. It took quite some time, and a rather circuitous route, for me to finally be able to say: I am a potter.