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 Hello!
…My name is Tom and I own Whitefish Pottery. Welcome! Thank you for
checking into our apprentice/internship program. Whitefish Pottery has
had a successful apprentice/internship program for 9 out of it’s 10
years. The position is for one full year (Sept. – August). We are
looking for a dedicated individual who is ready to commit for this
amount of time. Below you will read through what is expected of our
intern during a 40 hour work week and what you receive in return. Our
intern takes on many important responsibilities and we expect them to
look, listen and learn. After reading through all the information you
still feel you might want to come and work and learn in a crazy, hard
working, but rewarding pottery in northwest Montana, please give us a
call so we can answer any other questions you might have. Thank you…..
First, a little bit
about the pottery….
I moved here in 1994 after teaching public school in Wisconsin (Go
Pack!) and opened Whitefish Pottery in May of ’95. We produce a full
line of cone 10 high-fire stoneware as well as special orders and
one-of-a-kind pieces by the artist that work at Whitefish Pottery(5
employees). We have a full-time studio manager, full-time production
potter, and a full-time glaze person at the studio. There is also a full
and part-time person in our downtown store/gallery.
The studio is approximately 2400 sq. ft. There are two electric kilns,
two gas kilns, a 30’ wood-fired Anagama kiln that we fire at least
once/year and are in the process of building a soda/salt kiln. Both the
pottery and my house are located 5 miles west of town on 5 acres of
land, the Stillwater river, and acres and acres of woods to go hiking,
walking, or mountain biking. I have a dog, Raku(1999 Flathead Valley
Frisbee Champ!) that runs free on the property. In the winter our local
ski hill, The Big Mountain, offers some great skiing/snowboarding.
Glacier National Park is about 25 minutes away.
WORK RELATED:
Our intern works a 40 hour work week(1/2 hour lunch break and 2 – 15
min. breaks during the day) just like everybody else. Your work days are
Tuesday – Saturday, 9:A.M. - 5:P.M.. (Working Tues.- Sat. is so you have
a day off, Monday, in case you are a skier/snowboarder; the ski hill
gets pretty crowed on the weekends). Sometimes during the year(Art
Fairs) you will be required to work on Sundays, both local and away
fairs. You will be compensated with equal hours off, or, you may elect
to be paid for your extra time.
STUDIO DUTIES:
Our intern has an important role here at Whitefish Pottery. Below are
listed the jobs you will be responsible for. Don’t worry, we won’t
expect you to do it all at once and will ease you into things…
1). Helping to clean the studio. No you do not have to do it all -
everyone pitches in to help keep the studio as clean as possible.
2). Processing greenware. This means sanding down greenware from the
previous day, organizing it to go into the kiln room, and unloading it
either on to shelves or directly in to an electric kiln for bisque
firing. This will also make available carts for our production potter to
fill up again! Yea!
3). Loading/un-loading electric kilns. You will be responsible for the
loading, firing, and unloading, of the electric kilns; organizing the
bisqueware on the proper shelves, and making sets out of things like
mugs, bowls, cups, etc.
4). Our intern will learn to put handles on almost all of the mugs we
make as well as a variety of handles on other pieces. You will also
learn to roll ‘patches’ for our Patch-mugs(a very popular item) and
learn to put patches on various pieces such as mugs, crocks, pitchers,
etc.
5). You will sometimes be helping our
full-time glaze person, learning how we glaze our line of pottery and
learn how we generally do things in our glaze area. Mini-pots always
need glazing!
6). You will be taught how we fire our gas kilns, but mostly myself and
or our manager actually fire the kilns. When needed, you will unload the
finished glaze kiln to the shipping and receiving area where it gets
priced and taken to the storeroom or to our downtown retail store. You
may be asked to take an inventory of the storeroom and will be shown how
to do so.
7). We often get people visiting the pottery for tours. You will learn
to give tours, answer questions, etc. as this will be your
responsibility also. It really isn’t very hard to do(all of us actually
give tours – it depends on how busy we all are). In conjunction with
this, making the sale! Often people will buy things straight out of our
storeroom and you need to help them in a professional and courteous
manner.
8). Art Fairs. Our intern is the main person that helps me at all our
art fairs. You will learn how to pack pots to travel to shows, pack the
car, un-pack the car, set-up for shows, help customers, take down at the
end, and unload back at the pottery. Again, not too bad, we actually get
free time in between helping customers.
