Eric Norstad

In 1951 Norstad enrolled at the University of Oregon on the GI Bill where he met Ruth Luebke, a creative writing major.

Post graduation Norstad was offered work as a draftsman at Harmon, Prey, and Detrich, an architecture firm in Seattle, Washington.

In 1957 Norstad was the recipient of a The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant, which enabled him to build a small kiln and set up a pottery operation from their home.

In the late 1950s Norstad began judging state fairs and pottery shows and teaching workshops through the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California.

Norstad worked on multiple residential projects in Northern California while continuing to make ceramics on the side.

During the 1970s, Christopher Westfal, Wynn Hayakawa, Conrad Calimpong, Danny Goodman, and Gary Beaver worked some years in the basement studio.

Christopher Westfal, Conrad Calimpong, Danny Goodman, Taylor Maize, and Gary Beaver worked in the pottery during the transition to the Schoonmaker Building in Sausalito.

Norstad credits artists Peter Voulkos, Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada and his parents as influences, as well as clean, functional Scandinavian design of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

The mixture was thrown into an old commercial dough mixer with water and the finished batch turned out into plaster trays to age and lose moisture.

Fired to 2,500 °F (1,370 °C) for 24 hours with high-fire glazes resulted in a smooth, impervious, and very durable finish, resistant to scratching, chipping, and cracks.

Although some of his work, such as his porcelain, is extremely light and graceful, most of it is sturdy and utilitarian: dinnerware, vases, lamp bases and sinks.