By RON WILSON
K-State Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
Let’s go to a pottery party.
A group of friends has gathered at a rural business where they can have a good time, enjoy refreshments, and paint their own piece of pottery. Not only is this business hosting parties and producing pottery, it is also offering beautiful handmade wood products that are going across the nation.
Steve and Stephanie Dreiling are the founders and owners of WaKeeney’s EaglesNest Wood and Pottery, which hosts pottery parties and produces artisan products. The business is located in WaKeeney.
Steve was born in WaKeeney and went to school at the nearby rural community of Morland, population 115 people. Now, that’s rural. He went to college at Fort Hays State.
“I started woodworking in college because I couldn’t afford furniture so I had to make my own,” he said. He then joined the Army and served for 28 years before doing defense contracting work.
His wife Stephanie studied computer programming. Dreiling encouraged her to try some other classes for fun, and when she tried pottery she liked it so much that she switched majors and became a potter.
After Dreiling retired in Colorado Springs, they decided to launch a woodwork and pottery business but weren’t sure what to call it.
“Several of the Army units I was in used the eagle as a symbol,” Dreiling said. “My first unit was called the Eagle Battalion and my last assignment was with the Army Space Command which used the eagle on the shoulder patch, so the eagle was a nice bookend to my career.”
They chose the name EaglesNest Wood and Pottery and launched the business in 2010. “Then Colorado legalized pot and everything got stupid,” Dreiling said.
His mother was living in Hill City and as she had health problems, the Dreilings moved back to Kansas.
“We could get more for our money and things were more peaceful (in Kansas),” Dreiling said. They purchased and rebuilt a building that was originally built in 1905 in downtown WaKeeney.
Today, EaglesNest Wood and Pottery offers custom wood products and handmade pottery items. The wood items are handmade using Kansas domestic woods and exotic hardwoods.
Stephanie uses many natural clay elements in her pottery. They also have a laser engraver to embellish items. They joined the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program.
One year, Stephanie had a beloved pet that died and was cremated.
“They brought us the ashes in a crummy plastic box,” Dreiling said. “The girl who delivered it looked around our shop and asked if we could build a better container for them.”
Dreiling did so and these became a major selling item. He also makes jewelry boxes, memory boxes, blanket trunks and more.
“My wife likes to make useful pottery, such as bowls, cups, mugs and serving platters,” Dreiling said. On a television cooking show, she saw a chef using a mixing bowl with a spout on it. She created one herself, and it also has proven popular.
As a custom shop, they create products requested by customers. “Sometimes people will come in with a very specific design in mind, and sometimes it’s more general,” Steve said.
“If they’re not sure, I tell them to go to Pinterest and get pictures of all the things they want and bring them to us,” said Stephanie.
“We’ll put all the features they want into one item,” adds Steve.
Steve has customers from California to Georgia. One customer orders one of Dreiling’s small wooden treasure chests each time he adds a grandchild and has the grandchild’s name engraved on it.
In WaKeeney, the business hosts pottery parties. “We sell small figurines,” Dreiling said. “People will come in and paint and glaze them, and then we will fire it for them. Groups have come in and done it as a Christmas party, for example.”
For more info, find EaglesNest Wood and Pottery on Facebook.
We commend Steve and Stephanie Dreiling for making a difference with entrepreneurship in wood and pottery. Perhaps it is possible that pottery parties can help provide prosperity.