Before I start showing up in your inbox more often with kiln openings and studio updates, I wanted to take time to reintroduce myself and tell you a bit about how Baxter Creek Pottery came to be.
I came to pottery the way a lot of people seem to do: sideways. My actual training is in biology and ecology, which turns out to be excellent preparation for ceramics: you spend a lot of time observing, taking notes, getting dirty, and accepting that your subject has its own agenda regardless of your expectations.
I started my business in 2020. This was a strange time to start anything, but clay doesn't care about global events and neither did I. After two years in business, I took a pottery hiatus and worked for a company called Andes Ag doing soil sampling and data work, which was deeply satisfying in a completely different way (although still dirty). When that ended last summer, I found myself back at the wheel full time, which has turned out to be less of a setback and more of a homecoming.
My current studio setup is in my garage, nestled within 75 acres of boreal forest and peatland in Hibbing, Minnesota. The woods have an ethereal quality, and are exactly as fern-filled, mossy, and mosquito-laden as you might imagine, especially in late June. I live here with my husband Jake and our two dogs, Pippin and Penny, none of whom are super productive in the studio but who support me with ample kisses to make up for it.
My business name, Baxter Creek Pottery, was inspired by a drainage ditch... Seriously. Specifically, the one behind our old house in Two Harbors, MN that flooded every year when the snowmelt came through. It was messy, muddy, and snuck up on us every spring with its untrammeled beauty and the surprising diversity of life it supported. We started calling it Baxter Creek, a little tongue-in-cheek, but it felt like the right name for my ceramics business. We've since moved, but the spirit of that ditch lives on in the studio and in my pottery.
The fact that my work is nature-inspired feels inevitable since I have lived most of my adult life surrounded by nature. The moss, flowers, and gnarled conifers of our current home provide endless inspiration for textures, colors, and patterns. Carved surfaces, organic forms, and the occasional sculptures of mushrooms and pine martens fill my studio shelves. I make tactile functional ware meant to be enjoyed, and sculptural pieces meant to make you stop and breathe and smile.
If you're reading this, thank you for your interest, and I'm glad you're here.
With Muddy Hands- Rachel
