Bucket-Sized Mugs & the Ghosts of October

Saint Louis in fall is still hot. Just a little less hot. And that small mercy feels like enough right now.

The studio is full of statement pieces right now, the same three I keep coming back to. Big mugs, gnomes, and sunflower charcuterie boards, wearing their October colors this month and something else come spring.

The mugs are bucket-big, because a coffee mug should hold all of your coffee, not just a polite sip of it. These are for people who want one cup and one cup only, who want to sit down with their hands wrapped around something warm and not think about a refill for a good long while.

The gnomes are in their fall clothes this month, but they will stick around all year. Little ghosties, witches, and pumpkins are along for the ride too, pure Halloween whimsy that only shows up this time of year. Spirits and gourds and garden folk, all a little silly, all made slowly, by hand.

My big project, the sunflower charcuterie boards, have been a lot of trial and a lot of error, but I am finally getting them where I want them. Each one is meant to be a statement piece in its own right, something you set out because it is beautiful, not just because it is useful. I am so excited to bring these into the world.

All of this is building toward my first potential booth, at a local market at the end of October. It is the kind of milestone that feels both small and enormous. Small because it is one table, one weekend. Enormous because it is the first time this work leaves the studio and meets people face to face.

I am grateful for the cooler air. Grateful for the shift in the colors. And grateful, in a very particular way, for the chance to bring a table full of clay out into the world and see what people pick up first.

A fall and winter collection is coming to the site soon, and I would love your input on what belongs in it. Bigger mugs... duh. More seasonal creatures? A whole shelf of charcuterie boards? Tell me what you would want to see, and it may just end up on The Shelf.

More soon, from the studio.