Urban Farmer, Police Wife, Mother, Potter, Fiber Artist...Living in the Mountainwest

I graduated from Westminster College with a dual degree in Art and Mathematics. I have taught pottery and worked as a potter for over 15 years. My functional clay work is heavily influenced by Utah's beautiful landscape, and I use local clays for much of my work. I lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation outside of Blanding, Utah as part of a pottery internship, learning the traditional Navajo pottery way, and also how to bead and weave. I fell in love with Navajo-Churro sheep while living on the Reservation. I've participated in multiple national gallery shows in the past 17 years, and taught pottery for many years at the Pioneer Craft House in Salt Lake City. I'm also a full-time statistician. Sixteen years ago, our little family started with a tiny apartment garden and the vision of a simpler life. Two acres in suburbia, an 11-year old son, a 100-year old house, some deeply troubled roosters, heritage turkeys, endangered chickens, a couple of goats, some gorgeous dairy cows and a flock of Navajo-Churro Sheep later, we are fully embracing the simple life. We actively breed many endangered livestock breeds and are members of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC). We homestead in the heart of the Wasatch Mountains. The views are beautiful and the challenges never-ending. Currently, we raise almost all of our own food, including meat.

Jan 31, 2013

More Glass and Getting Ready to Lamb...

It's still very snowy and cold here, but we are starting to prepare for lambing. Friends of ours who also keep sheep already have lambs on the ground. We separated our breeding pairs a month after they did, but lambing dates are still creeping up on us!

I look forward to lambing season. Those soft little babies are so cuddly and we've been so lucky to have excellent mothers who have easy birth and manage their little ones well. Navajo-Churro sheep, I think partly because they are such a naturally wild breed, tend to staunchly protect and nurture their babies.

 

Spring can't come fast enough.

This week, I've done some more glass work - pendants with lovely recycled glass in the centers that look like flower petals when they are done. These pendants are only about 1/4" by 1/2" - the smallest glass/clay work I've done so far.


What are you looking forward to this Spring?

6 comments:

Lori Buff said...

The baby lambs are so cute. Please post pictures when some are born.

January 31, 2013
gz said...

we're looking forward to leaving a Kiwi Autumn and travelling back to a Scottish Spring!

January 31, 2013
Sandy miller said...

4 degrees here tonight..... Spring can't come fast enough! Sitting here planning out the garden and picking out new fruit and berry bushes..... Lots of things will needed to be moved as soon as I can get a shovel in the ground. Gosh, happy lambing......so sweet.

January 31, 2013
Michele Matucheski said...

May it be a good season for Lambing! My dad thought about raising sheep when I was a kid, but he went with pigs because they were "easier." I give you credit for raising sheep--all that gorgeous fiber, too! Pigs just can't compare in that respect!

January 31, 2013
Peter said...

I have just been doing an image search of Navajo-Churro sheep, as we don't have them in this part of the world. The four horns that they seem to be able to grow look most spectacular!
Do you bisque fire the pendants and then glaze fire, or is it all done in one firing?

February 01, 2013
Cat's Ceramics said...

What beautiful lambs and that picture is lovely. I like your glass and clay pendants. I make alot of pieces incorporating glass and it's great trying to harness the randomness of mixing the glass with the clay :)

February 01, 2013

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