DUSON — When Emily Wortman was a high school junior in New Orleans, her art teacher brought out a potter's wheel.

"It shone; angels sang," Emily said with a smile. "I had no idear about pottery until I was in art class at Academy of Sacred Heart."

That day put her on a new trajectory. She stuck with pottery through high school and into college, studying ceramics at Tulane University, where she met a graduate student just as in love with pottery. 

She met David Wortman 45 years ago. After marrying, they officially started the family business, Wortman Pottery, in 1977.

And to think it all started for Emily that day in high school art.

"That's why it's really vital to have an art department in schools," she said.

David's love of working with clay began much earlier. When the Lafayette native was 6 years old, he visited the well-known Shearwater Pottery while on a family vacation to the Mississippi coast. There he saw not only all that could be made with clay but also vibrant colors many potters don't use.

"Many (potters) grow up in a more limited range of colors — a lot of browns and tans — but Shearwater Pottery has a range of colors, David said. "I grew up very confident working with a lot of colors."

He grew up making pottery in his childhood kitchen.

"I just grew up really adoring clay," he said. "I revered clay. It was like heaven."

But he chose to pursue photography for his first college degree. He started at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then called the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

He completed his core academic courses in his hometown before moving to Santa Barbara Art Institute in California. There he earned his Bachelor's in Fine Arts in photography and then a Master's in Fine Arts, emphasis in clay, at Tulane.

They moved to property that had been the Wortmans' family farm outside of Duson. The land has been in their family more than 100 years, and today there is a workshop, showroom and their home where there was once just fields.

They lived in the workshop for years as they built their home. Today the shop holds a slab roller, clay mixer, large industrial trash cans filled with different colors of glaze, a gas kiln and electric kiln, and oodles of supplies and ceramic works in progress.

Emily, 65, was out in the shop this week turning over pots that David, 70, had thrown on the potter's wheel a few days earlier. They monitor the drying and wait until they're at the right hardness to trim the foot. 

There are shelves of mugs, platters and chalices. Some are gray, having not been fired yet. Those that have are more pink. The ones in muted colors are covered in glaze, which will brighten or deepen upon firing.

"It takes eight hours to fire glaze from cold to finish," Emily said.

The chalices and other religious ceremonial items are for churches around the world. Emily, who's in charge of shipping, recently sent an order off to a Greek Orthodox archbishop in Australia.

"Very few potters do liturgical items," David said.

"It is a niche," Emily added.

This niche has expanded their business around the globe, but it began with local churches.

"It just started with a priest saying 'I want clay for Lent; make me a chalice,'" David said.

Other items in their workshop and showroom feature hand-built pieces like oysters on platters and crawfish as a mug handle. Emily does most of the hand-building, adding interest to pieces thrown by David.

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"A lot of it is a joint effort," she said. "Over time we figured out who does what best."

They both agree their work has progressed and improved over their decades of working and learning together.

"After all these years it's still a learning experience," Emily said.

Contact children's issues reporter Leigh Guidry at Lguidry@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry.