Our pottery journey started about 2 years ago when we were visiting a pottery shop / studio in a nearby town in the Finger Lakes region of New York state.  We went into the shop to look at some of their works for sale and found that they offered pottery classes.  My wife Joette talked to the owner of the shop and one thing led to another and she signed us up for an 8-week class.  Since I had recently retired, we now had time to pursue other activities, and this looked interesting.  We immediately took to the craft and had a great instructor to help us learn and grow.  We also had a great class of like-minded folks (about our age and some younger people) that made our classes a fantastic social gathering each week.

Well, here we are 2 years later and we’re still at it (some might say we are addicted) – taking classes, learning with our classmates, and expanding the portfolio of ceramic pieces we can create.  During this time, we decided to participate in a couple of craft fairs to share our love of pottery and our works with others.  It’s been very rewarding and exciting, and we especially like getting feedback on our work.  We also started exhibiting our work in two Artisan Galleries in the Finger Lakes region that has expanded our learning and networking with other artists and people interested in our work.

Since I’m an engineer by training, I found that learning how to use ceramic materials, tools and processes to produce artwork especially gratifying.  I had no idea that I had a creative side until I started doing pottery.  It’s always amazing to me that you can take materials dug out of the ground and form them into functional, decorative pieces.  There’s just something about getting your hands in clay and creating artwork.  Since I have a technical background, I also applied this into some of our ceramics work in the form of lamps / lighting.  It’s been fun merging technology and ceramics into these functional, yet decorative pieces.

We are so grateful that we took the plunge to learn pottery and grow through this creative process with friends, colleagues, and customers.  Our journey continues and we are always open to feedback and suggestions on our work, so we look forward to hearing from you!