A Pottery Studio for the Birds

Wolfe Studio of Jackson, Miss., turns 80 this year and marks it with a special event at the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience.

There’s something delightful happening in Jackson, Miss. It’s been ongoing for 80 years and now visitors will learn more and get a peek inside Wolfe Studio, known for its charming ceramic birds. Yes, birds! They produce other adorable creations but it's the chirping kind that made them famous and keeps them in feathers.

The studio turns 80 in 2026 and the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (MAX) in Meridian will celebrate this achievement with a special event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. Elizabeth (Bebe) Wolfe, the daughter of the studio’s founders, will be hand to discuss the company’s history and the happiness they have shared making these sweet birds.

If you don’t know about Wolfe Studio and their feather friends, here’s a story I wrote for DeSoto magazine of Mississippi, which unfortunately is no longer in print. Then check below for details on the MAX event.

Wolfe Birds

Sometimes the least expected career path falls into your lap. Such was the case of artists Karl and Mildred Nungester Wolfe when they were given a small electric kiln by Karl’s sister who dabbled in ceramics. The Wolfes had opened a gallery and studio in Jackson in 1946 to sell their paintings, said Elizabeth (Bebe) Wolfe, their daughter.

“They were both fine artists, painters,” she said. But once they received the kiln, they began experimenting with ceramics, first using clay from the underbelly of their gravel driveway. When that clay shrunk and cracked, they moved to a more sophisticated material, making vessels and jars with lids.

“One of the jars had a bird on the lid and people went crazy for the birds,” Bebe Wolfe explained.

From the 1950s until today, the Wolfe Studio in Jackson has been producing slip cast ceramic birds, known as Wolfe Birds, plus nativity figures, a few other animals such as rabbits, and decorative plaques, jars and mosaics. In addition, they sell prints by Wolfe artists, including the founders. In 2009, the studio received the Governor’s Award for Artistic Excellence in Visual Arts in recognition of Karl and Mildred Wolfe’s lifetime of work, their artistic influence in the community and the longevity of their artwork.

“It was something that they fell into,” Bebe Wolfe said of her parents creating the ceramic birds. “It was kind of an accident that they hit upon the birds.”

Wolfe Studio today

Following family tradition Bebe Wolfe chose the artistic life, attending the Portland School of Art in Portland, Maine, and receiving a BFA in painting. As a child her parents enlisted her help in the gallery as both an education and to keep her occupied, she said, and her love of art remained. After her father’s death in 1984, she moved back to Jackson with her husband, David Weidemann, to help Mildred Wolfe with the studio business. Mildred Wolfe continued to paint and work until her later years.

“She was still painting until she was 90,” Wolfe said.

The Wolfe Studio, where Bebe Wolfe was reared, is situated on a pristine piece of property, now on the frontage road of Interstate 55, near Meadowbrook Road in Jackson.

“It’s like inheriting a family farm,” Wolfe said. “It’s a beautiful place to live. It’s a fortunate piece of geography.”

The couple later purchased the adjoining property and expanded the business. “My husband and I made a bigger business of the ceramics and now we have 10 people working for us,” she said. “It’s a nice little creative endeavor. And unusual.”

What may look like an assembly line production, the Wolfe Birds are quite the opposite. There’s lots of experimentation involved, Wolfe insists.

“Every time we fire the kiln something of interest will be in it,” she explained. “The results are a pretty wonderful product.”

Each bird is created from the original cast and hand-glazed but the coloration varies according to the whim of the artist. While birds purchased online will adhere to a standard, — Wolfe explained the product must look like its website photo —  there’s more variety in the artwork offered for sale in the gallery.

“In the studio, everything’s much more varied,” she said.

Wolfe can’t say enough about the artists who work for her, many of whom hail from Jackson schools, including the Power Academic & Performing Arts Complex (APAC), a public school that emphasizes arts education.

“It’s really a collective effort,” she said of her work with the studio artists. “It’s not just my doing. I really value and am amazed at the ability and the creativity of the people who work for me. It’s a wonderful thing.”

Visiting Wolfe Studio

It’s not easy finding this slice of rural living among the urban environment of Jackson. According to Wolfe, "if you blink, you’ll miss it.” The woodsy complex is located at 4308 Old Canton Road, not far from Highland Village and Lemuria Book Store. The Wolfe Birds are also available in retails stores throughout the South. For more information and to order artwork from Wolfe Studio, visit http://www.thewolfestudio.com/.

Wolfe Studio Celebration at the MAX

Saturday. Aug. 22, 2026

            9 a.m. Morning Meditation with Bebe Wolfe & Beth Herzin

            10 a.m. Coffee with Bebe Wolfe: The History & Legacy

            11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come & Go Printmaking and Slip Casting Demo. Bring your favorite Wolfe figurines and share your story for The Wolfe Creative Legacy Archive.

            2:30 p.m. Conversation with Bebe Wolfe & Jason Bouldin, “Becoming Artists in our Parents’ Studios”

            4 p.m. Exhibition Reception for “The Wolfe Creative Legacy: Works from Karl, Mildred, & Bebe Wolfe,” which will be on display from Aug. 22 to Sept. 26, 2026.