SILVERHILL, Ala. — When Maria Spies took a class at a local pottery studio, it was love at first turn.

Spies, who now lives in Silverhill, says she “tried and loved it.”

That led to a 36-year career building and firing ceramics, or as she calls them, “pots.” She says she produces a line of functional ceramics and a line of decorative items. Her electric and gas-fired kilns (ovens for baking ceramics) are in her home’s detached outbuilding.. Her Web site is at maria-pots.com.

Today, Spies is the teacher, giving lessons at the Eastern Shore Art Center and doing workshops “on demand.” Her work has won honors from the Fairhope Art Show this spring and from the Eastern Arts Center. She has also earned “Best of Show” honors from the “Arts Alive” show in Mobile.

“I’ve won awards over the years,” said Spies. She’s also had commissions.

One of her favorite commissions was for a mausoleum in Dallas.

“There were 1,000 raku tiles in the interior, with a copper luster, and then there was about a half-mile of linked tiles,” said Spies. Spies added that all the donors received their name engraved on the tiles. She is proud of the fact that she did not make any mistakes with all those names.

Spies added that she has taught where she has lived, at the Dallas Craft Guild, in Philadelphia, and at the Seward Art Center in Seattle.

But, after her husband, David an engineer, was ready to retire, the family, which includes their daughter, Tara, “came back to family” and settled in Silverhill, near relatives in the area. His career in the Navy had started the family on its travels.

“I grew up in Mobile and went to Theodore High School,” said Spies. “we decided it was time to come home.”

One of the things that attracted Spies to ceramics was the, “attention to details.”

“If you are making a lidded pot, you have to measure accurately,” she said.

She mixes her own glazes, which can be a painstaking process.

“I use a triple-beam scale,” she said.

It’s that combination of precision and the unknown that keeps Spies interest in ceramics alive.

She’s well-known for her “saggar” (some spell it “sagger”) ware. In the “sagger” process according to Spies’ Web site, the vessel is “ired inside other containers called ‘saggars.’ Packing material between the saggar wall and the enclosed pot combust in the confined space to create special effects on the outside of the finished pot.”

The designs on a saggar is unique to that item. While the potter can try to control the vessel’s form, exactly what will come out of the saggars is always a surprise.

“Of course, after 36 years, you don’t get surprised very often,” chuckled Spies.