Potters Place member, Lizanne Donegan, is my link to pottery and Potters Place. Our daughters are friends. When they were little there was a birthday party and Lizanne gave me a mug. That was the hook. I was pottery curious from then on but art had never really been part of my life. Then another friend retired and we decided to try out pottery. Once I got on the wheel, I was hooked.

I love that pottery is functional and that it’s art. I’m also a hobby photographer and I get much of my inspiration from nature. I found I was taking macro-photos and was mesmerized by things like how a leaf moves or a butterfly flies. So it was a natural move to incorporate some of these images in my pottery.

I’ve been doing a lot of sgraffito recently. It allows me to capture images on my pottery in a way I couldn’t imagine before. I love throwing but my favorite part is doing the design.

Patience. I have not have not conquered it yet. There are challenges on technique and things like that, but I enjoy that challenge. It's the, I've got 5 mugs sitting over there that I have to wait for them to dry that’s killing me. And then I send them to the bisque shelves and I have to wait for the kiln to be done and cool down. Too often I have to wait until tomorrow. So patience, I would say, is my biggest challenge and I haven’t conquered it yet.

This is not an instant reward. It really isn't. And in this digital world, I think this is a kind of a mental respite for the fast pace of everything around us. You can't do this fast paced. You have to focus on this. You have to be fully present in what you're doing or you're not going to be successful. It's a joy to do that and it's a great way to recharge.

People will be surprised that I haven't drawn in 30 years. I only started again because I could draw on clay using the sgraffito technique. It has totally captured me.

I like that pottery is funcitonal.
It’s a lot of fun getting dirty.
And I can’t believe that I’ve created art.

I call this my “Peas in the Pod” project. I haven’t done a lot of slab work. But I also wanted to have a throwing element to the project. Another challenge was to repeat myself - that is, make several pots that clearly are a set. So I decided to combine all three of these elements: handbuilding, wheel throwing and repetition to see if I could make something that made sense. The Peas in the Pod combined all of these challenges. I am thrilled the way it came out.