Each piece I make is individually handmade with it’s own unique qualities. While some pieces may be very similar, no two are exactly alike. I am very excited to launch what will be known as The Travel Collection. All of the pieces in this collection have been, are, and will be made during my travels around the United States. This will be a limited collection as I do not intend on traveling indefinitely. Each piece will be signed, dated, and cataloged TC.

A BIT ABOUT ME:

After a full career in the insurance industry, I sold my business in 2018 without a solid plan…I just knew I couldn’t do THAT anymore. I’m grateful for the life it provided me and our family and the amazing people I met along the way, but as my children grew up I realized it wasn’t feeding my soul. I had tossed around the idea of selling my business a few years earlier after the loss of my mom in 2014, but the timing wasn’t right. Fast forward a few years and a series of unexpected family events and a bit of the stars aligning, I decided it was time to jump out of my safety net and sell.

A few months later I took a pottery class with a friend on a whim…BAM I was hooked. One class per week quickly turned into 4 or 5 classes per week, and next thing I knew I was buying a wheel, supplies, and spending more time in the studio than at home. By the end of that first year of practicing and learning all I could about clay, I was invited to be a resident studio potter. I quickly found my “niche” with my overwhelming urge to carve and dedicated countless hours honing the skill of carving clay. I fell deeply, madly in love with the craft and soon came to understand what is meant by, “do something you love and it won’t feel like work”.

The following year I experienced the loss of another parent which ignited me to follow another passion…travel. So, we bought a fifth wheel RV with the intention of eventually going full-time. Eventually happened a little sooner than expected when we suddenly sold our home early on in the pandemic. So, I packed up my home studio, putting my wheel in storage in order to hit the open road…definitely a bittersweet time. For me, it was harder to walk away from my regular clay-makers schedule than to walk away from the dream home we had cultivated over the previous 13 years.

My creative side had been fully re-ignited with the introduction to clay. A few years before I retired, I started painting again and it became a means to sooth my soul after the loss of my mom. I was in the midst of honing my dot-painting skills when the “ceramic bug” bit which redirected my creativity to all things clay, which had me stepping back from painting again. I found myself at peace whenever my hands were in clay, or carving clay, or cleaning clay, or glazing clay. As we prepared to set out on our adventures, I knew I would need something to feed my creative soul and continue the kind of mindful meditation that had started to occur when I was working with clay…but while traveling full time. So, I found a way to have a mobile art studio in our RV. The past 3.5 years I have painted dot mandalas with various medias from wood rounds to canvas to tumblers and even bauble boxes. With the decision to travel west in 2023, another decision was just as big…to get my wheel out of storage and finally bring my dream of being a traveling potter into reality. It feels amazing to be fully emersed in clay again…all while exploring new locations.

Each piece I create, whether from paint or from clay, brings me peace... Thus, Peace by Piece. Each piece is filled with mindfulness and a kind of meditation. A bond forms with each piece I create through the evolution of an idea to an actual work of art and I end up in love with each piece. The detail that goes into each piece is extremely satisfying and I would be perfectly happy hoarding them all to myself, but it is incredibly gratifying sending my Pieces of Peace off to new homes.

And…if you’ve made it this far, Thank You!! I hope you find a piece you connect with and just have to have!!

✌🏼Lori