Hello, my name is Amy Myers. I love pottery-making and gardening, and those joys come together here at the Small Sunny Garden, where I sell my handmade garden pottery and blog about my small garden.
All my ware begins with my own clay, a red 'flower pot' type of earthenware which I designed myself for throwing and handbuilding. I used to mix it all by hand, but that is a big job, so I now have it made to order by a studio clay supplier. This allows me to use my time making pots instead!
The pottery sold here is thrown, using traditional methods, on a potter's wheel, or more rarely it is handbuilt, again using traditional methods ranging from pinching and coiling to the much rarer paddle and anvil technique perfected by some of the Native American peoples of the desert southwest.
Which brings me to the question of location. Although I gardened and created pottery for quite a few years in the Midwest, the first Small Sunny Garden was created during the approximately seven years I spent in Arizona, just northwest of Phoenix. I fell very much in love with the sunlight, the space, the silence of the Sonoran Desert. I built a garden of native plants and those from somewhat similar climates: Australian, Mediterranean, and so on. During this time I also began studying the local native traditional pottery, crafted with such simple tools and so much skill. Additionally, in my garden I began using the nearly local Mexican garden pottery available in the region, another form of the craft which quickly found its way into my own pottery language.
The result is a style blended of my own making experience and a melange of styles from the desert southwest. It is made for the sunlight and the garden. Most flower pot forms take into account the need to conserve water within the pot and to keep the roots cool.
Sadly, in December 2018 I was forced to leave my beloved garden and desert and return to the Midwest. Here I am beginning a new garden - also sunny! - and restarting my garden pottery shop. I am so grateful to be free of the abusive family situation that had left me depressed and traumatized, unable to go on with my life. I am happy to now dream of a free future. While I sincerely hope that future includes a return to the intense sunshine of a desert garden, I have begun building anew and creating anew.
For those who wish to know, this new garden is in USDA zone 6a, a typical continental climate of cold winters and warm, humid summers. The prairie begins not far from here, but this is still mixed woodland and fields, many with cattle or crops. It is old, fertile, deep soil. Well, most of it is, but unfortunately the soil around the house is clay fill dirt which will need quite a bit of work!
So initially I am planning a small border of hardy perennials, bulbs, annuals, herbs, and roses. There is blue sky overhead, sunshine and rain, and cows across the road. It is a quiet little country garden and pottery studio...
Do come in!
