About Lucy Fagella Pottery

The pottery studio is an old 1895 three story barn, which has been converted into a beautiful sun filled working space.

My work is inspired by this beautiful land… the woods, the river, the fields, the vegetable and flower gardens. As I work daily, I can hear the chickens clucking beneath me in the lower level of the barn. Also in the lower level of the barn is an attached greenhouse which provides salad greens for the winter. It also provides heat for the chickens during our cold New England winter.

When you visit the studio you will walk through the arbor to the main floor of the barn. This is where I work, making, glazing and firing pottery. I also teach workshops in this space.

The third story (upper loft area) of the barn is where I photograph my work, and store pack my pottery for shipping. I try to keep my shelves stocked so I can ship quickly for online sales and to have work available for visitors to the studio.

I CHOOSE TO MAKE INTENTIONAL “SLOW POTTERY”

I believe that handmade work is important in our fast paced digital world. The marks on the clay, the glaze variations, the slight size differences from piece to piece are all reminders that it was made by hand. It connects you, the receiver of this work, to me, the maker.

"The first time I set my hands on clay I was a senior in high school, I knew immediately I wanted to make a career of it. I graduated from Alfred University School of Art and Design with a BFA in 1985. I set my sights on one day being able to make a living from my work. Slowly over the years between raising children and teaching ceramics I honed my skills as a potter, and in 2001 I was able to make pottery a full time endeavor.”

My pottery has been included in many national juried and invitational exhibitions, as well as various publications, including American Craft Magazine, Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated, Crafts Report, Studio Potter, Country Living, Yankee Magazine, Foodies of New England, and Edible Pioneer Valley, I have been a member of the Asparagus Valley Pottery Guild since 2001, and a founding coordinator of the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail since it's inception in 2003.

“The sheer physical nature of pottery making fills many aspects of my being. It satisfies both the artist and the athlete in me. Pottery is a constant quiet motion; the rhythms are like meditation, moving meditation. I compare it to riding my bicycle through the beautiful hills and farms where I live. As I ride I become one with this beauty that surrounds me: as I make pots I become one with the clay and beauty that is unfolding. It is a great gift to bring beauty into this world. As a potter I have the opportunity to bring the extraordinary into the ordinariness of our daily lives. This clay… this stuff of life: so ordinary yet so extraordinary as it passes through the potter’s hands. I am blessed that my hands become co-creators in this great mystery of creation in constant process.”