Around The Studio

Spent the better part of the morning taking photos

Spent the better part of the morning taking photos of my garden. This process still feels very exploratory… especially when small details of the season start to appear without my intention. Even in silhouette pervasive pests like the Mexican bean beetle (circled in green) and wire grass have started to invade the photos. However a whole host of pollinators are also abound… a sure sign of late summer. #garden #silhouette #beanbeetle #honeybee

One of my vases from @artofthepot found a wonderfu

One of my vases from @artofthepot found a wonderful new home. This dreamy photo was taken by Amy Weinberg at a farm dinner at @beetlebung_farm the other night. It’s in great company with lovely plates by @merryfarmpottery - love it! ❤️

Today is the final day of Art Of The Pot! I’ll b

Today is the final day of Art Of The Pot! I’ll be closing up my shop this evening, but here’s a lil peek at the #detail images of a couple pots that are still available. A big thank you to everyone that has purchased work thus far. I am so grateful for your support. All packages will be on their way tomorrow morning! ❤️ @artofthepot

Today is the day! My online shop will open for Art

Today is the day! My online shop will open for Art of the Pot at noon CT (1:00 ET), link in bio. I will have about 35 pots for sale, including work from a new series of plates that I am calling, rather unceremoniously (lol), Shadow Plates. Like my companion plant series of plates, the creation of these is directly tethered to my garden. However, unlike previous work, these plates are the first that were actually fully designed in the garden. While I still do plenty of collage using digitized garden imagery, I had the idea this summer to create a “plate” out of paper so I could play around with surface design even before the plates made it to bisque.
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They all start out with a photo of a shadow. To take these shadow images from the photo stage to a cutout stencil/frisket that I can use to decorate a plate takes several steps of digital manipulation. (The final two images in this post show the stages.) It’s a MUCH slower process than any of my earlier work - but surface design has always been one of my favorite parts of the process and this technique certainly has my wheels turning.
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SO, if you purchase a wheel thrown plate today, you can know that the surface design on each is a singular moment in my garden, in the height of summer, captured in ceramic. 🌱💛 I really hope you enjoy them. @artofthepot

It’s almost time! Art Of The Pot opens online to

It’s almost time! Art Of The Pot opens online tomorrow (8/6) at noon, CST. Here’s a sneak peak of a few of the pots that I will have available. I’ll post a direct link to the shop in my bio tomorrow. Also, if you’re interested in learning a little more about my process for developing my surface, I’ll be posting about this in the morning as well… so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, go ahead and give a follow to the other fantastic artists in this show. Be sure to check out every shop, because you won’t want to miss a thing! @artofthepot @sandratorresporcelain @phipottery @lisaorrpotter @jrothshank @potterybyosa @beckylloydyogamama @andreamarquis @melissamencini @dwaynespots @aderowillard

Even after 20 years of making pots I still get the

Even after 20 years of making pots I still get the nervous-excited feeling while waiting for a kiln to cool. Like all good science, the transformation of the pots in the kiln absolutely feels like real life magic. To me, this is one of the best parts of making ceramics. Some aptly timed lighting drama on this kiln shelf as I loaded shows just how vibrant the orange of my clay is as it goes in the kiln. Once the door is closed, I don’t get to see them for the next 48 hours. Working in clay requires a lot of patience (that it will absolutely teach you, if required). With my process, a kiln load of around 50 pots is about a months worth of work that appears in one final slow reveal.

These bottom-up pots are now fully decorated and r

These bottom-up pots are now fully decorated and ready to go into the kiln for @artofthepot next week. (I’ll give a sneak peek of the deco soon. 😉) The show opens online August 6-8, so mark your calendars! I’m thrilled to be part of such an awesome group. You won’t want to miss it!

I’m not sure if there is anything more summery t

I’m not sure if there is anything more summery than sitting outside and eating a cucumber salad for lunch. Perhaps bruschetta or a caprese salad might be a close second for me…or anything to do with berries or peaches. Ok, Apparently there are a lot of foods I associate with summer. 😂 What are your favorites? Any recipes I should look up? The garden is in full swing and I’m always in need of inspiration! #summer

Tonight at 8:00 EST. Excited to chat with @mollysa

Tonight at 8:00 EST. Excited to chat with @mollysanyourceramics about all things clay! Thanks for the invite, Molly!

