Lafayette Avenue
Kitchen Pottery & Ceramics
Photograph Curtesy of Joanna Meyer
Lafayette Avenue Ceramics is founded on the values of family connections, wholesome nutrition, and sustainable living. Each piece is skilfully handcrafted, and lovingly refined and perfected. My wish is that you will treasure my ceramic pieces the same way I do and that they will last a life time, eliminating the need for disposable kitchen items and creating a bond between the user and their surroundings.
Connect
Family tends to gather in the kitchen. So many of our traditions and celebrations include sharing food together.
My favorite memories of my childhood and my family are of busy Thanksgiving Day mornings spent in the kitchen, laughing and snacking. Or carefully folding Hamentachen, a traditional Jewish cookie, with my grandmother patiently guiding me until I could do it myself.
It's the community and bonding that happens while cooking together. A child learning from watching the adults, or the conversation that accompanies the more tedious work. These are the moments that bring families together, that create the memories and stories and joy that we all remember so fondly.
Lafayette Avenue Ceramics creates the dishes that hold the food that brings the family together. These are the dishes that hold the love.
We cook with our hands and our hearts and that is exactly the way I make my pottery.
Nourish
Nourish your body with foods fresh from the earth. Wholesome ingredients, grown with care and cooked with love, are the best way to stay healthy, youthful, vibrant and strong.
In an age where there is such a thing as fast food, highly processed and transformed so that we can no longer recognize the ingredients, we need to take the time to slow down and think about what it is that we are putting into our bodies.
When you spend the time to investigate where your foods come from, seek out the people who grow your food, purchase it from a human with a face and learn their story, and then go home and prepare a meal with family and share that special, sacred, human necessity - you will nurture not only your body, but also your soul.
Sustain
The relationship between maker and consumer is precious. When I create something with my hands that is both useful and beautiful for someone to enjoy and share with their family, it is powerful. This is seldom recognized anymore.
So frequently, we eat from disposable, single use products. By owning items so fleetingly and then discarding them, not only are we polluting our environment with excess trash, but we are loosing our personal connections to these wares that we are so intimately associated with.
My clay is bought from a local Phoenix distributor. I recycle scrap clay, glaze and water and re use it. The kilns I use do not require natural gas and I fire to the lowest temperature needed to yield durable product. I treasure my materials and the space I work in and am careful to leave as little impact as possible on this earth.
As consumers, we can change the world through our actions and our decisions.
We can slow down.
We can grow or own food. Or at least some of it. Or just try.
We can buy things - clothes, home wares, food- from people who we have met, spoken to and learned something from.
We can nourish our bodies with food fresh from the earth.
We can prevent the further destruction of the earth by keeping our stuff out of landfills.
We can be unafraid of keeping things for a little while, cherishing them, passing them on.
We can take the time to cook with loved ones. Prepare foods together, share memories. Share life.
Use my pots with love. They can and will hold up to it. They will last.
And if they do get a crack, or a chip, let that be a story. A part of its history, a memory.