Thursday, January 31, 2008

getting ready for spring


It is the last day of January, my Jan term is over, and I believe that I've met my goals. Blogging regularly-check. Etsy store open-check. A good jump start on making pottery for spring shows- check.
I have been making pottery almost every day this month- my standard goal is 5 pieces per throwing session. I also learned how to replace the elements in my kiln with the help of my co-worker, Dierdre. I've even sold a few pieces this month, which was encouraging after a slow holiday season.
These herb markers are my festival bread-and-butter. Last year I sold 500 on a single day. Gary was freelancing, and I was teaching a lot, but these little gems paid our mortgage that month. I have several hundred on hand, but it is time to break out the slabroller and make several hundred more before planting season begins.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

flutes in progress

These are two fluted bud vases I threw and carved this week, both much more precise than my first flute piece. These photos are more blurred than I'd like but I've had a case of nerves and this is my focusing-on-something-else activity. The rear vase was fluted with a ribbon tool, the kind that comes with the beginner's 13-piece pottery tool kit. I love thise ribbon tools- there is a curved end that I use for trimming- that end typically wears so thin that it is no longer a loop- and a squared end, shown below, that makes a nice sharp line. The vase in the foreground was fluted with a Pampered Chef citrus zester. I tend to use it when the clay is wet and it leaves hundreds of rolly-polly strips of mud all over the vase. Works much better if I can make myself wait until the vase is leather hard to use the tool.

Here is my fluting set up. After trimming a foot and using a metal rib to compress the bottom and make it perfectly smooth, I prop the bowl up on nubbins of clay, or if it is a larger piece, I'll use my banding wheel. Since this is a small sauce-sized bowl, I just used a couple of coils of clay. I slice through the outer surface of the clay with the trimming tool, usually going from top to bottom in one breath. If I stop to breathe I wind up with little jags in the flute, so I have to cut a deeper, second cut, like I am here.


I flute my cafe au lait bowls the same way, except I use a tool that's made for making handles- one for mug handles, which I use for small bowls, and one for pitchers or jugs, about 3/4 of an inch wide. With these handlemakers I have to be careful to make shallow cuts or I will cut through the side of the bowl. This is especially a problem for those potters who throw a bit too thin rather than too thickly. Yesterday I cut through three of seven bowls because the walls were a mite too thin to flute- back to the reclaim bucket they go. I try to do these cuts in a single breath as well, or I find that the depth of the cut changes and looks clunky. Yesterday's trimming session was a short one, but I spent twice the time fluting the dozen or so pieces as I did trimming their bottoms.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

first fluting

I made this little cache pot in 2003, I think, before my son was born. It was the first piece that I made with fluting, which I have always been crazy about. I think I'm much better at it now- lots of practice between 2003 and 2008- but this piece still sings to me. It was for sale, once, at a festival and judged "not suitable" by a customer. I agreed that it was rather rustic; she bought something else, and little yellow rough-flutey-pot came back home. It has hosted this small rabbit's foot fern ever since. I'll show some better, more traditional and polished fluted wares in the coming days.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

why I make pottery, II

There is a debate among fine artists and fine craftspeople about what to call work that has a function. Is it art, because it is creative? Or is it craft, because of its function? I'll admit it, I am one of those potters who fall firmly on the side of craft vs art. First, I have no degree- I am largely self-taught. I have an extensive background in art history, and while in college, I took several courses in painting, then explored the field of art education through museum internships. Art education takes up more room on my resume than pottery- it takes more of my time, as well. I have been known to make art, but my pottery is meant to be used, so that, combined with the lack of my formal training leads me to call it craft.

When I was in graduate school, I sat through a grueling review in which a friend, Ky Johnston (scroll down to see some of his beautiful, functional pottery), now a professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS , was thoroughly raked over the coals. Ky was working towards an MFA and brought one of his beautiful, simple mugs to the review. The thing that most stood out to me from that review, other than the professor's seeming rancor, was Ky's statement that he "wanted to make beautiful things for people to use everyday." Every time I'm at the wheel, every time I am at a sale talking with a customer, I remember that statement. That's my goal: to provide beautiful things for people to enjoy using on a daily basis.

