I make a full living as an artist in my own small business named Amy’s Pottery. Over the years, I have developed a strong local following, giving me many repeating fans, who probably have too many of my mugs in their cabinets at this point. Other than custom-made orders, I have four reliable Craft Shows a year I sell my work in (on and off Wheaton campus), a couple of small retail shops I sell in, and I try to do a gallery show at least every couple of years. I am no longer a starving artist trying to find her way. I am there. 2019 was my very best year in sales of my work. When Coronavirus happened, my career took a mighty hit but, I am slowly climbing back out from those tough times, like many of my fellow artist companions—getting back to burning and turning and going home with clay on my pants again.
The body of work I am most known for are leaf-printed pieces. It is a process that adds many steps to the already long staircase of the pottery process, but I absolutely love it. Each piece is made with real leaves that I collect and roll directly into the clay when it is still quite moist. The leaves burn away in the kiln, leaving the print or fossil in the clay. Those prints then get stained and colored. There are other potters out there doing the leaf printing technique, but what makes what I do unique is in the composition of the leaf images. I lay out a painter’s palette of different leaves and create each piece individually and intuitively.