Meet The Artists
In January of 2019, we took our first pottery class as a Christmas gift to each other. It was a 6-wk wheel class at The Macoupin Art Collective (The MAC) in Staunton, IL taught by Jim Linksvayer, one of the most amazing and kind people we have ever met. We had so much fun that we decided to immediately sign up for another 6-wk class, but this time we tried hand-building with Brandace Cloud, the founder of The MAC. She is an incredible human with so much vision and talent and passion; she created a place for people to feel welcome and comfortable to express their creativity in hundreds of different ways. What followed was a 5-year stint on their board of directors, a home studio that quickly outgrew our basement, and a full-time ceramics business with 25+ events throughout the year.
It’s been quite the ride and we’ve loved it: the evolution of our creations, the artists we’ve met, the events we’ve been so excited to participate in, and, most of all, the customers we’ve had the privilege to add to their worlds, many of whom have become friends.
What Makes Us Unique
Every single piece we create is slab-built or sculpted. Not one item is created using a pottery wheel, like a large percentage of ceramic artists, which lends to a very different feel. We have immense respect and admiration for creating art on the wheel, but it just wasn’t for us. We love the freedom of working from slabs and are drawn to the creative aspect of intentional imperfection.
We have a variety of different aesthetics in one business. Chris is drawn to more natural finishes, using things found in gardens, fields, and woods. He also loves to play with humor and interesting sayings to create pieces of fun usable art. Dana is drawn to color and texture, using found objects, kitchen items, and whatever else catches her eye. She loves trying different ideas, so she’s always coming up with new lines to add to our collection. While our styles and pieces are very different from each other, we think they mix well to create a wonderfully eclectic space filled with art that embraces the intentional irregularity we encourage in our pieces.
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We are passionate about charity and giving back, so, years ago, we chose three charities to hold fundraisers for throughout the year: Catty Shack IL, St Jude, and The Trevor Project. We also make specialty items for a variety of local non-profits. In the past 6 years, we have raised and/or donated more than $2500 and given dozens of ceramic pieces for charity fundraisers; and we still get the warm-fuzzies when we write a check or deliver a box of ceramics. It’s important to us to encourage charitable acts, so, it will always be a feature in our business model.
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Articles
Whether it’s a purchase for themselves, or perhaps the perfect gift was found, it’s a wonderful feeling that someone thought our pieces were special enough to find a place in their home or the home of a loved one. And it’s amazing to think we brought a smile to someone’s face, or shared in a moment of peace during their morning coffee, or created a piece of art that could be enjoyed for years to come.