Meet our newest collection… Juniper!

Meet the Juniper Collection! These pieces will be available year round, any time, and ready to ship for a quick delivery. I’m so excited to tell you more about how we got to this point.

Last year while in Maine, driving on some windy roads (I get my best ideas while driving and bathing), I came upon this idea that I wanted to distill my current collection of over 100 styles and 13 colors down to something very essential, something very representative of my aesthetic. I also wanted to free myself from the pressures of made to order work. While it allowed us to maximize our resources, it also brought me a lot of anxiety. I believe that good things take time, and I wanted to find a way to respond to this expectation while also shipping work quicker. A year round core collection with seasonal limited edition releases seemed like a good fit. I could make work up front and eliminate the made to order element, taking away a lot of stress!

I took this idea back to the studio and we quickly implemented for our holiday season. Our limited edition release was a success! No longer were we scrambling to get something made, or firing a kiln with one piece (an extremely inefficient and wasteful thing to do). We were able to approach the holiday demand with a tiny bit of ease. And it felt good!

Our next goal was to release a group of pots that would be available year round. We distilled the collection down to forms and glazes that felt absolutely necessary-the result is a collection of vases, cups, bowls, trays, and dishes that act as a compendium of the last ten years of pottery in the studio. (Did you know we are approaching our tenth year of business??!!) Next step-name the collection!

Core collection is a pretty buzzy word these days (see here here and here). I dove deep into some other ideas of how to represent these pieces. Because I love a list, here is a list of words that came to mind when trying to name the collection:

• compendium

• tome

• pivotal

• assembly

• trove

• chronicle

• capsule

• codex

• essential

• perennial

• evergreen

The word evergreen really stuck with us at the studio. It felt optimistic, related to the natural world (something I reference heavily in my work), abundant. Another deep dive into evergreens took me to the juniper tree.

Junipers are amazing!!! We may think of them as ornamental, for our yards, but that’s just the start. They have all sorts of practical, functional uses. They appear in the Old Testament and ancient mythology. They flavor one of my favorite spirits. Junipers even have historical ties to reproductive health in the Middle Ages! The versatility of this tree really resonated with an idea that I infuse into my pottery-that these objects are both beautiful and useful, designed with a playful versatility.

I hope you connect with the playfulness and versatility of this work. I hope you turn to your pots at home to fill flowers or space. I hope you will find gifts in the Juniper Collection for your loved ones that reflect both beauty and function, and a glimmer of the values you hold dear to yourself as well.

Thank you for reading along and please enjoy getting to know the Juniper Collection.

With gratitude,

Lauren