Our Fantastic Mr. Farmhouse

Last week our home and the pottery was featured on the wonderful website Apartment Therapy.

Our good friend and neighbor Aubyn connected us with Geoff Bentz from A.T., who put out the great little article with a catchy title on their site.


Please feel free to check out the link below for a full tour inside our home and a peak at the outdoor elements.


I want to give a big thank you to Aubyn, Geoff, and everyone who left such beautiful and welcoming comments on the article.

It was such a great experience to share with all of you!



We are truly looking forward to more journeys like this in the future...

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/house-tour-stephen-and-todds-fantastic-mr-farmhouse-108233

Inspiration: Vintage Illustrated Children's Books

This is a new series in which I will share some of the things that inspire me from time to time. These inspirations can either be the light on a wall, a shrub in bloom, or in this case the duotone illustrations from children's books from the 1960's.

Some of the Inspiration will make it into a body of work or be expressed on a specific piece. Some might just be put on the back burner in my mind waiting for the day when it could come out in some way or form.



In this case I found these books on the street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn while taking and evening stroll. I crouched down closer to look at them and opened one up to find these beautiful drawings with amazing swaths of color.


I now have these books down in my studio, and have been looking at them often. I think the color is really inspiring me, since there is now a real lack of it outside at this time of year.



We'll just have to wait and see how these illustrations may or may not show up in some form in my work.

Sounds At The Studio, Mid Winter

Now with the studio complete I have been getting back to work, creating sculptures and pottery for an upcoming show (the details to be announced soon) and playing some amazing music.


These are some of the tunes I have been listening to as the snow falls and my hands are molding clay. I know this mix sounds a bit dark, but that's the mood down in the basement studio in mid winter.


I hope you enjoy!

An Underground Studio

For most ceramic artists and most likely any type of artist, the thought of setting up a workspace in a dark, dank basement would make them cringe.

Its one of those situations that typically occurs to artists as a last resort. This happens to be my case, although I have worked in basements in the past, the one in our home scared me.

It looked like it was straight out of the Silence of the Lambs. All it needed was a 15ft. deep pit and a poodle named Precious.


If your asking why wouldn't I set up a studio in the barn? The answer is there is no insulation, and the cost to insulate it would be a fortune.

Some day that will happen, but for now the basement I must go.

I started by raking up all the debris from the dirt floor and then began to shop vac all the walls, beams and any surface that was there.
As I was cleaning I started to fall in love with the fact that my studio would actually have stone walls.


I continued to clean for the rest of the day and even washed the walls to make sure there wasn't a speck of dust.
When I was complete I sat down on a chair and looked around and thought to myself " I could get used to this".


The next day I went down and started to hang inspirational images that I have collected over the years, to bring some warmth to the space.
I moved around shelving and tables till it was just felt right. This is the result.


I know its most likely not a dream studio or even close, but its suits my purpose.


So now it's time to get to work and create with clay again!

A Soapy Venture

I have decided to share with all of you my new venture in soap making. I call it a venture because I don't quite know if the soap will appeal to people at the pottery or my soon to be up and running Etsy shop.
It all started several several years ago when Stephen and I decided to make soap for gifts one Christmas. We made naturally scented soaps such as orange clove, cedar, and lavender oatmeal.

They were a big hit with our friends and family, but the following holiday we never got around to making them again.


Last spring when I was working on plans for the pottery, making soap was on my long list. But with all the work that had to be done around the house, gardens and pottery, the soap making got nixed again.


It wasn't till this past holiday season that I got into the mood to make soap again. I pondered all sorts of scents to experiment with, and decided on two.

Cardamom Lime and Orange Clove would be suited, I thought for the season, and the extra cardamom soaps would be a perfect spring scent to sell at the pottery.


So I got to work by starting with all my ingredients. I hand ground all the spices with my mortar and pestle, and then began to zest all the citrus, and placed them in my bowls.

I then melted the translucent soap base in my huge double boiler that I just use for soap making.
I then added the ingredients one by one, gave it a good stir and poured the boiling mixture into molds to set.


After a day of setting in the molds I cut them to size and placed them between layers of paper to cure.
It was so beautiful to see them laid out all together on the table, they looked like jeweled candies.


The following weekend I gathered up a bunch of my little porcelain bowls and dishes and placed the soaps in them and tied them up with ribbon. They were all ready for gift giving, and the response was the same from friends and family.



I hope when people stop this coming spring to the pottery they will want to get some homemade soap and make this, a not so soapy venture.

What do you think? Want some soap?

Sounds At The Studio, Christmas

Christmas music is that genre that you can only listen to at this time of year. I have lots of favorites and always break them out after Thanksgiving and play them constantly till the new year.

Stephen and I have like, probably most people associate some non Christmas music with the holidays.


The following "sounds at the studio" play list is a combination of traditional and non traditional holiday tunes.

I hope you enjoy this compilation when you are trimming your tree, roasting your goose, or making some pots.

Happy holidays to all of you!

Calling Cards

Today I just wanted to share some images of the new calling cards Stephen made me for the pottery. He printed some 500 of them, so they should last quite a long while. They will live in a little bowl in the pottery and be carried in my back pocket.


Stephen also produced some double sided cards for our home, the M.H. Merchant Stone House. The one side is a historic image of the house when it was first built, and the other has the information.

Anyone who makes a purchase at the pottery will get each one of these little cards, stuffed in their bowl or bag or you could just stop by and grab a few.