By Curt Peterson
Amanda Ann Palmer’s ceramics studio seems a “hidden corner of creativity.” She makes her beautiful array of hand-made pottery pieces that range in size from small tree ornament mushrooms and coffee mugs to good-sized fruit bowls. She exhibited her wares at Reading Greenhouse’s crafts fair last weekend, and generally at Long River Gallery in White River, Artistree in Pomfret, the Wassail Market in Woodstock, and Lyme’s Matt Brown Fine Arts. Additionally, she has a very attractive website: AmandaAnnPalmer.com.
Palmer said her vases (she calls “flower factories”) were inspired by steel mill chimneys near her childhood home in Gadsden, Alabama. The vases are shaped like steel mill chimneys, the flowers resemble chimney smoke.
The pieces are function married with beauty, well-designed and decorated. Her creative process begins with a “ball of clay,” which Palmer spins into the shape of a finished work of art. Next, after drying, the creations are “bisque fired” in preparation for adding colors and glazing, then fired at 2,282 degrees for 14 hours in her electric kiln.
“Play is essential,” she states on her website. “When I set to work in my studio and relax into imaginative play, the clay becomes a toy. I explore shapes that I hope will awaken curiosity and invite touch. I imagine myself in a world made up of these whimsical shapes.”
She, along with her partner Alex Kim, an architect, chose their home near the end of Cobb Hill Road in part because it allowed her ceramics studio to be separate from their living area. Then endless renovation and rehab projects began, she said.
Her studio was first on the project list. Palmer plans to invite the public to visit the studio some day in the future. But right now, she says, “It’s not ready for visitors. It’s just one end of a crappy basement.”
Palmer spends most of her time creating ceramic art, also working part-time with Lyme artist Greg Gorman making custom stained glass creations, a diversion she finds very satisfying.
Palmer’s journey from a farm in rural Alabama to artistic prominence in Hartland is nothing short of fascinating. Home-schooled, and living “a free-range childhood,” she studied for her bachelor in fine arts at nearby Jacksonville State University. It was at JSU she met and married her now-ex-husband, and followed him to Vermont, where he was a graduate student at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River.
Palmer worked several jobs to keep the couple’s rent paid, but still made time to nurture her passion for pottery. She met Hartland author Sarah Stewart Taylor, who was teaching writing at the cartoon school, and became a modified au pair for Taylor’s kids. About this time Palmer divorced her husband.
Alex Kim, also a CCS student, often met at Palmer’s apartment for social interaction with many other students. After some time he and now-single Palmer became a couple. He is now a partner in an architectural firm and Palmer has been able to evolve her pottery avocation into a significant enterprise.
The couple enjoy canoe camping, gardening and hiking. Palmer says she is “chronically content.” She loves Hartland, and plans to stay. “I hope to die in this house,” she said wistfully.
Gift-giving season is upon us. People interested in Amanda Ann Palmer’s creations can visit one of her display venues, or check out her website at AmandaAnnPalmer.com.
Amanda Ann Palmer works out of her home studio in Hartland, which is in the process of being renovated to welcome visitors.
