May 2025
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June 21 Stahls Pottery Show 6826 Corning Road, Zionsville Pa 18092 The details
30+ potters displaying and selling their work. Demonstrations throughout the day. The Stahl’s Pottery historical site is a significant example of a rural arts and crafts revival pottery. The round, beehive, wood-fired kiln (originally built in 1933,) survives to the present day.
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Welcome to my vision of Pennsylvania Redware.
I hand make this pottery using the tools and techniques of the Pennsylvania German potters.
Pottery is meant to be touched and you can feel the design scratched into the surface of my sgraffito pieces. My tulips, birds and hearts are inspired by Pennsylvania German folk art of all kinds. I use a rolling pin, molds for shaping the clay into plates and bowls, a coggle wheel to decorate the edges and handcrafted tin cookie cutters for the ornaments. The pieces are fired in an electric kiln rather than the traditional wood-fired kiln.
I am a Master Artisan with the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen and listed in the Directory of Traditional American Crafts presented by Early American Life magazine.
I teach the art of Redware in my Sgraffito workshops held at various locations. My students always amaze me - many are first-timers designing and then using the sgraffito technique to create their own work of art.
My favorite Pennsylvania German saying is "Lieben und Geliebt zu werden Ist die Gröst Freud auf Erden” Translation is "To love and be loved is the greatest joy on earth"
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*** The following locations have a selection of ornaments, plates and bowls for offer: ***
Ephrata Cloisters - 632 West Main Street, Ephrata Pa 17522
Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen - 335 N. Queen Street, Lancaster, PA 17603
Historic Bethlehem - delivering to 66 W. Church Street on March 15th!
* Pottery Classes / Workshops *
Learn about and make your own Pennsylvania German Redware
Learn the art of scratching on clay to create your special plate - a centuries-old technique the Pennsylvania German potters' used to decorate their fancy pieces of pottery. I teach workshops at various locations in eastern Pennsylvania.
September 13 - Sgraffito Plate Workshop at the Landis Valley Museum, Lancaster, Pa
sign up coming soon
September 20 - Sgraffito Plate Workshop at the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center, Pennsburg, Pa sign up coming soon
October 18 - Sgraffito Plate Workshop at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsman, Lancaster, Pa Sign up!
November 1 - Sgraffito Plate Workshop at the Grist Miller's House located in the Colonial Industrial Quarter, Bethlehem, Pa. Sign up coming soon
* Early American Life Magazine *
I'm thrilled that my work was chosen for the photo shoot at Historic Trappe for the 2024 Directory of Traditional American Crafts. My sgraffito and slipware plates stand on the kitchen mantel of the Muhlenberg House on page 61. And I was given the opportunity to participate as a "helper" during the shoot too!
* The Studio *
The studio is located on the outskirts of Macungie, Pennsylvania
The original portion of this barely two-story house was built in the mid-1700's; before the American Revolution began and the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were written.
