Made in VT: N3 Pottery

MORETOWN, Vt. (WCAX) - By default, Shannon Morrison has some of the coolest dinnerware out there. That’s mostly because she made it herself.

“It’s really fun, it’s a very meditative practice to do the carving itself,” she says.

Morrison owns N3 Pottery, making hand-built and hand-thrown pottery from her home studio in Moretown.

“I specialize in something called sgraffito, carving through a black underglaze usually or a gray slip to reveal the white underneath,” she explains. Morrison has been doing pottery since 2009, when she took a class at a local studio while she was going through a rough patch.

“I was having a really bad year,” she laughs. “It was a reward for myself.”

That bad year came with a serious silver lining -- a new hobby for this full-time ecologist.

“It was clear to me right away that I needed this in my life and it was something that I was missing,” she says.

You’ll notice her designs are very much inspired by nature. It’s something both she and her customers love.

“I guess the motto of my artwork is ‘heart and hands inspired by nature.’ When you create something in the image of something that you love, you capture it in a way that’s really hard to do just by seeing it as you drive by or walk by,” Morrison says. The sgraffito style of her work adds a new and unique look to her pieces. Butterflies, bears, or birds... there’s always a new scene to create using her mugs, bowls, or plates. Since they’re made by hand, each one is different than the rest.

But Morrison says her favorite part of this process is having the chance to be creative.

“You know there’s just a whole new critter or scene or animal or something I’d like to explore and capture, and I guess that’s the piece that’s the really creative aspect that I love,” she says.

The best way to get a funky piece for yourself is online, though Morrison does a few craft shows each year where you can see the full range of her work in-person.

Copyright 2023 WCAX. All rights reserved.