Temunah Pottery’s curious clay pieces charm visitors just in time for the holidays.
Warm, welcoming homes are meant to be shared with others. For potter Michelle Getz, those guests include small and magical folk such as fairies, gnomes, frogs, and toads—and her whimsical work invites magic into the garden, onto the table, and across everyday moments.
“I like to make things that no one else is,” says the lifelong artist, who works in the design field when not shaping clay. “There are a lot of talented people out there, and I try to create things that are unique from what you’ll find at other pottery places—pieces that have a playful, fantastical look to them.”
A few years ago, Getz rediscovered her passion for pottery when she turned to clay as a way to engage her young son with the arts. “After such a long time, I remembered why I really enjoyed the creative outlet of it, which is different from sitting at a computer and designing. It’s a more tactile, hands-on process, where I was able to express myself in a different way. My design work is usually project- or client-driven. With pottery, I found I could make anything—and once I got started, I soon had a lot [of pottery], and needed to sell it because I couldn’t keep it all,” she laughs. “Although, I do enjoy using my own pottery every day.”
While Getz also crafts functional dinnerware like pasta dishes and noodle bowls, as well as yarn ball bowls for knitters, she often gravitates back to the whimsy inherent in her work. “I just love to have fun with it. I’ll come across something in a picture or in life and think, ‘That would be a cute fairy house,’ or, ‘What if I made that into a little gnome or a toad-house?’ What I see out in the world is what has inspired the different fairy house subjects.”
The Twists and Turns at Temunah Pottery
And Getz’s themes take many delightful twists and turns, from a coconut fairy home with a palm tree to mystical mushrooms and a barn and silo toad-house—even a tiny fisherman’s wharf complete with starfish on top. “These pieces are just different. Something that you’re not going to see every day,” she smiles.
Getz enjoys exploring alternative methods in clay. Having worked in a bakery, she turned her deft hand at cake decorating to piping slip clay on pottery in the manner of gingerbread-house icing. The look is perfect for adding a festive holiday element to your home decor, as are her luminary trees, which shine indoors or on the front porch on cold nights. “I do Gnome-tivity sets, which I don’t think any other local potter does,” adds Getz. “It’s just what it sounds like: a nativity scene, but with gnomes, and those are pretty unique—yet another whimsical twist on something more familiar.”
When asked what the artist has planned next, her love of charming, miniature subjects promises yet another playful winter and spring for her collectors. “This year, I want to try [my hand at] some pieces that I haven’t quite done before. For instance, I just started doing mini fairy houses that can be for indoor as well as outdoor, and mini fairy-house ornaments, too.”
Learn more about Getz and shop her latest collections at temunahpottery.com or on Instagram at @temunahpottery.