There are a very few pieces that I make that I'd call art. This is one of them, but they are few and far between. I think that I prefer function in my own work. I am privileged to work with a true artist, Deirdre Daw, at the Brooks Museum. Her work is mind-bogglingly fabulous (and famous!) and she is a gracious mentor, generous with her time and knowledge. Perhaps someday I'll be able to pick up her gift for combining art with craft, or I will pursue art as ardently as I do my craftsmanship. For now, I'll continue to call my pottery craft and hope that people will use it as it was meant to be used, daily.

Friday, January 25, 2008

why I make pottery

This sweet little pitcher was a Christmas gift from my friend Katherine. It came with 7 small bowls and may well be one of the nicest gifts I've every been given. The set was made by Lee and Pup McCarty, famous Mississippi Delta potters, sometime in the late 1960s. Dr. and Mrs. McCarty are unfailingly gracious- I see them a half-dozen or so times a year in Memphis at the library, the museum, and at the farmer's market. Every time I see them I feel quite a bit like I've just met Brad Pitt- I gush, am flustered, and generally act starstruck. And, because they are so gracious, they always seem to remember who I am.

Most Mississippians know McCarty pottery. Many Mississippi brides (though I am not a native of the state, my husband and I met and married in Oxford, so I feel as though the state, with all of its faults and glories, is a part of me) receive at least a piece or two of McCarty pottery as gifts. Gary and I were fortunate to receive quite a lot of it. The simple, sculptural forms, bold cobalt (also jade or nutmeg, as seen here) matte glaze, and useful nature of this pottery inspired me to try my hand at the wheel after we left Oxford and I was between jobs. I never dreamed that I would make my living from pottery when I began in 2000, nor did I imagine I would be able to tell Dr. and Mrs. McCarty how much they influenced me.

My personal pottery style changed rapidly from mimicking other potters to finding my own expression in mud, but I can clearly see their influence- especially in this tiny bird-like form. I do enjoy using my McCarty every day- our sugar bowl, tea cannister, and ramekins are all theirs. This pitcher is filed with a few short twigs of winter honeysuckle (lonicera fragrantissima) from my neighbor's yard. It blooms every January and fills a room with its sweet lemony perfume. The small, wavy black line on the pitcher is one of the signatures of McCarty pottery- it represents the Mississippi River and can be found on the vast majority of their functional pottery.

If you are ever in the Mississippi Delta, it is worth your time to take a side trip to Merigold, where the McCarty studio and gardens are located. We went down for my 29th birthday, four years ago, and even in mid-March the gardens were fabulous. The McCartys are wonderful artists and fine people; I am grateful for their influence on my life and craft.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

not great aunt edna's teapot

This is one of my favorite tea pots- I made it hoping that it would look like a traditional china teapot, but the knob on top is a bit wonky, and the glaze I chose, a deep celadon that reminds me of old Fire King Jadeite, has flashes of bronze verdigris and a drippy character. I use a plastic zipper bag filled with slip to make the dots- I use this glaze a lot with my slip-dotted pieces. I think that this big guy holds about 24 oz, or 3 cups.

When I grow up I want to be Josiah Wedgwood. This teapot, based loosely on his work, shows that I still have quite a ways to go!

When I made the deep celadon pot, it was a stretch for me. My first teapot wasn't so bad, but it wasn't so great, either. I was intimidated by the form but felt that I HAD to make one because my friend Katherine, who was also my student at the time, wanted to make them. I think that she actually made a few before I made my first, a tiny one cup number modeled after a sea urchin. It is still my favorite- even though I put the spout at such an angle that tea leaks out, and the placement of the handle means that it can be difficult to pour the water in from the kettle. It is a milestone of sorts, not a piece to be sold.

Monday, January 21, 2008

baking

Most people who know me know that I’m not big on sweets. Oh, I like my chocolate- extra dark, at least 65%, more bitter than sweet- but I’d rather have cheese or some other creamy fatty salty concoction than a cake or pie. My boys like sweets, so today, while G was called into the office to handle some pre-business-trip arrangements, I baked a warm and comforting sweet. This trip has been the cause of dinnertime phone calls and emergency blackberry emails about speech changes for his boss’s boss, and has caused a great deal of stress for a normally easy-going guy. That and the fact that we left the warm house to go out into the cold for an early-morning car repair trip (we still have to go back out to get the car) means that the bigger boy deserves a treat.
My infrequently made but most loved sweet treat is a four-fruit cobbler, easily thrown together with whatever is on hand. This time we used apples, dried cranberries, a handful each of frozen blackberries and blueberries from this summer, plus a handful of chopped pecans. I mixed the fruit with some Chinese five spice powder, a couple of tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of cornstarch. The crust for the cobbler is my mother in law’s specialty (she is a sweets baker supreme).

