Nicholas, Nick, Bivins

Together with her husband, Otto Heino, Vivika Heino made traditional, thrown vessel forms decorated with rich surface glazes.For nearly 50 years the Heino?s worked together in a shared workshop both throwing and glazing their own works and working collaboratively. Independently, Vivika threw and glazed smaller and mid-sized objects. She became known for glaze calculations and developing new glazes.

Born Vivien Place in Caledonia, New York she set out to pursue her artistic career by moving to Colorado and eventually California. While working at Swedish Applied Arts in San Francisco, she changed her name to Vivika. Vivika worked as a puppeteer, weaver, bookbinder and jeweler. After just one night course in clay with Manuel Eugene Jalanivich at the California Institute of Fine Arts she decided to pursue a career as a potter.

Vivika next became Glen Lukens? studio assistant at the University of Southern California. There she learned glazing and firing techniques to supplement the throwing skills she had mastered with Jalanivich. With Lukens? recommendation, Vivika went to Alfred as a teaching assistant and to finish her MFA. She experimented and consistently developed new clay bodies and innovative finishing techniques including glazes and stains.

After finishing her degree at Alfred in 1944, Vivika set up her own pottery studio in New York?s Greenwich Village and headed the ceramics department at a settlement house, Greenwich House.

After two years in New York City, Vivika applied to the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen a new position. A vacancy became available after potters Edwin and Mary Scheier left. While teaching there, she met her future husband and partner Otto Heino. Otto had returned from military service in Europe during World War II and, signed up for pottery classes under the G.I. Bill.

Married in 1950, the Heino?s quickly begin to exhibit their work together at venues including the Currier Gallery. At the time, Otto was primarily making coiled pots and Vivika was making slab built, tall drinking glasses.Every Wednesday Vivika would glaze tiles Otto had prepared for her to test new glazes in the kiln. (Correspondence with Ms.Roberta Griffith, January 2015).

In 1952 Glen Lukens recommended Vivika to replace him during a sabbatical year at USC. The Heino?s moved to California stayed for over a decade, both teaching first at USC and then at the Chouinard Art Institute. In addition to teaching, Vivika and Otto were hired to make 751 pieces for the 1954 film ?The Egyptian? and other Hollywood productions.

In 1963 the Heino?s returned to their studio in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Vivika continued to teach part-time at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Otto focused on selling their pottery. Vivika also taught at the Sheridan School of Design in Ontario, Canada and established the Ceramic Department at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

In 1973, they purchased the Ojai, California studio of Beatrice Wood, a friend, former lustre student and potter. The established The Pottery in 1973 and stayed in Ojai as independent studio potters for the remainder of their careers.

The Heino's fired in updraft dual fueled kilns. Gas fired kilns were used for bisque firing. The bisque ware was then glaze fired in kilns that were started with gas. When the wood and salt catenary kilns (80 cu. Ft.) were used, they were started with gas, then finished with gas plus salt or finished with wood plus salt. For the wood firing the kiln (90 cu. Ft.) was started with gas and finished with wood. The Denver car kiln was for bisque or glaze, and fired with gas (80 cu. ft.). Two smaller gas kilns were used, one was for bisque firing and for special effects (8 cu. ft.), and the other for bisque or glaze (30 cu. ft.). There were two other kilns, one of 100 cu. ft, and a small wood kiln of 27 cu. feet. (Information courtesy of Ms. Roberta Griffith, December 14, 2014)

Together, Otto and Vivika participated in over 200 national and international exhibits, and were awarded many distinctions and recognitions. In 1978, Vivika was appointed to the Apprentice Fellowship Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts and, in 1991 she was honored as Trustee Emeritus for the American Crafts Council in New York.

An interview with Otto and Vivika Heino conducted March 4, 1981, by Elaine Levin for the Archives of American Art's Oral History Program is available at: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-otto-and-vivika-heino-13053.