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Frances Palmer, a potter whose work has been widely featured in top design magazines, such as "Traditional Home," had no idea the suburbs could be so inspiring.
Life changed dramatically for Frances when she moved to Connecticut from New York City 25 years ago. An art historian with degrees from Barnard and Columbia University, she thrived in the New York art scene, working for Fine Arts Press, a company that specializes in limited edition prints for artists such as David Hockney. Then she met her husband, Wallace Palmer, who wanted to move out of the city.
"Wally had just bought a glass house in Weston, Conn. that was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright," she says. The couple settled into a country lifestyle.
It wasn't long before Frances, who had always loved working with her hands, found her way to the Silvermine Arts Center, where she learned to paint on white clay. Soon she was throwing and firing pots and developing her unique style of pottery. One piece at a time, Frances built a following of devotees, who looked forward to her new collection every year. "I never looked at it just as a hobby," Frances says.
Much as the Palmers loved the glass house, they needed more space for their growing familly. An 1854 colonial, also in Weston, had enough land for Frances to create a large fenced-in garden in which she could grow dahlias, her other passion.
For 10 years Palmer made pots and vases in the house. "It was great while the kids were little," she says. But as her business, and the children, grew she needed more space to work. Wally arranged for a studio -- in the form of a classic New England barn -- to be built for her dierectly adjacent to the house. The design included two electric kilns, often running at the same time, and a gas-fired kiln for porcelain, which requires a higher firing temperature.
Everything Palmer sells is made to order and by hand, either by her in her studio or by Niagara Ceramics in Buffalo, N.Y., which hand casts the Frances Palmer Pearl Collection.
She is not worried about running out of ideas for new designs any time soon. Palmer looks at art, reads constantly and goes to exhibitions. "I'm very visual," she says. "I look, look, look all the time."
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