Cookie crust cobbler:
1 stick melted butter
1 c each sugar, flour
1 beaten egg.

These four ingredients are mixed and dropped by the teaspoon on the top of the fruit mixture, then baked at 350 until it smells good and the cookie crust is slightly browned. This recipe usually makes enough for 2 small cobblers, so I spoon the rest into a sheet of waxed paper, roll it up, and freeze it for the next time the boys need a treat.

I love how this looks in a blue pottery bowl. It also works in ramekins for a slightly more fancy presentation-and more crust per person. Though sweet, it is a great way to get fruit into your meal, and if you decrease the sugar in the crust, this cobbler works for breakfast, as well.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

sea urchins

When I was a little girl, my mother had a sea urchin in her bathroom. It was pink, plugged at the bottom, and filled with potpourri pellets. I loved how it felt when I ran my fingers over its nubby, almost sandpapery surface. I remember sitting on the edge of her tub, examining every detail of that sea urchin, wondering about the creature that it was. Ever since then, I've been attracted to them- I love their roundness, their varied colors, the tactile remnants of their spines. In 2003, I threw my first sea urchin. For a while, I made them almost obsessively, large and small, out of different colored and textured clays, all glazed white. Now they are all made out of a porcelain-like stoneware, still glazed white. Whenever I have a sale, there is usually one shelf with a dozen or so urchins in different sizes and textures.

Over on etsy I have one lonely sea urchin. I meant to post more, but when I dug into my sea urchin box I found that there were only two left. Because of the photo below, taken by dear Gary a year or two ago, I my muddled brain tells me that I still have several dozen sea urchins packed away. There is one in my bedroom, on top of the radiator shelf, holding a wonderful lavender and lemon peel candle made by my friend Elia (on the radiator so that it smells wonderful without having to bother to light and snuff), but the rest that I thought I had went home with customers, including my wonderful boss, at my holiday sale in December.

I usually begin my studio time with warm-up throwing. I wedge a half dozen golf-ball sized balls of clay and throw small pieces, like tiny bowls or bud vases, which are then usually dry enough to trim after I've finished my "big" throwing. It helps me with both my throwing and trimming skills, giving me an opportunity to experiment with fluting, slip trailing, texturing, and faceting. I'm sometimes skittish about experimenting on a bigger pristine piece. These warm-up pieces, once glazed, are stacked in a large basket or filled with flowers on a tray where my customers sift through them, finding their own personal treasures. The price point on these pieces is almost always low, most under $10, making them popular with younger and budget-minded festival shoppers (like me!). It always makes me happy to see a customer walking away with a smile on her face- these warm up pieces often do the trick.

This month my warm-up throwing has been all sea urchins. From golf to softball sized mounds of clay, I've been throwing an entirely new crop of sea urchins. Fluted, lobed, spiney, dotty, incised, impressed, big and petite sea urchins. This morning I trimmed one I'd made yesterday, then threw a few more. The urchins need more drying time and more care than my cache of tiny bowls and bud vases. I hope to have twenty by the end of the month, so you will be seeing urchins from me soon.

Friday, January 18, 2008

more bamboo



Here are two of my old bamboo pieces that see frequent use in my house. I keep some bright blooming or foliage plant in this small bamboo-rim flower pot. This week primroses were both on sale and bright and perky at my local grocery store- in the cart they go. A few years ago I made about a dozen of these little flower pots. This is the only one that I kept. It fell during glazing, so I glue-glazed it back together and kept it for myself. My mother has a larger, shallow pot like this in my favorite cobalt blue.


This small bamboo-rimmed bowl filled with clementines is one of two dip-sized bowls in my serving collection. I think that I kept about five of this style, some in white, some in blue, and one in the antique iron, which I also used on the flower pot. Last week I filled the brown one with bright green steamed edamame for a party- it looked as good as it tasted! My boys love clementines- they go through a 4 pound bag each week while they're readily available, so you may be seeing them used as props again.

