Sheila Spittles-Litke – Blue Creek Pottery

Sheila Spittles Litke,
Blue Creek Pottery
Council Grove, KS
620-767-3666
sandhillscowgirl@gmail.com

Sheila Spittles Litke was born and raised on a ranch in the Alta Vista, Kansas area. A graduate from Council Grove High School she received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education with a minor in music from Emporia State University, Emporia Kansas. She has several endorsements from Kansas State University and also graduated from Crum’s Beauty College in Manhattan. As a musician she taught music for 10 years at Prairie Heights Middle School along with other classroom subjects including an art class totaling 17 years.
Sheila is married to Byron Litke and the couple have been engaged in farming and ranching in the Council Grove area for many years. They have 3 married daughters Shilo King, Lacie Kasten and Desiree’ Yadon all who reside in the Council Grove area. All the girls share Sheila’s love of horses and many years were spent traveling around the state to rodeos, horse shows, trail rides and cuttings.
She has been an avid pianist her entire life playing for church, the Hays House restaurant, local country bands, weddings and giving piano lessons for many years. Her secondary instrument is the banjo and the Spittles family has performed many times throughout the years for church and community functions.
For 10 years she also had a photography business shooting weddings and senior pictures in the Council Grove area. Since moving to Nebraska her photography has been devoted to wildlife, buffalo and the Western Nebraska landscape.
In 2007, after Desiree’ the youngest of the girls, packed up her horse and went to college, Byron took a job working on a large buffalo ranch in the sandhills of Western Nebraska. The ranch is devoted entirely to bison. Sheila secured a teaching job working for Garden County Schools in Oshkosh Nebraska where she was the Technology director, Assessment Coordinator and the ELL specialist.
The move allowed her time to get back to her art and that’s when she discovered the Raku process of using horse hair. Because of the abundance of buffalo on the ranch she got the idea to try buffalo hair and this proved successful! She has added many different types of medium and tries to create things that no one else has thought of. In the fall she participates in arts and craft fairs selling buffalo hair pottery and buffalo prints in Western Nebraska and Kansas.
The couple recently retired and moved back to their ranch near Council Grove, Kansas. She spends as much time as possible with her horses riding and showing, And in her spare time she likes to ride off into the sunset!