The Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail is coming right up on April 30th-May 1st, 2022. The Trail is a self guided tour of 8 pottery studios in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. It’s a two hour drive from Boston and two and a half hour drive from the New York metro area.

As the weight of the world is so heavy on all of us right now with COVID19… we can all use some distraction… something to lighten the load. Being a maker is how I find my peace, so I thought it would be nice to share how I make things in the pottery studio.

So you’ve made a beautiful little creamer, or gravy boat, or large pitcher. The spout is high enough above the rim of the pot to give it some grace, and to allow for it to properly function. The only problem is how to trim the darn thing! This can be a real obstacle when trying to put the finishing touches on a pitcher.

Learning pottery at the wheel can be really difficult. It takes good eye hand coordination and lots of patience. Students learning pottery these days have plenty of information at their finger tips through Instagram, Youtube and Facebook. When I was learning back in the 1980’s we had books.

The annual Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail is a tour of nine studios with over 20 nationally recognized potters. Easily reached from Boston, Hartford, and the Albany area, the free, self-guided tour winds along the beautiful back roads and scenic historic towns of the Asparagus Valley, a local name for the upper Connecticut River valley of western Massachusetts.

One of my customers asked me if I juice lots of citrus fruit. Not really I said, mainly just for Margaritas! It's just that I love the challenge of making difficult forms such as citrus juicers.