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 is my biggest challenge and I haven’t conquered it yet.

This is not an instant reward. And in this digital world, I think this is a kind of mental respite for the fast pace of everything around us. You can’t do this fast-paced. You have to focus. 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. The Peas in the Pod combined all three challenges and I’m thrilled with the way it came out.