28 Oct The Season of Making

Long before I was a web designer, I was a ceramic artist. In college, I studied fine arts with a concentration in ceramics. After graduating, I maintained a small studio, making and selling work between day jobs and life. Over time, with moves and shifting priorities, clay slowly slipped into the background.

I tried to return a few times, renting a studio space where I had enough time to make a few pieces before the pandemic hit. Like so many others, the uncertainty of that time made it hard to justify additional expenses, so I packed up my studio and pressed pause yet again.

A few years later, as my husband and I began our house-building journey, I enrolled in pottery classes at a local art center. That experience reignited my love of ceramics. It became both a much needed creative outlet as well as a comfort during stressful times. I started experimenting again. I made texture plates from wildflowers growing nearby and created my first house and pumpkin forms—the beginnings of ideas that have stayed with me ever since.

After more moves and transitions, I found a ceramics teacher and community that helped me reconnect with this part of myself again. It inspired me to develop a full body of work—something I wasn’t sure I’d ever find my way back to.

Since I haven’t really talked much about my ceramics work online in a long time, this feels like a new beginning. For a while, I tried to keep my web design business separate from my ceramics and artistic pursuits…but I can’t anymore. I don’t want to post in multiple places or keep my creative worlds divided. The truth is, I’m a multi-faceted person, as I know many of you are as well.

So, I’ll be sharing my ceramics journey here alongside my design work. Each piece adding to the larger story of making, learning, and coming back to what I love to do.

Rediscovering My Firing Roots

Last year, I included work in a once-a-year anagama firing. This type of kiln is fueled solely by wood and fires continuously for nearly a week. I only had a short amount of time to make pieces, but wanted to get a few in just to see the results. I was blown away by the texture and finishes the wood ash created as it settled on the pots, forming a natural glaze. (I fired wood kilns in college but hadn’t since then.)

So when the opportunity to participate in the firing again this year, I knew I had to get to work. I freed up my schedule to immerse myself fully in both the making and the firing.

For the first time in over a decade, I developed a full body of work. I tried new forms, made new botanical texture stamps, and explored processes I’ve been thinking about for a long time.

The firing just finished last week. I’m still processing it all. Sitting with my new work and taking it in. I’ve learned that I’m not a “post-it-as-it-happens” kind of person. It takes me time to reflect before I can share.

So that’s what I’ll be doing…sharing a behind-the-scenes unfolding and what I’ve learned about creating, firing, community, and how it’s informing my design work and offerings. There’s a lot brewing. I hope you’ll stick around for the journey.

In the meantime, here are pics of my first house, my favorite piece from last year’s anagama firing, and my favorite pumpkin lantern from last year. 

Botanical Inspiration

I can’t describe my work without also talking about gardening and plants. It’s deeply rooted (pun intended!) in who I am. I have an enormous houseplant collection despite all the moves. I’ve maintained large gardens over the years. I have a need to grow things.

In my ceramics, there’s always an organic or botanical element woven in. On wheel-thrown pots, I paint branches and leaf shapes with glaze. On my handbuilt pieces, the floral designs are part of the surface.

This texture is created using what I call flower texture plates. I’m not really sure what to call them. Basically, it’s a large slab of clay with botanicals arranged on the surface, pressed in, and left to set up. After it dries a bit, I peel the flowers and branches out of the clay, leaving an imprint.

The slabs are bisque-fired to create a textured surface that I can roll fresh clay onto, revealing the lifelike pattern. I like to experiment with different plants and materials to see the results. They’ve also become a kind of garden journal—future patterns and reminders of where I was in life when I made them.

This summer, I made a new bunch of new texture plates using hyssop, coriander, parsley, fern, and spent flowers from bouquets.

I’ll be sharing the new work I made with these stamps and their journey through the firing process soon.

Here are two of them in progress.