Speaking of clemies, did you see last week's Minimalist recipe in the New York Times? We made the Clementine Clafoutis Saturday night. It was delicious (and easy)!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

inspiring me


I found this ring on etsy last night- oh, how I love bamboo. I remember my mother's youngest sister and her husband had bamboo wedding rings- I thought they were the most elegant things ever. Recently, I made a pair of socks out of bamboo yarn- not that you can tell it's bamboo just by looking at it, but I bought the yarn simply because of its fiber content.

Bamboo was once planted freely in my neighborhood. As the years passed and it grew out of control, my neighbors find that they are forced to cut it down to reclaim their backyards. Gary and I collect the poles to use as stakes in the garden- they make wonderful bean and tomato tepees. I leave them up during the winter to add some interest to the grey days. They give the winter wrens a perch for their evening concerts, as well.

Bamboo found its way into my pottery from the beginning. My favorite mug, shown in Monday's post, was thrown to resemble a bamboo cane, and I have several bowls whose rims have been pinched and carved to resemble the knuckles in bamboo. These bowls sold very slowly, so I kept all of the blue and white ones to use as serving pieces at my own table.

Oh, I love bamboo. The details about this particular ring are here.

Monday, January 14, 2008

monday is my workday



Mondays are usually a dedicated pottery day- the Museum where I teach is closed to the public on Mondays, little boy is in school. Usually I am raring to go. Today, however, was a day of appointments, some made, some canceled. I found myself with chunks of time not long enough to get dirty in. I work- paperwork, taxes, marketing, brainstorming - at my battle-scarred hundred year old kitchen table that I bought from a funky boutique called Odette that closed in 2004 or 2005. The table was in pieces, but the yellow and blue called out to me. It's sturdy and not so precious that I worry when cars or Thomas the train or the occasional dump truck roll over it, or errant markers slide off the paper. This is my spot. Next to the radiator - we are fortunate to have working radiators in our old bungalow- with my laptop, old and filled with postit notes of blogs to look up and html cheat-sheets. I always have my biggest bamboo tumbler filled with tea (stash's ginger lemongrass is my current favorite), a pint glass of water, and the old school marbled notebook for ideas and must-remembers.

Despite the chill of January- due more to humidity than actual cold temperatures- we have flowers in the garden. These are red double camellias from a shrub that is almost as tall as the house, at least 40 years old. They are gracing a bud vase made by Julie Thomas , an Idaho potter, mother, and blogger I met through Flickr. I bought this sweet little vase around New Year's and she gifted me with its little sister, which lives on my bathroom windowsill. It reminds me of some of Frances Palmer's work, which I love and dream about being able to afford. I am enjoying Julie's little vase and plan to keep it filled with these red beauties until spring brings more blossoms.

So, here is where I spent my day, working on sales tax, dreaming up ideas, making plans, and getting ready for tomorrow.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

natural influences


japanese climbing fern
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery
This little plate has long been sold, but it is one of my favorites. The plant is a Japanese Climbing Fern, a relatively scarce plant commercially, but it pops up all over the place in the Memphis area and throughout the South. Felder Rushing and Steve Bender included it in their wonderful book, Passalong Plants .* I got my climbing fern from some friends' home in midtown, where, though lovely and ethereal in appearance, it threatens to eat their a/c compressor every summer. On New Year's Day, my mother and I braved the cold to dig another climbing fern at a friend's home in the country. Its leaves are different-markedly larger and lobed, like hands; I believe that it is a different variety of fern altogether.

Ferns are my favorite plants to use in my pottery designs; they are also some of my favorite plants for the garden. I love their varied texture and colors. This time of year, there are only a handful of ferns left in my yard to use in pottery. My first big sales of the year are in late April, when there are leaves aplenty, but now is the time that I must build inventory. I put the pot of ferns that we dug on new year's in my cool-ish den so that they would not freeze. It was joined my a pot of ferns that came from my grandmother's house in Louisiana- I know it will not survive the arctic blasts that came through last week and promise to come again. Those two pots, plus a small rabbit's foot fern in the steamy bathroom, will provide some fodder for design, as will the large sensitive ferns and japanese maple leaves that I pressed between dictionary pages this fall.

