Functional Pottery

Salt Glaze & Stoneware

Pottery Classes and Workshops

Studio Showroom Open Tues – Sat

My pots are made to be used — to enhance the rituals of preparing and eating food, to hold flowers, to light a corner for reading. Making functional work connects me to the age-old tradition of artist craftsmen who make beautiful objects for daily use.

I‘ve been potting since 1969, yet after all these years, I still enjoy every aspect of making pottery, especially throwing and firing.  The alchemy of transforming soft clay into finished pots continues to excite and inspire me.

I offer classes and workshops in my studio, and I also teach at conferences and craft schools.  I had some wonderful teachers when I was first learning to pot, and teaching allows me to pass the favor on.  Drop me a line if you want to know my current teaching schedule.

Classes start next week, so I’ve spent the past several days deconstructing the expanded showroom, reinstalling the classroom, and rearranging displays.  Today I took photos on my new iphone and posted them to the Pots In My Showroom page of this website.  A sharp learning curve!  But after a struggle, the page is now reset.  That means that next time I get in the studio I will get to play with clay again!

If you can’t get by the studio but would like to purchase a pot, take a look at that page and then drop me a line or give me a call.  Happy New Year!

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Couples choose work from my showroom and list it in a registry on this site.   If you would like me to set up a page with you, please get in touch!  The following sample registry was posted last fall: Read the rest of this entry »

Two nice things to report:

First, we had a great turnout for the Studio Tour this past weekend.

Second, an image of one of my big salt pots will be featured in this 2012 Potters Council Calendar – the Alternative Firings version.  (Check out September…)

While I was at the Potters Council Conference at AMACO/Brent in Indianapolis, we shot a short video.  It came out yesterday on Ceramic Arts Daily.  Take a look!

Two posts in one day!  This has to be a first for me, an only-occasional blogger.  I just got home from a launch party for the new Monticello Artisans Trail.  Nice event in honor of an exciting new project.  Take a look at my pottery’s page on the Trail website.  I am pleased and excited to be part of the Trail, which includes studios in Nelson and Albemarle Counties, plus agri-tourism businesses, craft related galleries, and a number of sponsoring sites.

Here are some images from the salt kiln firing last week.

This week I’m glazing for a stoneware firing.  Hard at work in advance of the Artisans Studio Tour on November 12 & 13.   Penny Sipple will be here with her leather; Greg Sandage with his jewelry.  Check out this brief video about the Tour:

Artisans Studio Tour 2011

Here’s a link to the Potters Council conference in September where I will be one of the presenters.  Functional Ceramics and Beyond

I have finally posted new photos of the pots on display in my showroom.  Take a look! The showroom always looks crowded at this time of year as I build up inventory toward the fall.  It’s fun to expand the display area into the classroom every November & December, when I can finally give the work a little visual breathing space.

Other news from here – my friends Betsy Krome, Nancy Ross, Becky Garrity and I had our annual “Clay Camp” here this week.  We get together and share ideas, play with clay, and consume a great quantity of good food.  This year we focused on hand building techniques, although we did a little wheel work too.  Great fun!

We had a great workshop here last week!  Eight people working full out for four full days.  A lot of handsome pots got made.  I love the sharing that happens during these workshops.  And this one seemed particularly rich in exchange of ideas.  I certainly learned a lot!

If you are interested in attending a workshop in my pottery, the upcoming events are listed here,

And some of the wonderful people who attended this workshop were good enough to sign my Guestbook here.

I am happy to report that leather artist Penny Sipple and jeweler Greg Sandage will join me again this year during the November Studio Tour.

Also, I’ve joined the Artisans’ Craft Trail put together by the Artisans Center of Virginia and the Nelson and Albemarle County Tourism offices.  My new Craft Trail Studio Sign arrived this week, and paper maps and online versions of the Trail will follow soon.  Joining the Trail is part of my transition away from spring and fall shows here toward encouraging regular studio visitors throughout the year.  My studio showroom is now open Tuesday-Saturday every week, plus Sunday and Monday by appointment.