It all begins with friendship. And then a class. A new shared passion.

Founder, Potter, Maker

I have always made things. Even as a kid, I loved crafts. During recess I would fashion things out of leaves and sticks. After school it was to the woods to build a fort or fashion objects to fuel my imagination. I spent a summer of Saturdays with my grandmother going to craft classes of all different kinds. In high school I focused on dance and jewelry, we didn’t have pottery but we could melt metal and cast it. I became a costumer in college and developed an interest in early European history and weaving. I’d always considered pottery but there never seemed to be the right opportunity. I even bought a kiln years before I took a class. It still doesn’t work.
Pottery for me started as a single Saturday class at a new studio down the street from my job 6 years ago. I posted about that class on Facebook and a college friend of mine in town and I joined our first official class. I don’t think I’ve taken a break since. My influences are the early 20th century Arts and Crafts movement, British Iron Age pottery, and minimalist Asian pottery. I would love to combine my pottery with my other interests, jewelry and fiber arts. Though those ideas have not yet materialized. I am constantly inspired by the clay, the material itself. I am not a production potter, that takes a level of focus I don’t have. I prefer chasing my inspiration, like trying to catch a bird that likes to keep just a few steps ahead.

Potter
I find throwing on the wheel soothing, frustrating and utterly consuming. I frequently fall asleep with ideas and images running through my head, where they will stay until I make them real. I often say I carve what I do because I love those silly B shark/creature movies. A more honest answer, yet admittedly cheesier, is that I have a very primal fear of the ocean and everything in it, while at the same time an overwhelming admiration of the beauty and strength of those creatures. I grew up boating on the Great Lakes, and as a child, as kids are wont to do, we would terrify each other with scarlet tales, including those of bull sharks that had swum up rivers from the ocean and dwelled in the lakes. I always imagined I could see the shadows under the surface and would scare myself often. I remember watching Jaws when it came out on video and screaming at every jump scare. Now as an adult I can’t bring myself to go into the water past my knees when we visit my parents in NC, but I visit every aquarium I can find to watch them slide by the glass. When I do pottery I feel the urge to carve the waves and forms there, the pieces feel incomplete until I do so. So while I do love to watch the B movies and feel that thrill of fear, not to mention every documentary I can find- it is deeper than that.

Just Off the Wheel

Pottery