Beekeeper-potter combines passion for both
POST FALLS – It has been a long 30 years since Roger Tinkey first experienced muddy hands. His journey has come full circle as Tinkey is one of 25 potters participating in the fourth annual Mud and Spirits Christmas pottery show and sale at The Old Church Arts and Cultural Center in Post Falls, Fridayand next Saturday.
The event is sponsored by the Clay Arts Guild of North Idaho Inc. – a nonprofit communication network for clay artists and supporters, promoting clay art and education in the community.
The Saturday event offers free admission, live music and hourly pottery raffles. Tickets are $10 for the Friday night gala opening which includes live music, hors d’oeuvres and wine. Tickets can be purchased at Angel Gallery of Fine Arts, 423 Sherman, Coeur d’Alene, or at The Old Church.
Tinkey remembers liking his elementary school pottery classes but found himself studying differential equations when he reached college.
“My sister enrolled in college art classes, and I was jealous,” Tinkey says with a smile.
Tinkey is close to completing a 31-year career as a civil engineer with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, and he plans to pursue pottery full time in his retirement years.
“It is a bit different than wastewater engineering,” Tinkey says with a chuckle.
His wife, Jo, was responsible for Tinkey’s reintroduction to the world of clay. She gave him a gift certificate for pottery classes at Tim Mosgrove’s Coeur d’Alene studio in 2002. He has never looked back.
Local potters Mosgrove and Wil Beasley, have influenced his techniques, and Tinkey finds himself imitating some of their styles in subtle, but recognizable ways.
Working with Montana Oak clay and firing an electric cone six kiln, Tinkey admits he likes functional pottery and the challenge of precise projects.
Tinkey has been a beekeeper for 30 years – carrying on his father’s tradition. He combines his love of bees with his passion for pottery. His honey pots have become popular items at the pottery show. He packages homegrown honey, a wooden honey dipper, and a honey pot in a handmade wood box for gift-giving.
“I never thought I could make a honey pot, and now I cannot make enough of them,” Tinkey says.
Tinkey refers to the process of centering clay on the wheel as the “heart of the clay.”
“As I open the heart of the clay, I pray that the pottery they purchase will be a blessing to whomever or wherever it ends up, especially the coffee mugs, and that people will find the Lord’s comfort and warmth with their use,” Tinkey says.
Tinkey was a Christian long before he was a potter, and he includes a Scripture on the bottom of most pots he creates. The Scripture reference he likes to put on his honey pots is Proverbs 24:13-14. “My son, eat honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto they soul; when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and the expectation shall not be cut off.”
On the coffee mugs Tinkey inscribes Isaiah 26:3. “Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.”
“On pottery that I hope will bring special blessings, I like to put Isaiah 64:8,” says Tinkey. “But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou are potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”