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 Peder Wilhelm McCanless
is named after his Norwegian great grandfather. Peder, like his great grandfather, opted for the nickname (Will)
for ease, and to avoid all the frequent mispronunciations. Will is the middle son of Al and Milly McCanless, and
came to work full time at Dover Pottery in the early spring of 1993. After studying classical guitar performance
at Brevard College, and later at Duquesne University, Will taught guitar lessons at Evans Music Center in Asheboro,
N.C. for a while, to about 25 students. After finding this not to be his niche, Will went back to the pottery shop
for the first time since working there part time back in high school. Having always enjoyed drawing, Will took
a keen interest in the design and decoration going on at Dover Pottery, and quickly learned all of Dover Pottery's
classic design themes. After three years of improving his brushwork, Will in 1996 decided to take his painting
to new heights and took off to study Italian maiolica in Italy's oldest and most prestigious maiolica centers,
Faenza, Urbino, and Deruta. In addition,Will spent a good bit of time in some of Italy's largest and most influential
cultural centers, Rome, Venice, Florence, and Milan. This trip influenced him so much that the following winter
he took off to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia to absorb some Asian culture. This trip included side jaunts to Macao,
Penang, Tiaping, and Bukit Mertajam, where Will witnessed Malay potters ,deep in the jungle, making pots from clay
dug in the mountains, and fired with rice husks from their nearby rice patties. Later Will studied aristocratic
Chinese ceramic art spanning all the Chinese dynasties in Hong Kong's fine museums. After returning from Asia Will
set off again the following spring of 1997 to explore some of the Worlds finest Museums in Great Britain and France
such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and of course the Louvre in Paris. Upon recommendation from many
friends, Will flew South from Paris to Marseille to thoroughly explore the Provence region of France. This proved
to be the icing on the cake of all his travels. "Provincial French life really has many parallels to the Seagrove
area with their easy country living and great hospitality. Provincial ceramics share Seagroves charm with their
courtly figures and food motifs. All in all Provence projects an easy and pleasant informality that resembles Seagrove
living." Today Will continues to paint and design, and is active in many of the shops many tasks. Of particular
pride to Will is the current exellence of Dover Pottery's zinc silicate crystalline glaze that he had a large part
in refining since 1999. In his spare time Will enjoys playing tenor banjo, octave mandolin, and guitar in his Celtic
band "Cracken Crayee" (earthen pot in Irish Gaelic), which plays regularly at various Irish pubs in the
North Carolina Piedmont. In addition Will plays lead guitar in the local pop-rock group sKetChBoOk.
© Dover Pottery 2004 - permissions required for use
321 Dover Pottery Dr. - Seagrove, NC - 27341
910.464.3586 - contact@doverpots.com
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