the lovely terrain at styers...

There is an incredibly lovely store outside Philadelphia called Terrain at Styers- many of you may be familiar with it.  It is a garden, lifestyle, teaching, and  restaurant compound. They have just re-launched their website and are including more stories about the artists whose work they carry- one of those being me!
They recently commissioned some pieces for their "heirloom" collection and they asked me some questions about my work and process. For the full story visit here:
http://bit.ly/mXvf4s
I am now looking forward to creating some special new large heirloom pots for their garden section. Stay tuned for images and updates! 

A CONVERSATION WITH LISA NEIMETH

• AUGUST122011
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  for home

New pieces..

Packing and shipping and getting prepared for New York- lots of new work to show- 
cool new colors (am loving the verdant and the way all other colors melt into it), new sizes too..

and this oxidized copper...

and red, of course.

big new white bowls...

Sometimes when I  am making these oversized bowls I feel like a pizza chef- tossing the clay like a saucer of dough, balancing the shape under my hands, carefully placing on the "pan"..and making very sure to handle with great care. Clay has a memory and when it is stretched in a certain way when wet, it recalls a fold or a crease and sometimes that will find it's way back to the finished piece, no matter how much smoothing with one's hand. I really love this actually because it reminds you that the clay is alive, it is from the earth--and wields a power over the maker and creates its own mark.
These bowls wrestled from the earth, will hold your beautiful summer salads and fruit just perfectly...just out of the kiln and packed up to go to New York for the NYIGF..heading out soon.
Handmade Booth 9413 if you are planning on going..
happy middle summer to all!

A slice of pure heaven on earth...

I just had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks in Northern New Mexico- breathing in the warm dry air punctuated by brief monsoons of blowing rain and drama, ending with rainbows on all sides. My husband and son were busy building a platform on our land there- so that now instead of sitting on the dirt we can now sit on a chair, on a deck overlooking the magnificence.

 It's a start and we agreed that maybe next summer we will build a kiln house and I can use the platform as a make-shift studio in which to work. How nice is that.

Being there immediately evokes a sense of calm, serenity and a belief in what is right, peeling away the stresses we bring to it. Crawling around searching for ancient pottery shards, carved flint spear heads and coming face to face with some desert creatures- always a thrill. 

I carried back home my requisite tumbleweed-did you know that you can carry a tumbleweed through airport security and onto a plane, but you cannot cross the border into California with one in your car? It will be confiscated. It happened to me last year. Successfully brought home to very chilly summer surroundings in my San Francisco studio it now rests. And a new bag full of collected branches and rocks for use in the clay. 

And a lot of inspiration and wellness too. 

Pride......

in my hometown state today. 42 years after Stonewall.

Now it's time for my children's hometown state--come on California!

A California Handmade House turns into a Showroom...

With the exciting growth of my ceramics works- I had been eyeing the cottage we have in our backyard that is near the coop studio-but has its own distinct charm- it is a loft like space that is reminiscent of what was good about 1970's california handmade wooden houses. We had been renting it out for years- but the studio was bursting--and my family was getting tired of my pieces taking over the entire house. 

So we reclaimed this space and set to work making it my showroom/office, shipping station and-- just a lovely place to hang out and relax too.  Soaring Monterey Cyprus peak through the skylights and the sun sets around the room in a very poignant way.

My husband built the Donald Judd inspired tables that hold the goods- Now when people want to come by the studio- they can come through the verdant garden gate-brush by the koi pond and enter a dedicated ceramic space. The dirty work is all still being done in the coop-but this is an exciting expansion for me--and completes the rancheria we love so much here in the middle of San Francisco....

All are welcome-do get in touch if you are in the Bay Area and come by for a visit...

new combinations to ponder..

loving the way the new colors are meeting-so many possibilities..

square cotton white with oxidized copper and a red splash

grays and oxidized copper

oxidized copper and light green

pale yellow and oxidized copper

pink and black

matte wine, pink and black

cotton white, oxidized copper and pale yellow

and classic whites