Artists' Statement

Cold Springs Studio began in earnest in 2002 as a family-run pottery. Inspiration comes from our garden, our travels, the seasons, our grandmother's kitchens, our students, and our school-aged daughter. We love the simplicity of Japanese forms and boldness of early 20th-century American colors.  It makes sense to try to combine the best aspects of both and see what happens.

People often associate handmade pots with earthtones and rough, "natural" textures. Smooth, solid, bright colors have long been associated with machine-made ware, and even plastic! We wanted to challenge ourselves and that paradigm by developing very vibrant colors and mating them to fun - yet very functional - handmade forms. Our hope is that these pots will add some zing to the dinner table every day. All of our pots use leadfree glazes and are safe for use in the microwave and dishwasher. To read more about the making of our pots, click here. A discussion of our glazes can be found here.

Biography

Cold Springs Studio is a collaborative effort. Each member of the Solla family plays an important part in the life of the studio.

With an undergraduate degree in ceramic chemistry and an MFA in ceramics, Alex brings 20 years of throwing, glazing, firing, and teaching experience to the studio. He has built kilns and studios, tutored glaze chemistry, and worked as a freelance glaze consultant for ceramic industries. His teaching experience runs the gamut from university classes to workshops during the summer to special hands-on classes for preschool aged children. Click here to see Alex's blog about life in the studio.

Nancy has an undergraduate degree in art history, and has worked in several media over the years. Before working in clay, she was a bead artist, making her own beads and creating jewelry and vessels from woven beadwork. Nancy is a natural handbuilder, with a unique sense of line and texture. Together she and Alex design the functional ware of Cold Springs Studio. Click here to see Nancy's blog about design influences and other art forms.

Our daughter brings her joyful exuberance, her fearlessness, and her tremendous imagination to the mix, keeping us on our toes and challenging us to stand paradigms on their heads. She helps design our functional ware as well. It was she who pointed out that our new oval pitchers fit into the door of the refrigerator! (Watch for pics of these new pitchers soon!)