Spoons!

August 20, 2025

Rustic Spoons are now in the shop!

I have had these stoneware spoons lying around the studio for the past several months. While I personally loved the almost primitive shape of these spoons, I was unsure of how the outside world would receive them. This past weekend, I finally got around to doing something with them.

I have been doing a lot of research on art in Mississippi, starting with the book Art in Mississippi by Patti Carr Black. I came across the work of deaf artist Mary T. Smith and fell down one of several AMAZING rabbit holes, including learning about the fabulous Mississippi yard shows. I also learned that she grew up not too far from my hometown. Despite inspiring art greats like Basquiat, she died penniless, reminding me of how much harder life is when you are not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. In many ways, this collection of spoons is inspired by Ms. Smith and all of us who manage to carve out beauty in the face of unimaginable adversity and disadvantage. Most importantly, with each spoon I have made thus far, I think about her and wonder if she would like them.

I enjoyed making these spoons. Taking small balls of clay and shaping them into spoons takes the edge off the day. I loved zoning out and letting myself go. I ended up making 16 spoons; however, only 8 made it through that second fire. I have them in the shop now. While I did enjoy the spoon-making process, the firing was another story altogether. Some of the handles curved beyond salvation, some of the glazes just didn’t behave, and a few of them fused due to my poor placement in the kiln. I used my smallest kiln to fire these and crammed all of the spoons in there. I should have followed my gut and used my medium-sized kiln for this fire. A medium-sized kiln would have allowed me to hang my spoons when firing. What I both hate and love about pottery is that you learn a lot with each fire, but the lessons you learn are so costly—in both time and materials.

I also managed to make ONE soap dish. Like the spoons, I had one dish that had been waiting for months to be glazed up and fired! It, too, is available in the shop AND comes with your choice of a bar of our lard soap. In the next two months, I plan to make a lot more spoons and soap dishes, along with those cups and bowls that I have been promising. In addition to playing around with clays, glazes, and firing schedules, I also have a better understanding of the electrical costs. I have three kilns—a small one, a medium-sized one, and a large one. For the most part, I have been using my small and medium-sized kilns. However, after carefully calculating the costs of running these kilns, it may be more cost-effective to run one large batch and use the other for testing—especially if I decide to scale up.

Coming up next:

• Cups and bowls

• A few more biscuit-inspired tea steepers

• Spoons

• Soap dishes

Oh, and you can follow me on my Instagram and Facebook Pages for more quick snapshots into my daily struggles and successes. On Instagram, I mainly provide updates on new items in the shop. With Facebook, I detail more of my day-to-day progress. On this blog, I take a step back and allow myself to be more philosophical about this entire thing.

Soap dishes are making their way into the shop! One is now available.