{"id":60428,"date":"2017-09-19T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.com\/?p=60428"},"modified":"2018-01-04T12:19:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T17:19:20","slug":"jo-anne-gerald-warren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/2017\/jo-anne-gerald-warren\/","title":{"rendered":"Written in the Flower Beds: <\/br> A Conversation with <\/br> Jo-Anne & Gerald Warren"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When things align just right, we often wistfully say it was \u201cwritten in the stars,\u201d from the person we marry to what we choose as a profession. For Jo-Anne and Gerald Warren<\/a>, you might say their lives were written in the flower beds. Growing up in Southeastern Canada, with its uninterrupted greenery and lush summers, the two fell in love with the earth first, and then each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised on an apple orchard in Hemingford,\u201d says Jo-Anne. \u201cWe\u2019ve both been spending time outdoors our whole lives.\u201d Now the potter pair crafts one-of-a-kind works for your garden, like their mystical Butterfly Puddler<\/a>, which attracts butterflies with evaporated minerals, and their Ladybug Castle<\/a>, which features miniature passageways for polka-dotted friends. Jo-Anne and Gerald describe their backyard with detailed fondness, noting the many birds, bugs, and bees that inspire them each day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sunflower Butterfly Puddler<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live out in the country, and our yard is like a jungle,\u201d Gerald says. \u201cJust the other night we were standing back there and thousands of lightning bugs emerged. It was stunning.\u201d Their home sits on a plot of land about half an hour from their studio in Kingston. They\u2019re two of just 600 residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the kind of place where, if you\u2019re gone for a few days, the neighbors look after your house or even mow your lawn,\u201d Gerald says. Each day, they wake up and take their dogs Lucy and Bobbie for a walk down one of the hiking trails to the river.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jo-Anne and Gerald’s dogs Bobbie and Lucy who go with them just about everywhere.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much to see down there, from frogs to fish,\u201d says Jo-Anne. This ritual helps them find peace and settle into their surroundings before they dream up new designs. Then they head straight to the studio, which overlooks Lake Ontario. \u201cRight now, the water is full of sailors training for the Olympics,\u201d says Jo-Anne.<\/p>\n

If you happen to be in Kingston, you can pop into their studio, which doubles as a storefront. But don\u2019t mind their frenzied interior aesthetic\u2014it\u2019s part of the magic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe studio is a mixture of everything\u2014it\u2019s a mess! There\u2019s clay everywhere,\u201d says Gerald. Each artist has their own particular set-up. Gerald keeps a collection of lucky talismans nearby including: A gin bottle found at the bottom of a lake in Maine, a slew of old repaired machines, and a two-and-a-half-foot tall pot that his brother made before he passed away. Jo-Anne doesn\u2019t have any talismans necessarily, but keeps a variety of \u201ckiln gods\u201d by their massive kiln.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them are little owls or birds that watch over it,\u201d she says. Once when Jo-Anne was away at a craft show in Atlanta, one of the owls fell, and upon her return the kiln wouldn\u2019t fire up. It wasn\u2019t until they discovered the fallen god and put it back in its place that the kiln would start again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ancient tradition for a good reason,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The artists’ lush backyard garden in Ontario, Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

Their studio is undoubtedly a magical place, but for them, life\u2019s greater meaning lies beyond interior walls. One of their biggest goals is to use their career to help the earth through environmentally conscious practices. They hope that by making sustainable designs they can reduce the waste that comes from single-use products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the world to be filled with more clay and less plastic,\u201d the couple says. Each of their unique products is built to last for seventy-five years or more. \u201cWe make items that can last through summer in Florida and winter in Alaska,\u201d says Jo-Anne.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lily Pond Birdbath<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Even though they\u2019re both artists now, Jo-Anne and Gerald took different paths to becoming makers. Gerald suspects his grandfather, a metal artist, played a significant role. Jo-Anne\u2019s path was much different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied Chemistry, and came to work with clay a little bit later in life,\u201d she says. Whether it was the kiln gods calling her, or meeting Gerald, there\u2019s something innately momentous about the couple\u2019s story. And they make an incredible team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing about working with each other is that we spend every minute together,\u201d Jo-Anne says. \u201cBut the best thing about working with each other is that we spend every minute together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When things align just right, we often wistfully say it was \u201cwritten in the stars,\u201d from the person we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":60574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[743],"tags":[2042],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60428"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61223,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions\/61223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}