Leigh Normandin

LoveLeigh Creations

Hi, my name is Leigh. I moved to Southern Oregon in 2020 and immediately fell in love with the area. I have a small studio at my home in the Applegate Valley where I enjoy spending my time throwing one of a kind, utilitarian pots on my kick wheel. I grew up in Arizona and have a deep love and appreciation for the desert. I attended college at Northern Arizona University where my passion for pottery blossomed and finished with an art education degree in 2011. NAU has an amazing ceramics program with many different types of kilns and just about any materials a potter could dream of. After college I spent time in Mendocino county teaching 6th-12th grade art. I quickly realized teaching was not for me but continued making pottery on my kick wheel and firing in my propane kiln on a friends property. I moved often between Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties. When a pottery studio was not available to me I would find other things to create such as brick stitch earrings, wearable leather items, or hand painted sunglasses. Starting in 2014 I befriended a group of tie dye artists and spent 6 years learning to tie dye and traveling to music festivals to set up backdrops for bands and selling tie dye and hand painted sunglasses. I got to see Dead and Co many times and my love for the Grateful Dead grew tremendously. During that time I would find open pottery studios in the town I was living in to continue my love for making pots. When I moved to Oregon, my kick wheel was one piece of “furniture” I still owned and had lugged it around with me for 10 years moving multiple times. Once in Oregon, I bought a home with my sister in the Applegate valley and purchased an electric kiln. Most of my time is spent making pottery, running, hiking, and farming with my dog and my partner, Patrick who owns Red Buttes Farm. While I’m still discovering my style, I draw a lot of inspiration from the bright colors of the desert sunsets and alpine lakes. I’m thrilled to be a part of the potting community in Southern Oregon and am currently selling my work at the Tuesday Ashland farmers market and other small local store fronts.

Contact:

Email: leighfrances88@gmail.com | Phone: 480-403-1413 | Instagram

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Ann O’Neil-Freauf

Creations by Ann’s Hands

I tried my hand at pottery about 35 years ago, just played around on a wheel and took a class on how to
throw – My attempt only lasted about 1 ½ year. Then had children and gladly and proudly made them
my Life’s focus. I moved to Oregon in 2016 and after all the dust settled, I decided to try the pottery
thing again in 2021, This time around, I’ve been attempting to teach myself to hand build pottery via
google, and you tube!. I’m a part time hobby potter as best, It is a therapy for me, physically, and
mentally, It’s my minds escape.
I have not come up with my style or preference yet, as I find there are so many different directions and
things to try, so I am just winging it each time I go into my little place I call my studio. Being a California
Native, I have a love of the beach, outdoors and my horses. Many of my items tend to go somewhere in
that direction. Birds Houses, Bird Feeders, Succulent holders, Sea shells, Garden Stakes…
By the time you read this, I could be going a different direction…. I have no plan or idea where I’m going.
You’ll just have follow me on this journey, and we will both be surprised!

Contact: | Email | Phone:  805-750-2667

Viviana Padilla

I love texture! I was the kid that drove her mom crazy by touching
everything in the store, at church, my grandmothers’ gardens, etc.
That love of texture and childish exuberance continues today.

All of my slab or coil built plates, platters, bowls, cups, and hand carved
houses, are simple shapes, with translucent glazes, textured with hand
crocheted lace, burlap bags, ferns, cedar and oak leaves. Other textured
projects are laboriously burnished with oxides so that after the second
firing, they look like hand tooled leather. Like fossils, each simple shape
features these beautiful textures immortalized in clay.

Contact:

Email: plattpadilla@icloud.com

Carole Paquin

Central Point, Oregon

After a number of years making scale miniatures of all kinds, I enrolled in a local community college in Ohio to make miniature ceramic vases. After a move to Oregon , learning has continued through workshops and the Clayfolk glaze study group.  My ceramic pieces got bigger, the colors wilder.  Every year I begin a new series of adventures and new directions.   You will see mostly decorative non-functional shapes, the use of natural materials and experimentation in texture and glaze.  And, yes, there are still miniatures coming out of the kiln.

Contact

Phone: 541-665-1333

Sally Pursell

Twice Baked Clay

Bio & Artist’s Statement

Contact:

Email: sally.bakedclay@gmail.com

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Faith Rahill

Faith Rahill Pottery

“Since starting out as a studio potter in 1973 working with clay has been my passion and my profession. I hand build using a technique called “nerikomi”, using different colored clays to create solid blocks of pattern that are then sliced to create multiple images. Some of the slices are very thin and rolled onto a slab, while others are sliced thick and go all the way through the pot. I use many different clays from whites to tans, colors, grays and browns, as I am interested in all of the different affects that they create. This method of working with colored clays continues to fascinate me with it’s endless possibilities for new patterns and images.”

 

See my OPB video here: https://www.opb.org/television/programs/oregon-art-beat/article/ceramicist-faith-rahill/

Contact:

Click here to for Faith’s website
Click here to email Faith
Click here for ‘Faith Rahill Pottery’ on Instagram
Click here for ‘Faith Rahill Pottery’ on Facebook
Tel: 541-514-8263

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Nando Raynolds

 I find the process of throwing clay an absorbing way to enter a flow state.  It is a great counterpoint to my work as a psychotherapist, coach and trainer.  In that role I am usually sitting, so I throw standing up. I delight in making functional pieces that people will use for years. It is especially fun for me to visit a friend’s house and find a familiar piece of my pottery there.  One friend showed me mugs that he had been using in the microwave and dishwasher daily for the last 25 years!  It warms my heart to think of the good times my pots have been part of.

Contact:

| nando@mind.net