I must admit that when attending a party this week, I was struck by a large bed of ferns growing in an enclosed courtyard of the hosts- I may need to beg a few fronds from them when my own supply dwindles. There is a vacant for-sale home on my street with some magnificent large ferns that have tempted me, as well.

A gardener is never far from thoughts of greening spring.


*I should disclose that while this is my favorite gardening book (I've purchased five copies for myself and to give as gifts), this is not a book for gardeners anywhere but the South, unless said gardeners just want a good read. It's not so much a how-to, but includes plant profiles, anecdotes, and the bare minimum instructions for propagation and care. Also, though the link is through Amazon, I am not an affiliate at this time. Co-author Felder Rushing hosts a weekly radio show through Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the Gestalt Gardener. It is also available through iTunes. Steve Bender is the garden editor for Southern Living Magazine.

Friday, January 11, 2008

etsy!



Yesterday, after tinkering around
with my etsy account for most of the day,
I listed a couple of cafe au lait bowls at bridgmanpottery.etsy.com!
Lots of online fussing, lots of fussing in the basement photobooth, a little nervous hesitating, but it is up and ready to be looked at!

Today I hope to post a few more items, which means more digging through my pottery bins and fussing in the photobooth for me! Time consuming, but happy work. Dale and Brin Baucum, of Baucum Pottery, also in midtown Memphis, once told me that the actual making of pottery is one of the least time-consuming aspects of a potter's business. At the time, I had no idea that I'd spend five hours online fiddling with things to try and sell my pottery. I thought the wheel was the end all, be all of a potter's life. Eyes opened.

I chose a variation of this photo for the shop banner- Gary took it last year at the Oxford Double Decker Festival in Oxford, MS. The early morning light illuminating my pottery was striking. It was the best photo of the day. That day also happened to be my best sales day ever, so keep your fingers crossed for me that I get in this year!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

inspiring

On Christmas eve my doorbell rang- I answered to find an enormous flat cardboard parcel on the porch, addressed by one of my dearest friends, Katharine, who lives in Beijing. She told me she was sending a large box, but I couldn't fathom what would be in a 4x5 ft flat box. When I opened it, I found this large yellow bird, painted by her sister, Laura Norris . Laura is an artist living in Asheville, NC, with her husband Dan, twin sons, and daughter. All of Laura's children are under the age of six. She recently opened a studio at Riverview Artists in the historic River Arts District in Asheville. As part of her first holiday open studio, Laura made a large flock of vividly colored folksy birds, including this happy yellow one. Gary and I immediately hung the bird over our pantry- it's gorgeous shiny yellow has been a substitute for the sunshine during these past few grey and rainy weeks since Christmas.

I have long been a fan of Laura's paintings- they are whimsical, vividly colored pieces that celebrate everyday life. More than her paintings, however, I admire how she's been able to keep her creative spark alive as a mother of three children. It can be so easy to get mired in the cycle of laundry, dinner, lunches, toys in every room of the house. The presence of creative, artistic mothers in the blogosphere inspires me to devote more time to my own work, just as Laura's bird reminds me every day to use the time I have to go up and MAKE something.


Between Christmas and New Years, Laura's bird kept chirping at me to get up to the studio and create something birdy. This teapot and sugar bowl came together so quickly- in under an hour, start to finish. There's still cleanup work to do before I bisque it, but I'm pleased with this lighthearted direction. On that note, it's time to get me to the studio!

Monday, January 7, 2008

my new favorite picture

This weekend Gary and I set up a photobooth in our basement to shoot pictures of my pottery for slides, blog, and etsy. We used a sky blue linen drop so my white pottery will show up. I think it makes all of the colors pop. This is my favorite picture of my pottery that he's ever taken (and there are hundreds!)- we split the duty according to business and how quickly I need the shots- sometimes he does it, sometimes I do. I used this photo for an application to a spring festival and had several other copies made because I just love looking at it. What a talented guy, eh?

Sunday, January 6, 2008

speaking of whimsy


Ladybug motif tea set
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery
. . . these pieces are among the most whimsical that I regularly produce. When Gary and I first married, we lived in an old farmhouse in Rossville, Tn. The house was then (but is no longer-the city creeps eastward) in deep country, surrounded by fields, forrests, ponds, and the occasional foxhunt* coming through our driveway. Every other year the house would be swarming with ladybugs- hundreds and hundreds of them.

