Art is often considered to be something solely to observe. But artwork can serve a practical purpose while still fulfilling the maker’s vision. Three Berks County-based crafters have used materials like clay, wood, epoxy, paint and stained glass to beautify the area, inserting art into everyday life.
Wes Muckey, Nolde Forest Pottery
Originally interested in painting during his time at Conrad Weiser High School in the early ‘80s, Wes Muckey quickly did an about face when his art teacher introduced him to pottery. Four decades later, his business is all about faces.
“There’s something about being able to form something and then being able to add the artwork to the form, instead of a flat canvas,” says Muckey, 52. “It was just so rewarding to me. After that, I never went back to painting.”
Lester Breininger, Muckey’s biology teacher at Conrad Weiser, owned a pottery business and hired him. There he worked with master potter Greg Zieber, later becoming business partners with him, founding Nolde Forest Pottery in 1994. Zieber passed away in 2014.
Face jugs, Muckey’s most frequent creation, have brought him attention from big names around the world, including Oprah Winfrey, actor William H. Macy, Barack Obama, former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.
“My first high-profile customer was Ozzy Osbourne,” says the Mohnton resident, who is also a musician. “And it kind of went on from there. My brother and I have some friends in the record company business – when there were record companies – and we would meet people through there. And some of them were like: ‘Slash is coming to your town. We want to give him a special gift but we don’t want to give him a basket of pretzels. Will you make a sculpture?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Some of them really like my work and have stayed in touch. You get these odd emails and you always wonder if they’re real.”
He crafted his favorite piece, a jug featuring 20 faces, when his business turned 20. The last face he included was that of Zieber, his late business partner. He usually doesn’t keep his own creations, but he couldn’t bear to part with that one.
Muckey also produces English-style, slip-decorated earthenware, and personalized and custom-made pieces.
“I prefer when people let me do my design, but sometimes they bring me something to do with a special thing in their life, and I’ll incorporate that into the design,” he says. “I never really do a sketch. I’ll do a piece, and if they don’t like it, I tell them they don’t have to take it. But to sketch it out, it doesn’t do it any justice. You almost have to hold it in your hand.”
Muckey recently added lessons to his palette of offerings, something he’s always wanted to do.
“It’s been quite rewarding to show people from beginning to end how a plate’s made, because I use tools that are 100 years old,” he says. “They were from potters from 100 years ago. So I show them the process of how the very first potters in America made the pieces. Other than the motor on my wheel, it’s almost exactly the same.”
Visit noldeforestpottery.com.
Jane Runyeon, All Together Art
Jane Runyeon has been entwined in the art world since she was a teenager. Now in her 60s, she’s amassed a sizeable trove of pieces – and experiences.
Runyeon appeared to be following a path in education, receiving a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati before teaching painting and drawing at the University of Colorado and Albright College. Then in the mid-1990s, the owner of then-hallowed Joe’s Restaurant in Reading – “we were basically drinking buddies through a bunch of people who loved great food” – asked her to become general manager of his new venture, Bistro 614 in the burgeoning West Reading.
“Before I knew it, I was figuring out lighting and designing their bathroom and totally loving it,” the Wyomissing resident says. “I decided that I was better suited for the business world. And here we are.”
Though she’s an accomplished artist herself, mainly as an abstract painter, Runyeon found a niche as an art advocate, brokering for other artists. Soon after the turn of the millennium, she founded All Together Art, a collective of creatives that collaborate to beautify spaces in the corporate world and to help build private collections. The network includes artists, architects, feng shui experts and lighting designers.
“I manage projects, everything from a large stained-glass window for Reading Hospital to a French cabaret space for musicians and artists to show and sell in,” she says. “I love the camaraderie, putting a vision together and using the best ideas from the group. And I have fun selecting who that might be.”
She’s also a whirling dervish of creativity. What has she been doing recently? Well, what hasn’t she been doing recently?
“I do a fair amount of writing,” she says. “I do most of my own advertising. I’ve always loved astronomy and I’ve always loved stars and I’ve always loved jazz music. About 15 years after I started to collect buttons, I thought ‘Ooh, I’ll make these really big all-button bracelets.’ And during COVID I thought: ‘Hey, I want to make scarves. Hey, I want to make coats.’”
Runyon’s work has added plenty of color to Berks County, especially in the West Reading/Wyomissing corridor. She designed the stained-glass fronting Bistro 614 – now Mazi – in West Reading and the large stained-glass window at Reading Hospital’s N Building, a work called “The Cycles of Life,” which she cites as one of her favorites. She hopes to exhibit “The New Fragile World,” a series of paintings she produced during COVID, soon.
Though involved with many projects in the area, she also has done notable work beyond the county – and beyond the globe. Her pieces have been displayed at the Empire State Building, and she’s collaborated with the Acadia National Park Night Sky Festival in Maine and the International Space Station. It’s all related, she says, because science and art are two sides of the same coin.
“I just like the color and the concept that (Jupiter moon) Europa is a big thing of glass ice that they think may well be where we’re going to find life,” she says. “I mean, that’s enough for me to paint for a week.”
Visit janerunyeonworksofart.com.
Jason Eyer, Swerl Designs
Jason Eyer and his brother Dave founded hardscaping company A Stone’s Throw in 2014, which allowed the trained masons to utilize their skills with stone, brick and other materials. The business kept them busy – most of the year, at least. Winters led to their discontent, and they hated plowing snow, so they sought something else to complement their main gig.
Soon before COVID hit in 2020, the brothers began experimenting with epoxy and gave woodworking a whirl.
“We did a couple small projects for family, and they turned out really nice,” says Eyer, 40. “And it was like, ‘Oh, maybe we’re good at this.’ We incorporated our masonry into our woodworking. So we have tables with real brick or real stone, benches with real stone, things like that.”
Soon thereafter, Swerl Designs was born. Not wanting it to be a solo venture, Eyer sought out additional artists, resulting in a team of 10 offering wares ranging from hand-blown glass to dot creations to custom wired designs. Many of them he knew through Koinos Community Church in Sinking Spring; he fleshed out the team with crafters he discovered by combing the region.
In April 2021, Swerl opened a West Reading storefront at the Penn Avenue site formerly occupied by Justin Bortz Jewelry Designs. The store’s floor showcases work from the artists, including Eyer’s favorite creation: a roundtable crafted from a large slab of apple-tree wood paired with a dark-green epoxy. Everything in the store is handmade, and the artists are willing to custom-make anything.
The Schuylkill County native says he would also display his handiwork around his Exeter Township house, except for one small thing. Well, three small things.
“I have three kids, and they’ll break them,” he admits. “My 4-year-old son would destroy them. He likes to help me make them, though. My kids are very artistic, and they like to help me.”
Swerl has an online store as well, but Eyer believes it’s important to see the pieces before purchasing them. One of the most common refrains he hears from customers is that pictures don’t do justice to the work.
In the short term, the brothers hope to build a base of returning customers. Already business owners, they know success can take years, and they’re prepared to give their newest venture the time it needs. Long-term goals include opening additional locations and making Swerl their full-time gig, as it’s easier on their bodies than the strenuous work at A Stone’s Throw.
They also plan to continue teaching epoxy pour classes at Koinos. Attendees learn how to transform an end-table-sized piece of wood into a wall hanging, table or serving tray.
“It seems like the pandemic brought out a lot of art in people,” Eyer says. “It’s interesting that people revert back to art when they aren’t busy. Which is really cool.”
Visit swerldesignsllc.com.
