Ceramics and Pottery Archives

Spring Organization: Gardening

November 23, 2019 by Sarah Simpson 1 Comment

How many of you have been outside taking advantage of this beautiful, sunny weather? I know I have! Let’s get our hands dirty with some garden talk today.

If you’re in the works growing a vegetable garden, jazz it up a little with these colorful garden stakes by fromArtisanHands. If you’re new to veggie gardening like me, then you may need a little guidance with remembering which of your plant starts is which. These handcrafted stakes were cut from slabs of stoneware and come in a variety of fun colors. Not only do they come with vegetable names, but you can order them with herb names or inspirational words as well.

I have absolutely fallen in love with these handcut, recycled tire planters by DuchessCraft. Made from old lawnmower and trailer tires, these planters will make a huge statement when strategically placed in your flower garden. You can also use them inside the home to sort and organize your magazines, knick knacks, or even your recycling. Also, this artist donates a portion of the proceeds from these planters to the Second Harvest Food Bank where millions of pounds of food are donated to families in need all over the country every year. Visit the Second Harvest Food Bank website to see what else you can do to help!

Carry your gardening tools, seed packets, gloves, and other supplies with ease with this cedar wooden garden tote made by DesignByKohler. Cedar is perfect for this type of outdoor job since it is termite and rot resistant as well as lightweight for easy carrying. As their product description suggests, you can also turn it into a rustic style planter by simply drilling a few holes in the bottom and filling it with soil and an assortment of plants. DesignByKohler makes many custom designed and built wooden products for your home and garden from both exotic and domestic woods.

Now that you have some tools to get started on your garden, head over to Diana’s posts for some tips on What’s In Season.

Clay Crazy Pottery

November 12, 2019 by Valerie Williams 1 Comment

Judy Frederick is a potter who started out in a field that couldn’t possibly be more different than shaping clay by hand: computer science. As a computer programmer and systems analyst, she enjoyed a profession that was challenging and rewarding in its own way, but still left her wanting more.

In 1998, Judy started experimenting with clay as a way to express her more creative side, the side that got little attention while she was immersed in the high-tech world. Her first efforts in clay were hand-built, and were focused on figurative forms.

Wanting to explore more of her creative side, Judy took classes in all of the studio arts, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics. She enjoyed working with all the different types of media, but was continually drawn to three-dimensional work, particularly ceramics.

As her work progressed and matured, she was led to create functional, utilitarian pieces that could serve people in their every day lives. She found that focusing on the functional did not hinder her creativity at all; the clay would still speak to her, telling her what it should become, whether a teapot, a flower vase, or a serving plate.

Not all of Judy’s work is purely utilitarian. Some of it is just for fun, including jewelry, holiday and seasonal ornaments, piggy banks, and decorative vases and other vessels.

Her style and technique continues to evolve, as she is always experimenting with new decorative glazes and new shapes, including surface decorations like cut outs, relief, ceramic applique, and creative handles.

All of Judy’s work is one-of-a-kind and completely handcrafted from a lump of clay. She only uses lead free and food safe glazes, and all of her work is oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe. She can even do work in custom sizes and colors, just contact her for details.

You can see her work in person at the Potter’s Guild of Baltimore in Hamden, Maryland, and you can also purchase her work from her online shop.

Jessika Edgar

August 23, 2019 by Erika Jurney 3 Comments

By Jessika Edgar Ceramics.

Diana Fayt Ceramics

August 10, 2019 by Erika Jurney 2 Comments

Diana Fayt: Diana is both a traveler and a lover of home. She gleans inspiration from nature, the mundane and life’s stories. Her ceramic pieces are often narrative with marks of time, events and images seen and experienced and then drawn into the surface of her clay platters bowls and vases. By doing this she hopes to leave a permanent mark that expresses her vision of what she experiences in the world around her.

[via Bazaar Bizarre’s Maker Faire vendor list]

Emily Dyer

July 5, 2019 by Erika Jurney 13 Comments

I love her beautiful stitched and stamped pieces.

Emily Dyer bio: I am a ceramic artist in Minneapolis, MN. My forms are wheelthrown or hand-built from slabs of a creamy white stoneware clay. Pieces are individually decorated by hand using tools to impress “stitching” and other textured patterns. Pots are accented with underglazes, slips and stains. Decorative patterns are my own creations, inspired by antique and folk art quilt patterns, historic and contemporary textiles and nature. My work is fired to cone 6 in an electric kiln. Pottery is food safe, microwave and dishwasher friendly (although hand-washing is always safer).