Spring Collection: Duck Eggs, Fava Beans, & Mermaid Whimsy
Spring arrived on Haida Gwaii in the way that it often does, tentatively at first, then seemingly all at once.
We'd been edging our toes in for weeks, putting away winter layers only to pull them back out again when we’d wake up to a morning of white.
And then one morning I looked out at the plum tree that we built our house around and the white was no longer snow, but tiny little blossoms.
It’s the first fruit tree around to bloom so it is always my main sign that spring is here and staying (fingers crossed, knock on wood, all the things).
I'd been back in the studio for a few weeks by then, with fresh energy from my few month studio sabbatical, and I'm so excited to finally share what I've been working on!
My spring ceramics collection is made entirely in white stoneware and finished in two glaze colours: Duck Egg Blue and Fava Bean Green.
What might a mermaid have on her shelf?
While the two very pretty glazes are the stars of this collection, it's the texture of the pots that really shows them off, with carved shell lines, scalloped edges, and organic shapes inspired by shoreline textures and the shapes of shells themselves.
Duck Egg Blue settles beautifully into the carved lines, and Fava Bean catches the light with its soft gloss.
I've been carving my shell line motif for years, but with this collection I pushed myself into something a little more whimsical, which I owe a fair bit to that to my four-year-old, Jo.
Jo is thoroughly and joyfully obsessed with mermaids right now.
Her library haul is almost exclusively mermaid books, and her drawings of fairies now almost always come with mermaid tails.
While reading many a bedtime book set in underwater worlds, I found myself noticing the way shells were illustrated, from the delicacy of the lines, the layering of the ridges.
Back in the studio, I experimented with different carving tools and played with line weights in a way I hadn't before.
They really do feel like pots a mermaid might keep on her shelves.
The glazes
I'd worked with both of these colours in small amounts before, but neither has been part of my core collection. It was lovely to bring them together for a full spring collection as they just sit so well together!
Duck Egg Blue is a soft, matte powder blue with yellow undertones (and very rarely shadows of pink, depending on the kiln micro-environment).
The name comes from our small flock of ducks, where one of the four happens to lay blue eggs.
Now, there's an ongoing (but cheerful) debate in our household about which duck lays these lovely pale blue eggs..
And in the lead-up to my planned pot photo shoot this spring, the mystery layer hadn't produced a blue egg yet (they stop laying over the winter).
I'd planned to photograph the collection alongside real ones, and I was starting to quietly panic at the thought of having to improvise (perhaps by testing my highschool photoshop skills?)...
And then, the morning of the shoot, like some sort of duck butt miracle, my partner came in holding one!
I tried to be SO careful with it all day while taking photos, lest it roll off the table and crack.
Fava Bean Green has had a few different names over the years, but none of them ever quite captured the actual colour until now.
I made the link for the new glaze name when Jo and I planted fava beans in the garden midwinter.
They are among the first things to push up through the soil in early spring, and if you've ever grown or shelled a fava bean, you'll know that inside the thick, rough pod is this soft, pillowy interior, and nestled inside that are the beans themselves, glossy-skinned and the most delicate pale green.
Not quite snap pea (as I’d originally called it), not quite sage, but this glaze exactly: pale, cool-toned, glossy where the Duck Egg is matte.
What's in the collection
Mugs (small & large)
Ice cream bowls (with a very grippable foot)
Vases (from bud to biggies)
Soap dishes
Tiny dishes
Dangley earrings
And array of mid-sized serving dishes.
There are also the cups from the first run of my Cup Collective! If you're a member, thank you so much, I'm so glad to be bringing it back and excited to hear what you think of the first design.
How to bring some mermaid whimsey to your shelves this spring:
The collection launches on April 20th, 2026!
If you'd like early access (plus $10 off your first order) you're warmly invited to join my Studio News list! Subscribers get a password a day early to shop before I open the doors publicly.