Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I love being a potter and making functional pieces. I want my pots to be staples in people’s cabinets and on their dinner tables, introducing uniqueness, meaning, and fun into their everyday routines. The lines and patterns on my pots are meant to frame food, embrace coffee, encircle flowers—and enhance people’s experience of eating, drinking, and being a person in the world.
My pots are often covered in hand drawn patterns. My decorations are not perfect—they’re more sketch-like—celebrating the connection to the natural world, where straight lines don’t exist, and making each piece truly one of a kind.
My training was at the Oregon College of Art and Craft for a post bacc in Ceramics. While in Portland, I started doing the craft fair circuit, traveling, setting up, and selling my pottery around the region which enabled me to create a cohesive body of work and interact directly with customers. This work, travel and selling was all-consuming as I was learning how to run a business while running the business. I was trying to get my pots in as many places as I could to see how I could make a living.
After 4 years in Portland, I moved to Asheville, NC to be back in my home state and closer to family. Asheville seemed like a great place to land where the pottery community was flourishing and the River Arts District was established. I rented a space in one of the old industrial buildings that had been converted to artist studios. After a couple years I moved into the Clayspace Co-op, joining 9 other potters in an established studio. Our studios were in the back area and we sold our pots in the co-op in the front. Over the years Clayspace was able to adapt and add more members and welcome the influx of tourists.
I was in and out of Clayspace over the years. After the premature birth of my first son and his stay in the NICU, I took some time off. Eventually I came back to Clayspace and was there for a little over a year before I had to quit again after giving birth to my second son and soon after was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After my diagnosis I shut my business down and gave all my outstanding orders refunds and stopped sending any work to stores. I was so overwhelmed with the care of my two young children and my health issues, I had no room to be creative and lost the motivation go into my studio.
After my successful brain surgery, I slowly approached my studio again, but with a new intent — creating for me without the pressure of selling. I just was there to play and experiment and work with the ideas I had had over the years, but never had given myself time to make. It was fun to be in the studio again, sometimes with my 3 year old son beside me (making monsters and then performing brain surgery on them. I guess this was art therapy for us both.). I started drawing in a sketchbook and turning those sketches into custom 3D stamps I made with my new 3D printer. I started selling again, but slowly. If anything, what the premature birth, brain surgery, and Covid years taught me is to slow down and take time to enjoy my family.
We moved to Greensboro in 2023 to be closer to grandparents and, I was able to build a studio in my backyard. I am now producing work to send to approximately 5 stores. I have added in some NC shows to sell my work. It is also possible to purchase through my website and I can ship my work directly. It’s been a journey, but I feel I’m in a place of control, being able to pick and choose what is going to work for my family and my business and feeling comfortable saying no if I don’t think it is a good fit for me.