In 2001 Gary made me a combo pottery drying shelf/seed-starting shelf with grow lights for my first attempts at vegetable gardening. That year was the first time we experience the ladybugs everywhere- walls, windows, plants, furniture, floors- but what do you do? My solution was to make pottery commemorating the invasion of the ladybugs- rolling tiny little balls of clay and sticking them on cups, mugs, plates, and later teapots, creamers, and sugarbowls.

The tiny cups and saucers are popular baby gifts- the larger mugs are popular with many women. I started making teapots late in 2004, so I alwasy make a few ladybug teapots for sales and festivals.

Glazing these pieces can be taxing- I tend to make a large number of these pieces at one time so that I can dip the bisqued pottery in white glaze, let it dry, then paint in the details. I go over the bug spots with red glaze and paint the spots, head, and antennae with a tiny brush with black underglaze. Painting the ladybugs takes about an hour per six small pieces.

Most people love this line- with a few exceptions who report that they're afraid of ladybugs. While they do bite (really!) and are truly pesky once in the house, they also eat many of the "bad bugs" in the garden, which is why I always tolerated their presence in my studio. My mother lives in the old house now, and has reported that the winter of 2007/2008 looks like an infestation year. I have to say, even though I feel for her, the results of that first ladybug army makes me, and many others, smile.




*unlike foxhunts in England, no foxes are harmed during these Southern-style hunts- the hounds and riders chase coyotes -when they can find them. My former neighbor, a woman who spent her life riding and raising the dogs, reported that the dogs would come screeching to a halt when they reached ponds to let the coyotes drink, get a head start, then go off chasing again. She also hunted with William Faulkner, but that's a different story.

Friday, January 4, 2008

work in progress


wren creamer
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery
This is a small creamer that I made on new year's eve, maybe. Tiny little pitchers have always reminded me of birds- even more so when they are short and plump. Early on I made a green pitcher with a long, curving spout that reminded me of an emperor penguin. This one was inspired by the early-evening trilling of a wren perched on my empty garden teuters. It's still rough, full of fingerprints and clay boogers (ahem, there has to be a better term for these, right? help me out, potters), but just looking at it makes me happy. Most of my pottery is more serious than this, but I'm feeling pulled towards a series of more whimsical wares.

When I was in graduate school at the University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture , studying self-taught art and traditional crafts, I fell in love with face jugs. Scary ones, devil ones, funny ones- never could afford them, but loved them. I visited Jerry Brown Pottery in rural Hamilton, AL in 1997 and fell in love with them, but unable to afford them on my teeny graduate stipend, I bought a birdhouse, which was an extravagantly expensive purchase at $25. I still have that birdhouse, which now seems like a bargain. Now they're up to $30, which is still a bargain (look under decorative pottery).
As a beginning potter in 2000, I made a few face jugs (I'll dig them up and photograph them later) and figured out how to make them out of pinch pots for teaching with the former Greater Memphis Arts Council's Center for Arts Education in the Memphis City Schools. This is the first thing I've made with a face since, oh, 2003. And it felt good.

Happy Friday!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Martyrs of Memphis

In a Godward direction: Afflicted For Your Consolation
Brother Haller's original icon and an account of the events of 1878

iconography













I made this before Christmas for our priest who was leaving St. Marys' Episcopal Cathedral. It was my first polychrome icon- I'd done some St. Francis icons before, but never in color. These priests and nuns are known as the "Martrys of Memphis," a remnant of the Sisters of St. Mary's who stayed behind to nurse the poor and sick during the Yellow Fever epidemic of of 1878. The icon I based this on was written by Br. Tobias Haller of the Bronx. Gary mounted the icon in a frame made from old kneelers from the Church of the Holy Communion, also in Memphis, where our friend served before coming to St. Mary's.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

cafe au lait bowls


cafe au lait bowls
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery
this is an old old photo on my even older, scarred kitchen table (see mother of preschooler). We use these bowls every day- I'd wanted a set of authentic french cafe au lait bowls forever so I made my own. Look for more soon.

jan term


Every year since 1994 I have undertaken a month-long project- first required by Salem College, my alma mater- later as a way to pass the time between graduate school semesters, then as a way to beat back the winter doldrums. 2008's jan term project is bridgman pottery's blog and hopefully, hopefully, appearance on etsy.