Merry Farm Pottery — Merry Farm Pottery

I always hoped to come back to Martha’s Vineyard. It is where I grew up, and where I feel most at home, and most connected to the landscape around me. It is also where I first learned to make pottery, and where I would daydream about someday building my own pottery workshop. (continued below)

After studying pottery in Rhode Island, Maine, North Carolina, Japan, and apprenticing for three years in Asheville, NC with potter Akira Satake, I was ready to come back home. My wife Emily and I had an amazing opportunity, as she inherited a portion of her grandmothers house on Martha’s Vineyard, with the proceeds from which we were able to put together the down payment for our property on Merry Farm Road, with a house, and a workshop ready to go. (continued below)

We bought our house from Frank Rapoza, a wooden boat builder, and wampum artist. It didn’t take much to convert his woodworking shop into my pottery workshop.

My pottery making is rooted in the place that I live. I get my inspiration, and some of my materials, directly from the landscape that surrounds me. I hope that my pottery workshop can contribute to the community in which I live. So I decided to name the pottery workshop for the road that I live and work on, on the island where I grew up, and am inspired by daily. I am full of joy at the thought of making pots here for many years to come.

My first studio project was to create a throwing nook to put my wheel in. Lots of natural light led me to this spot.