“I have more time in my life than I have ever had. I have the interest and the passion for pottery. I have vision for my path forward.” These are the words Margie Zavioco spoke while reflecting with me about her journey with clay.
Margie has always had a very full life, filled with purpose, adventure and love. When Margie moved to Asheville from the San Francisco area in 2008, she and her husband, Alex, had raised their two children, retired from their professional careers, she a graphic designer and he an engineer, and were building their dream life together in the Blue Ridge.
They built a beautiful home on a mountain. They were active and happy. Then in 2015, illness suddenly struck Alex and in a short time, Margie found herself alone, without her husband and life long partner. Grief is a curious thing, it moves through you and has no timeline. She took the time it took to grieve such a huge loss in life.
Then at the perfect time she came upon a serendipitous encounter. Margie was getting a massage with the local massage therapist, Marque Gritta. He also happens to be wonderful potter. He’s spent a lot of time being a part of the TVPCC community in the past and we love him. Marque mentioned pottery and The Village Potters Clay Center to Margie. Soon after that massage, Margie found herself signing up for a beginning wheel class with us. Little did she know she was walking into her “new path” and her new “passion.”
Margie is a very driven and highly creative woman. In her former years, a natural entrepreneur, she created her own graphic design company and was able to build that business while fully engaged in her marriage and in raising kids. Finding clay reignited a spark in her that had been dormant in her grief.
“Making pots satisfies the creative need in me. I have this need, I always have and I am happiest when it is filled.”
When Margie talks about her pots she lights up. “ Color is a big part of my aesthetic. I am one of the few potters that I know who loves to glaze!”
She smiles and says, “I love to carve too. Surface design is a process of pottery that I really enjoy. I always look forward to it!”
“Wheel throwing did not come naturally for me, it took perseverance,” Margie said. Perseverance is a quality I find over and over again in highly creative people, and it definitely describes Margie. “Making pottery is hard physical work for me. It’s amazing that I keep doing it,” she laughs.
When Margie makes pots she envisions them in the home. I have been to her home and she is truly a natural interior designer. She’s clear when she says, “Function is not my focus. When I make something, like a platter, I am happier if it’s in a stand on a bookshelf. It thrilled me, recently, that someone looked at my pots and picked three of my pieces with different surface designs and then put them together. This is what I want in my pots.”
I asked Margie about her plans for the future and she didn’t miss a beat. She has a plan, a vision! “I graduate from this program (Independent Study and Mentoring at TVPCC) in November of this year. I plan to have an online shop up and running by then. I have hired someone to build it for me. My work in pottery is going to be the thing that I do as I grow older.”
Margie also shared her plans to join a group of potters who share a studio and gallery together. “I am not a loner. I need people. Gosh, I learn so much being around other potters,” Margie said, when talking about her next steps.
Margie Zavioco’s future is bright, filled with creativity, filled with purpose and filled with love and friendship. She is an inspiration to me and a joy to know.
You can follow her on Instagram at @margiezavoicopottery.
And watch for her online shop coming soon!
Interviewed and Written by:
Sarah Wells Rolland
Owner/Founder