Template garden. 🍃🥬🍃

Template garden. 🍃🥬🍃

For the past four years I have spent a few weeks o

For the past four years I have spent a few weeks of every June working on turning my old 1920s garage into a functional studio. Back in 2018 I made a post showing the first major functional updates. This summer I FINALLY spent several weeks disassembling my very old (and very large) ware rack. It had many issues. The ware boards were way too long for my current needs, it’s design was relatively generic, and it had some annoying features (yes, I built that one too - so that was totally my fault 😬). It’s size also limited the location it could sit in my small 16x16 studio. So I took it apart! I repurposed the wood into a new rack that bolts to the wall and is way more suitable for my current space & practice. With the spare sheets of plywood from my old rack I built rolling storage for clay, plastic/sheets, and glazes underneath. I then figured out exactly what I needed from cabinet and drawer storage and purchased & installed the appropriate modular cabinets from IKEA… with some on-the-fly spacing adjustments due to the uneven brick/mortar laying of the old walls. While it seems like such a simple thing, having organized storage (and easy access) to my most used equipment and materials is actually a luxury I’ve never had. I spent the first 16 years of my career moving from studio to studio… so everything was designed to be portable, first and foremost. I’m thinking of posting a series of stories that outline all of the decisions I made when designing and installing the furniture in my little space. Would y’all be interested in seeing that? I’m happy to post, if you’d like me to share. While I recognize that studio set up, furniture, and tools are necessarily personalized to one’s practice, many of the decisions I made simply had to do with carefully consideration of exactly what kind of storage I need and - let’s be honest - kindness to my body. Something that perhaps I didn’t consider with enough emphasis early on in my career. Now, back to making pots!

Some ‘baby’ carrots pulled this morning. Thinn

Some ‘baby’ carrots pulled this morning. Thinning the rows is a pretty tasty task. #summersnacks #carrots #yardsnacks

Always amazing to be in such awesome company with

Always amazing to be in such awesome company with the annual @clayakar yunomi show. Show is live now! Repost:

Set your alarms, Yunomi show opens this Friday at 10:00 am CST

Pictured are Dave Locke, Mat Rude, Tara Wilson, Kate Fisher, Lindsay Rogers, Chad Steve and Ron Philbeck

#clayakar #akardesign #yunomi #yunomiinvitational #clayakaryunomi #sodafired #sodafiredceramics #ceramics #thestudiopotter #ceramicsmonthly

It’s summer... and that means it’s time for th

It’s summer... and that means it’s time for the garden photos to commence. ;) This year I had my first successful grow of shelling peas. They are my absolute favorite first crop of the year and they look beautiful dressed up in one of my most frequently used @klineola serving bowls. This pot has a long history of trips from the garden to the table. Swipe to see a photo from about 12 years ago of the same pot hard at work. I highly recommend. Love you, MK! Thanks for making one of my favorite pots.

Head on over to the Penland Gallery to check out t

Head on over to the Penland Gallery to check out the Ramen & Rice exhibition in the Focus Gallery. Open through June 6. @penlandgallery @penlandgalleryshop

This ramen bowl, with its rim wrapped in borage le

This ramen bowl, with its rim wrapped in borage leaves, will be part of Penland Gallery’s upcoming exhibition Ramen + Rice, opening the end of this month. Borage will be a new herb in my garden this year. Historically used as both a medicinal and culinary herb it wears beautiful star shaped flowers in summer. Formally, its broad leaf tapers down gently into the stem, providing quintessential ‘plant’ decoration on the pot. Swipe to see an image of the leaves of my borage starts. I’m growing a white variety this season with seeds purchased from Sow True Seeds. Such a lovely plant. @penlandgallery @sowtrueseed #borage

@aboveboardceramics is live! This plate was a favo

@aboveboardceramics is live! This plate was a favorite of mine from the last firing. Head on over to check it out. Link in bio! #nceca2021

@aboveboardceramics goes live tomorrow at 8am EST!

@aboveboardceramics goes live tomorrow at 8am EST! All of these pots, (and so many more) will be available for purchase. Link in bio. A big thanks to @penelopevangrinsven @lillyzuckermanstudios for organizing such a great exhibition! #nceca2021

First porch meal of spring and just had to share.

First porch meal of spring and just had to share. Loving that we grew everything on this awesome @eastforkpottery plate. #lionsmanemushroom #garlic #parsley #whatmorecouldyouwant

Accidental morning conversation between a bowl & b

Accidental morning conversation between a bowl & bread. #sourdough

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