Nancy Rasch Salamon

When Salamon was eleven, she was home from school with a bad cold. Her dad asked her if there was something he could bring her after work – a little treat to brighten her day. She asked for modeling clay.

He returned that evening with a heart-shaped necklace featuring a picture of Elvis Presley. He said, “You’re a young lady now and much too old to be playing with clay.” She thanked him and pretended to like it. She placed it in her drawer but never wore it.

Although she didn’t get clay that day, Salamon has been a full-time potter for over thirty years. She owns Clay Born Pottery and has a studio in West Chester, in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Brandywine  Valley, where you are more likely to hear audio books, NPR, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, than Elvis.