ABOUT

Stone Cottage Pottery is handcrafted by Patti Gregerson in the outskirts of Glacier National Park in Montana.

About Stone Cottage Pottery and Farm … and the potter

Stone Cottage Pottery and Farm is positioned on a tiny hillside covered in sub-alpine green, with rocks and lichen, wildlife from deer to the occasional bear, and overlooking a small quiet lake.

I am Patti Gregerson, the sole studio artist in the pottery studio and my husband and I manage the farm with a tiny spinner’s flock of cashmere goats, alpacas and Shetland sheep, whose fleece we hand-process into yarn and knitted items. The south facing and gentle downward sloping hillside lets the morning sun shine on our honey bee apiary, a fledgling orchard, greenhouse, and garden, all of which will someday, hopefully, provide more items that we can share with folks.

I long for life’s simple pleasures. For me they are a calmness from a slower pace in the day, the comfort of being home, heart-warming moments with family and friends, joy of animal companionship, the freshness of homegrown food, the nourishment from made-from-scratch meals, connections formed through handmade crafts, and the embrace of nature. Through my pottery and crafts, I aspire to produce cherished items that help to instill those wonderfully nurturing aspects of life into the daily lives of others.

I’ve been working in clay for 30 years and have come to use a brown stoneware or a stoneware/porcelain mix, both sturdy and substantial clays. I feel they help to instill a rustic and hardy charm to my pottery. My heart feels they are the right foundational materials for household, garden, and especially kitchen use. I love the essence of tradition and use time-honored pottery-making techniques. When I’m working on the potter’s wheel, I sense the clay particles lining up to form a useful shape that will bring that clay’s function to life.

Small batches... in my tiny studio, pots are made in small batches. On any given day, a batch size can be 6. Some days it's 4, others it's 8, at times 12, and on rare occasion 24. Batches create a rhythm in the studio and allow me to get lost in the work. Small batches provide a sense of anticipation for the next batch to begin and makes me always wish for more time to keep making pots.

Studio rituals… Some days are focused on the birth of a batch of pots: weighing clay, wedging, throwing on the wheel, and moving the ware board of pots to the drying shelves. Other days involve creating the personality of each pot with hand-trimming, carving, surface textures, and handles. Some days are purely preparation with reclaiming clay, glaze mixing, cleaning pots, loading them into the kiln for their first firing, and cleaning the studio. Then, there are the days when I hand-brush the glazes on each pot. Layer, after layer, until each piece is blanketed in a thick covering of color that will liquefy, flow, and then be set, forever in time, once the pot receives its final firing in the kiln. A little sway, a drip of glaze, the lines formed from the potter’s hands at the wheel, all add character and a memory of the small ball of clay that grew into something with purpose.

Small batches and studio rituals are repeated over and over again until each and every pot has reached completion and is ready to enter the world outside the studio. Being … in the studio… it's always a lovely way to pass the time.

I love to make worldly, classic pots, with a whisper of history, dressed for the modern day, for everyday living. I want my pots to become part of someone’s daily rituals, to have endless possibilities, and to be used with routine. Stone Cottage Pottery and Farm exists to create useful things that help enhance life’s simple pleasures, and a bring sense of comfort and joy to people’s lives.