say cheese

two large platters, sixteen small plates and one cheese maker

Amidst the long hours I put in at my studio, the never ending lists of things that need to be done and the moments when I feel crushed by the responsibility of it all there are times when it all comes together in a perfect moment of harmony and I am reminded that I am in the exact place that I want to be.

One of the reasons why I do what I do and make what I make is not only because I have a deep fondness for objects of beauty but also because I enjoy the relationship aspect of making things that become part of peoples lives. There is no joy greater for me than hearing from people that somehow my work has touched them. It's awfully sentimental I know but hell I don't care, I am sentimental.

It can be something as simple as eating their yogurt out of one of my tea bowls in the morning. Or one of my favorite stories... A few years back a women came up to me at one of my sales and told me she had bought some of my small tea cups from me the previous year. She said that her husband had become quite attached to a specific one and at the end of the day he would go up on the roof and have his evening sip of whiskey from it. It was "his" cup and was not to be used for anything else. When I think of him using one of my cups for his own private ritual (and for whiskey, which I have a weakness for) I feel like a part of me is there with him in that quiet reflective moment.

So when David (see above photo) an Artisan cheese maker and owner of a fine cheese company in Southern Oregon called Rogue Creamery, telephoned me back in late January and asked me to make two large platters and sixteen small plates to use for his cheese service I was delighted. The thought of my work being part of something that was so precious to him and his partner and would be an integral part of people coming together immediately pushed the sentimental button in my heart.

David drove down from Southern Oregon to pick up his plates and platters this week. I set them all out for him to see before we packed them up in boxes. He walked around the table and looked at everything with a great attentiveness and sensitivity. We talked about the flowers and fruit images I used. Me naming them and him responding with things like "oh hazelnuts are so delicious with cheese." (I had drawn a hazelnut branch on one of the plates).

A part of me drove off with David back to Oregon and even though I won't be at his cheese parties in person when he and his guests are nibbling thin slices of Lavender Cheddar and salty pungent bits of his Crater Lake Blue off of my plates I know, along with the delectable cheeses and the warmth of the guests, that I will be part of the life of the party.

This is why I love what I do.