I decided in 1994 I was working too much and needed a hobby, so I took my first pottery class at the Boston Center for Adult Education. I fell in love. I also took a class at Radcliffe before it became Harvard Ceramics. In 2006 I joined Potters Place taking my first class with Henriette.

I have always had a love of animals and I have always been attracted to bright colors. In 1989 I did an 8 week foreign-study trip to the Middle East and Africa. This opportunity helped me decide that I really needed to do something with animals. Pottery became a way of making that happen. Some would call me a giraffe freak, so you will see in my pottery that I tend to gravitate towards giraffes but really enjoy making any animal come to life through the clay. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in Maine and that influenced my current work as I have been incorporating a lot of sea life in pieces.

I really enjoy handbuilding and extruding. A Henriette led workshop where a group of us all made cats inspired me to make extruded giraffes, elephants and more. Overtime a sense of whimsy overtook the designs of these creatures.

I have to get the idea out of my brain and I love watching it come to life. Sometimes that idea isn’t even specific but there is “something” that needs to be put into a clay form. I have a lot of stuff in my brain so it’s really nice to get it out! I get to decide whether I like the result enough to keep going, refine it or put it in the recycle bucket. Those ideas keep dancing in my head. I love the creativity of working with clay. I don’t get that in lots of other places in my life. The community conversations and work of others all nurture my creative inclinations.

My great challenge is focusing my ideas and I have not conquered it. I need to take the time to do an inspiration board or book around an idea. But my time is limited so I often just jump in and that causes frustration but sometimes leads to a great result.

I have learned so many things from ceramics, but if I had to narrow it down to three it would be:

1) Don’t get attached to it until it’s at home sitting on your table.

2) Go where the clay takes you.

3) Life, just like pottery, is a process and you are never done with it.

Create. Challenge. Whimsical!

That I was never a creative person growing up. I was a very social as a youngster and I didn’t enjoy being by myself! It just didn’t appeal to me. I never did anything like pottery until I was grownup. Now I will do anything I can to be by myself. I need solitude to be creative.

I made this giraffe in a throwing big class with Sue Brum to force myself on the wheel. I like combining thrown and handbuilt pieces. But my giraffe blew up in the kiln! I forced myself to make it again. I am very proud of myself for taking on the challenge to do it again and I love the final result.