Day two following the Annapolis Pottery Trail

Today we headed out without the kids. They had had enough of driving around yesterday and were off to play with friends. Hey, my husband and I actually got to spend the afternoon alone! What a concept!

We headed over the bridge to Kent Island first, to Carole Cascio’s Lifesong Pottery studio. Carole and her guest artist, Anne Webber, have some beautifully crafted pieces. Carole is a sumi-e painter and her studio includes paintings as well as clay pieces painted with the same confident, bold hand. My favorites were the blue catfish patterned pieces and a long, narrow serving tray was my first purchase on the trail. Anne, who has her own studio south of Annapolis, had several stunning sand-fired pots which generated thoughts of holiday gifts. The two women often collaborate, and a few current projects for next spring’s Potters Guild of Annapolis show were in view. Carole and Anne don’t have websites, but you can reach Carole at 410-643-2635 and Anne at anne_at_webber_dot_net.

Next, we headed back over the bridge and south on Route 2 to visit Butterfly Fields’ Goose at the Door Pottery. Lynda Ells’ studio is bright and airy, set low behind a berm next to one of the property’s fields. My husband and I succumbed to three more pieces—a salt pig complete with a serving from Lynda’s collection of Himalayan pink salt, a small white mug that fit my hand as if it were custom-made, and a single-handed Japanese tea bowl that fit Jeff’s hand just as comfortably (and mine…although I’ve vowed never to use it for coffee under threat of my husband’s katana). We could have stayed and talked with Lynda most of the day if we didn’t have two more far-flung studios to reach before 4 pm. Besides discussing pottery, we found out that she raises rare Blue Slate turkeys (which are penned right outside her studio window) and that her daughter is training horses using the Parelli method, an uncommon approach that does more to teach the trainer how to “talk” with horses (using body language and eye contact with an understanding of horse-sense—move over Cesar Millan!). It was only later (when I started writing this post) that I looked at the business card I had picked up and realized that Lynda is also a certified massage therapist and that Butterfly Fields isn’t just a name they gave their home—it’s the name of the bed and breakfast her husband manages.

Our next stop was Rachel Campbell’s Down to the Potter’s House Studio in Odenton. Unlike the first two studios, which were out in the country, Rachel’s is in a typical Odenton community, a house like any other suburban residence. As we entered the lower flower of the split-level where she had her works displayed I was greeted by “I know you!” Not from Rachel, but from another customer. A colleague from my Mary Kay days whom I hadn’t seen in at least five years. Yes, it is a small world.

Rachel is a crafter of “functional stoneware”—teapots, mugs, pitchers, bowls, vases. One specialty of hers are “African violet pots.” While to me “throwing a pot” means literally “throwing” a pot, Rachel and I have one thing in common. We function best with living things that can speak up for their meals. I’m constantly killing plants, not because I don’t love them, I just cease to notice them as other than decorative. The only plant to have so far escaped that fate is an orchid on my desk at work…because I keep my very unique watering tool on my desk next to it (I water it with a champagne bottle, no champagne, of course). African violet pots are kind of like double-boilers. They fit snuggly together with space in the larger one for water. The ceramic of the second, smaller pot absorbs the water as the soil dries. Voila! A self-watering pot. As long as you remember to refill the bottom one once in a while.

Three-o’clock. Just enough time to get to Wendy Lyman’s Moon Dance Studio in Ferndale and have some time to look around before the trail event officially ended at four. We knew we were going to like Wendy’s work as soon as we walked in the door to her backyard-garage-turned-studio when we heard the rousing notes of Irish music. Wendy’s husband plays the Highland pipes and they spend a lot of their time in Celtic (pronounce that with a hard “c” people, it’s not a basketball team) circles. Celtic knots are frequent designs in her slab pottery pieces. While she crafts plates and bowls, what stood out as unique from the other artists we’d visited were her lanterns and luminaries.

Wendy is another engaging individual and we could easily have kept the conversation going for a good hour. It turned out we also have something in common—The Chesapeake Bay Foundation. I noticed Wendy had the note “Tiki” on her board. We CBF’ers have an affinity for all things tiki (that’s another story for another day). It turns out her sister is also a tiki fan and has been asking her to create something for her yard. When I mentioned CBF, Wendy told me she had done some work to benefit CBF when the Potters Guild of Annapolis donated a portion of their proceeds from one of their sales—and some crafted items—to CBF. Hmmm, maybe next time she donates a portion of her proceeds to the foundation she’ll include a handcrafted tiki god…

We finished the trail at 3:45 pm. Wendy had our fully stamped tour passport, which makes us eligible to win a piece from one of the featured artists. It sounded like there weren’t too many people with the fortitude to complete the entire trail so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.