At our shows, Jill often says just about any food tastes better when served in a beautiful piece of pottery and Jeanette has to laugh. Jill is quite a good cook in her own right and Jeanette has a culinary degree and teaches cooking classes, so food is near and dear to our family. And so is presentation and the art of hospitality. Stone Lotus Pottery brings the two together as we strive to create beautiful and functional ceramic creations for serving, entertaining, and home decor.

As a mother daughter duo this little business is such a blessing as it creates many quality hours together in spite of the four hours between us! Jill has an art degree and spent several years teaching ceramics before focusing on her family and her painting business. Fast forward a few years when Jeanette heads off to college and she decided to get her hands in clay once again and see where things went. The natural and organic nature of clay had not lost its appeal and she took a few classes before diving in with her own wheel, kiln, and newest toy - a slab roller.

From her home studio, Jill gets her hands in the clay as often as possible. She still works in the painting business most days, so everything you see is done in her spare time. It is a labor of love in every sense of the word and something we both enjoy immensely. We focus most of our work on functional designs, pieces that you will use in your kitchen as you cook and entertain and will reach for time and time again. Everything is food safe and can go from oven to table to dishwasher if needed.

Our style focuses on bold, saturated glaze colors with hand carved and hand appliqued elements. These extra touches make even the most functional of pieces, like a spoon rest, into a piece of art that sits on your kitchen counter. Carved elements also allow the glaze to express itself in far more interesting and unique ways. The texture it creates and the movement of glaze is a hallmark of our style.

In addition to this Etsy shop, we also make several appearances at craft shows in the Carolinas at various times throughout the year. And we are just beginning to sell in a few retail locations as well. Though, this little Etsy shop is still the heart and soul of who we are and is the place where we feel most at home among artists and artisans. We are so happy to be among so much talent and love being able to share our talent with so many.

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Just as food for thought so to speak, we thought we would also tell you a little more about the process of making ceramics. With multiple steps and several days in each, it is a bit longer of a process than many initially realize. It means getting ready for each show and stocking our Etsy shop takes plenty of preparation and time in advance.

1. FORMING CLAY - First the clay body is formed. Clay can be formed on the wheel or rolled out like pie dough and hand built from a flat slab. Anything you see that isn't round like a plate or bowl is typically hand built from a slab.
2. CARVING - After drying for about one day, the clay is leather hard and can be put back on the wheel to be trimmed and at that point, can also be hand carved.
3. DRYING - Next it must air dry for several days. Depending on the humidity and temperature it can be up to 4 or 5 days.
4. BISQUE FIRING - Once air dry, the clay is put in the kiln for the first firing. It takes about 8 hours and it is fired to about 1800 degrees and turns to stone. It also shrinks about 15% in this process. Once fired, the kiln takes about 12 hours to cool enough to unload.
5. SANDING - Bisque ware needs to be sanded to remove any rough edges.
6. WAXING - We apply a thin layer of wax to the bottom of each piece to keep the glaze from adhering to the bottom in the next step.
7. GLAZING - Glaze can be applied in several ways, but we most often spray or hand apply our glazes. We use three types of clay (white, speckled, and red) and each reacts differently with each glaze color. Several of our pieces also include a two or three step glaze process depending on how many colors we use or how they are layered.
8. GLAZE FIRING - Once glazed, we load the kiln again for a second firing. The kiln reaches 2200 degrees and causes the glaze to harden and crystallize to an almost glass like finish. It takes a full 24 hours to reach 2200 degrees and then cool to room temperature for removal.

Given that the kiln can hold 20 - 30 pieces per firing, the process from start to finish can easily take two weeks. And for this reason, we stock our shop with ready to ship items at this time.