For the month of June, Maine Potters Market is featuring new work by Robbi Fritz Portela. Robbi is well known for her decorated stoneware pottery enlivened with a variety of brightly painted whimsical farm animals and wild creatures, from hedgehogs to ravens.  

 

This spring, she has been experimenting with sgrafitto to enhance her designs. Sgrafitto is a decorating technique in which layers of contrasting colored slips are applied to the clay and then designs or marks are carved through to reveal parts of the underlying color. The colored slips react with each other, making new colors and patterns, and the carving process gives her well-loved designs a wonderful new feeling of depth and brightness.

 

ABOUT ROBBI FRITZ PORTELA –  Robbi has been working with clay since she was 13. Her clay obsession led to art school and then to her own studio in the ell of her 200 year old farm house. She loves to work in stoneware and makes pieces that are both fun and functional. Her work reflects all the years of living and working on a small farm in both New Hampshire and later in her present home of Windsor, Maine where she is constantly inspired by the animals around her on her farm and in the surrounding countryside.

 

ABOUT MAINE POTTERS MARKET – Founded in 1978 by a group of potters who envisioned a cooperative market where they could educate customers and sell their wares to the public, Maine Potters Market currently consists of fourteen Maine potters working in Maine twelve studios. The rich variety of handmade work available for sale keeps Maine Potters Market customers returning. June hours: Sunday – Wednesday: 10 - 6; Thursday – Saturday: 10 – 9.