There are probably some other smaller items I have forgotten, but the
basics are listed above.
This is actually where it starts getting good. Yea! (I went over all the
work stuff first to get it out of the way).
LISTED BELOW ARE WHAT YOU
RECEIVE IN RETURN;
 1). Free room and board. This includes your own apartment.
Basically a bedroom and living room combo. There is a small refridge and
a microwave. I’ve been told by my interns that it’s actually quite nice
(pictures shown-sorry about the quality). You may wish to bring some of
your own things to decorate with but that’s up to you. There’s also a
desk and T.V. The only bad thing is there is no running water in the
apt. That’s why you are able to share the house/kitchen as well as
having your own bathroom. There’s a deck, Hot Tub!, and plenty of woods
to take walks in.
2). Food. We usually go grocery shopping together. Don’t worry,
you won’t starve. You can also keep some food/snacks in your apt.
Sometimes we will eat together, most of the time not just due to
different schedules. I do not have a dishwasher so we alternate doing
dishes and keeping the kitchen CLEAN.
 3). Free studio. You get a small studio area (about 8’x10’),
wheel, free clay, free glazes, free firings, and free use of the studio
24/7. There are other work tables in the studio as well.
4). Our intern receives $125/ month. It’s basically some spending
money. You also have the opportunity to sell pots/art in our downtown
retail store/gallery. Our consignment policy at the store is 65% to the
artist and 35% to Whitefish Pottery. We raise the split for our intern
to 75%/25% so you can keep a bit more. As I mentioned earlier, you
may(?) also earn a few $$ on art fair weekends (about 12/year). You can
also take your own pots to sell at the art fairs. I have always said
that if our intern feels he or she needs a part-time job, that would be
O.K. We could work it out that you possibly get off at 4:P.M.. But, I
have always stressed that the time you put in at the studio, and selling
work downtown, is much more worth it.
5). Phone. The past few interns brought their own cell phones.
That’s up to you. Whitefish Pottery DOES NOT pay for your long
distance phone calls. You can use the regular phone and mark off your
calls on the bill if you wish. Local calls are free of course….
 6). Showtime! As I mentioned before we have also incorporated
into our new retail store a gallery space, the Stillwater Gallery, for
monthly rotating shows (not just ceramics). We give our
intern/apprentice a show in the gallery at the end of your stay in
August. This is also a good way to pick up some money before leaving. We
defiantly want you to come here with goals in mind. What do you want to
accomplish? Hopefully this will reflect in your show.
7). Hopefully a good learning experience, both from a business
standpoint as well as developing yourself further as an artist……
…….. And of course, enjoying Whitefish and Montana for all it has to
offer! You can go to any of the following web sites for more information
about the area:
1).
www.whitefishchamber.org
2). www.bigmtn.com
3).
www.glacieradventure.com |
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WHAT YOU NEED TO SEND US:
1). A letter of introduction telling us about yourself, why you
want to come to work here and what you hope to get out of your
experience.
2). A resume. Helps us with your background, interests, hobbies,
etc.
3). Slides. Some people will send 10, some will send 40. One
page(20) will do. Send us enough so we can get a good idea of what
you’ve been working on. Photos are O.K. if you don’t have slides.
4). Letters of reference. Three(3) would be nice, or at least
summertime phone numbers where I can contact people would be helpful.
They can also e-mail them to us at
tom@whitefishpottery.com
5) And a self addressed stamped envelope to send it all back to
you.
We generally accept applications up until about the 10th of July. We
look over everything, make phone calls, possibly call you back, and
notify someone by the end of July. We like to give that person at least
a month notice in case they have to get out of a lease and it also gives
you time to get things together before moving.
There may also be the case, as has happened in the past, that our first
choice turns us down. We would then give our second choice a call. We
don’t necessarily take the most qualified or the least qualified person.
We try to pick someone we feel will work best for our situation and that
would benefit the most from coming to work at Whitefish Pottery.
Now, after reading through all that, if you are still interested, we
would like to talk to you. Give us a call with any other concerns or
questions you might have. The best time to get in touch with me is early
morning. I am usually up by 7:A.M. MOUNTAIN TIME(please note any time
difference). 406-862-8211 |
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