100 Bowls Project

For some time, I haven’t felt very connected to the bowls I have been making. When I was working full time as a teacher and stealing away energy in the studio, I dreamt of having the luxury of time to explore various ways to create and decorate bowls. I wanted to try all kinds of techniques from throwing to hand-building, minimal to busy designs, shallow bowls, deep bowls, dish bowls, dessert bowls, minimal bowls, sculptural bowls, I wanted to go on a long journey that would bring me to a design that felt like something Sils could settle into, and call home for a few years.

The funny thing I am learning as I embark upon the first 6 months as a vulnerable artist, stripped of any back-up professional title and its comforts of salary and benefits… Is that it is much easier to dream about what life will be like when it is something in the distance. Now standing squarely on a point in life when I have the ability to chase some of my former day dreams, I realize that a fear creeps in when you have the chance to go for it.

so here is to feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

Over the next few weeks I am going to dive into a deep creative exploration where my guiding principal is simply “what if..”

Some bowls will look similar to what I have already been making, and some will look wildly different. An exciting aspect of this project is the ability to offer pre-order slots for bowls at a hugely discounted rate. This is important to me, because as an artist it can be a tricky line to tow: having work feel accessible to a wide demographic, without devaluing my time and experience as an artist. As a patron, you can support this project by preordering a set of 2 or 4 bowls under the “100 Bowls Project” in the SHOP tab. A set is a uniform grouping of bowls that will all visually go together. They will not be identical, but they will have nearly identical shape, and unified decorative elements. Pre-ordered bowls will be available while slots last, for a rate of $25 per bowl. After this project concludes bowls will return to their rate of $45-$55 a bowl.

When purchasing you have the option of selecting the number of bowls you would like in your set. (Quite straightforward) and if you would like a thrown of hand-built set. (Not so straight forward so I will explain quickly here) Thrown bowls create the aesthetic most of us think of when we picture hand made pottery. “Thrown” means that it is made on a potter’s wheel and the spinning motion allows a potter to create perfectly symmetrical and smooth work. Hand built can mean many things, though for me I will be exploring using slabs, drape molds, and coil building to create hand-built bowls. Hand-built work tends to, in my opinion, harbor more character and as there is a deeper sense of a Maker’s presence. It tends to have more play, which I have personally found to draw in some people and repel others based on their personal preferences!

Thank you so much for taking this chance on me and supporting this creative dream!