Little Flower Designs
The Pennsylvania ceramic artist puts a new spin on the potter’s wheel through DIY aesthetics and practices
By Sheba White
Published: April 21st, 2007 | 8:50am
When Linda Johnson began working with clay over fourteen years ago, she wasn't necessarily thinking that it would lead to the functional handmade bowls, cups, vases, and sushi sets that form the staples of her DIY ceramic arts company, Little Flower Designs. "I have a degree in sculpture, and I always liked making 3-dimensional things, and I like to make things that are useful," Johnson said from her home in Abingdon, Pennsylvania, which also functions as her studio and business base. "I think that's what really drew me, and the possibility that you can make anything out of clay."
In 2004, Johnson officially launched Little Flower Designs, named after the tiny flower used as her potter's signature. Since then, her pieces have garnered attention for their quirky pastel-colored, minutely-textured quality, which may recall the sculptured, curvy fluidity of Hungarian ceramic artist Eva Zeisel's utilitarian wares, particularly those pieces during Zeisel's '50s period, where natural elements like birds and flowers met modern shapes.
"When I first started," Johnson explained, "I was definitely doing more sculptural pieces. I've moved through several types of work. I went through a phase where I was doing Raku — which is a very quick process where the pieces are fired, and within a couple of hours you have your finished piece - that type of firing is very earthy. So I was doing very earthy pieces that looked like they had been dug up out of the ground," Johnson laughed, "They were very sculptural."
"And then I went through a phase where I was hand-building [working with pieces without use of a potter's wheel] terra cotta pieces... I was really into hand-building with very thin flaps, and I think that's when I started turning to more utilitarian pieces. So I worked through some very different bodies of work before I got to where I am now."
Johnson's motifs are drawn from various inspirations: a love of watercolors, a walk around her neighborhood, or the birds outside her window. "I'm really inspired by nature. That's just always something that I've been inspired by," she noted.
But she credits the DIY craft fairs and other DIY craft vendors as the inspiration behind Little Flower Designs' growth. "I really find the way they're approaching business inspiring — how they're defining their own rules instead of sticking with fashion trends. I model my own business after that, as opposed to the traditional potter. I don't really follow traditional pottery methods."
The traditional potter, according to Johnson, usually avoids the internet, works within traditional craft fairs, and is usually a member of a guild that's not geared towards an urban or hip audience, but to collectors who can afford the often steep prices that go along with those distinctions. And although Johnson's pieces are, by necessity, in a higher pricing structure than many of her DIY co-vendors, she doesn't foresee a day when she'll work within the traditional potters' realm. "I don't really want to go traditional unless traditional changes. It's just my opinion, but I think that traditional craft shows need to change."
Like her provocative beginnings in ceramic arts — she began sculpting with unfired clay, a practice that purportedly dismayed her sculpture instructors — Johnson comes across as equally ready to challenge the process by which ceramic arts is appreciated within traditional craft circles. "I started out in that area," Johnson explained, "and moved to indie when I was finding my direction, mostly because the indie shows weren't really established then, and that's all there really was. When I would do those shows, people would say that my work was so refreshing, because it was so different from the typical studio potter. Typical studio potters, they're doing hand-thrown work, which is what I'm doing, but they're using very traditional glazes. My whole aesthetic is very different from what traditional studio potters are doing, but it still has that handmade feel."
So far, her instincts have paid off. Since November, Little Flower Designs has become a full-time operation for Johnson, to the point where she's considering hiring an apprentice and vending the craft fairs on the West Coast, where her work has found increasing favor with new ceramic arts collectors there.
"I think people who collect handmade pottery are really looking for what the next handmade thing is in craft," Johnson enthused, "I think that's the whole DIY movement. I really think it's a movement. And I think that's where the craft is headed."
Issue #27
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