Flower Pots

I’m setting up my Etsy Page, https://www.etsy.com/shop/JulietAKurthCeramist (it’s what one might call a “very soft opening” at this moment), and the first thing I have put up there is one of my Flower Pots. So, it seems fitting that I should talk about them right now.

If you read my first post, you already know that my former profession was landscape architecture. And although it isn’t a requirement that one loves plants in order for that person to become a landscape architecture (in fact, some landscape architects actually could care less about plants), most who are drawn to the field do.

I love plants. I pull over to the side of the road when I’m driving just to see a beautiful specimen of a naturally germinated red-flowering barrel cactus since most of those that I see have white flowers. I take photos of tree bark, and although it’s been almost 9 years since I practiced in the field, I still regularly spout off the latin names of plants when I see them just to keep it fresh in my mind.

So, why am I telling you this? It’s because there are certain sculptural planters and vases that I make that I think of a specific type of plant or flower that would work best with it while I am making that said piece. And where this process is most apparent is with my Flower Pots.
About a year ago, my daughter, who is 11 years old right now, came up with the idea of me making a pot for plants that also looked like a flower. That idea started churning in my head: what if I plant Sea Pink in a flower pot so that the foliage looks like the center of a daisy like flower and when it blooms the flowers look like stamens? Or how about if an Echeveria is planted inside an almost starfish type petal layout for the planter so that the two play off of one another? Or what if the ceramic petals are purple, upright, and ruffly while a yellow variegated licorice plant spills out and down between them? I realized I could combine plants, my old love, with ceramics, my new love, and create something more than their individual parts. In other words, I was intrigued and realized I needed to explore more.
And explore I have! I’ve done close to 20 different designs, some more successful than others, and many have gone to new homes minutes after being pulled out from the kiln. But there are still a few left that you will see on my Easy shop, and I plan on doing several more in the future. I hope you enjoy them almost as much as I have creating them!