Hi, I’m Sarah Chenoweth Davis, porcelain addict and consummate craftsman. I love patterns, graphic line, and bold colors. My ploy is to reel you in with graceful, charming character, and keep you enraptured with wondrous detail and texture, in order to bring some joy and intimacy to your everyday life.
Every piece is lovingly crafted, from wet clay to the very last dot of glaze, by me, newly relocated to New Jersey, outside Philly.
Ah, Oregon…
It’s time for my annual sojourn to the place this colorful creative journey really got started, Hood River. What started out as a “can we make some more room in the garage, please Sarah?” sale has evolved into a very precious weekend for me and friends and family who’ve helped me build this life. It’s a time to reconnect and reflect…and get rid of some pots!
I will have the traditional array of new work, seconds, and discounted older pieces. It’s an eclectic mix of forms and styles, with some teaching demos and prototypes thrown in as well. If you are in the area, it would be MARVELOUS to meet or catch up.
I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of magic cookie bars, too ;)
Questions? email me at sarah@scdceramics.com
The Maker’s Playbook:
Working with Galleries
Galleries! What kinds of ideas pop into your head when you hear that word? There are lots of stereotypes, for sure. As someone who has both worked with galleries as an artist and has worked behind the desk at galleries, I have thoughts...so I recently sat down with Rebecca Ickes Carra of @themakersplaybook to chat about those thoughts. Give a listen if the topic interests you, or if you'd like to hear some stories of my own journey in clay.
Shop Update December 10, 2022
Mark your calendars for noon eastern time, December 10, for the release of my winter collection, featuring a special winter palette of maroon, hunter green, iceberg blue, and slate.
Featuring the release of my new espresso mugs! Tiny but spunky footed mugs in my trademark form, with delightful patterns to enhance your morning rituals…or add some pizzazz to your desktop or vanity.
Orders placed Saturday will ship by December 13th.
Back to Oregon!
I’m traveling back to Oregon for the first time since the big move, to continue my 15+ year tradition - a cleaning-out-the-cupboards sale at the site of my first studio, my parents’ home.
It’s a lovely spread of older work and brand new pieces, so you might get a glimpse of how my work has evolved over the years. You’ll also find great deals on slightly flawed pieces (seconds) and some of the older pieces. If you are in the area, I’d love to see you - it’s a gorgeous time of year for this area, the Hood River Valley, which is lined with fruit orchards, all in bloom.
I’ll be setting up Friday afternoon, so if you don’t mind a little disarray, feel free to stop by for first dibs from 2-5pm.
Which is your favorite?? Design your dream piece by choosing between these 10 patterns and 10 colors (L to R, top to bottom: Red, Soft Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Chartreuse, Turquoise, Soft Turquoise, Jet Black, White/Bare Porcelain; Image here shows glazed porcelain in Milk Glass Matrix).
To help get me across the finish line with my new studio build-out, I’ll be doing, for the first time ever, an ALL-CUSTOM PRE-SALE, taking orders for mugs, salad bowls, and tumblers in any of my classic patterns and colors. Choose between some of my go-to color combos or customize a piece with your favorites hues. Browse this site and my Instagram feed for ideas and inspiration.
All pieces will be offered at a discount to the general public, and everyone subscribed to my email newsletter will receive an additional 10% off their entire order! Sign up before 10 a.m. July 23rd to receive the discount code via email.
Disclaimer: This is an exciting time in my life - a new chapter with so much possibility for me and my studio practice. With this new chapter comes a lot of new routines and processes, so timelines are, at this point, undefined, but rest assured orders will be shipped as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and flexibility!
Gather:Make:Shelter works with people experiencing houselessness and poverty through collaborative, skill-building projects in creative fields. I’ve been honored to work with this organization in a variety of ways since its inception in 2018. This month Russo Lee Gallery hosts an exhibition of works created in collaboration between housed and unhoused artists of Portland. As a collaborating artist, I’m also fortunate to have some of my personal work included, this new grouping of Snuff Bottles.
The show includes a variety of stirring, potent pieces, and I hope you stop by if you’re in the area. If not, check out selections from the show on the Russo Lee homepage and find more info on the GMS Instagram feed.
Now showing at Russo Lee Gallery through the end of July
Transforming the guest bed”room” into my studio.
As has been the case for so many, the past year put what we truly need into sharp focus. At the end of 2020 we’d begun to make some changes, but some big categories needed a lot of work - including our living situation and my studio arrangement. Given the over-heated real estate market of the Portland area, it was difficult to envision a stable future for us there. Then in January, after the passing of my father-in-law, we found ourselves seriously considering what, in prior years, we’d considered laughable - moving to New Jersey. With Mark’s passing, we’d been gifted the opportunity to reside in a very unique residential area, a mutual housing corporation. It’s a non-profit in which every resident owns an equal share in the entire neighborhood, and our membership gives us the right to occupancy in perpetuity. Yeah, it’s kinda like communism! The federal government built this neighborhood, along with 7 others in 1940-42, but the program fell apart because of bureaucratic disfunction. Which is really too bad, because they’re wildly successful affordable housing systems. It’s by no means a flashy place to live, but our neighborhood has a 2-5 year waitlist (or you can inherit a home, as my husband did) because the cost is so low. Think HOA, but with no mortgage payment. It’s stable housing that affords you the opportunity to LIVE, not just work to pay the mortgage/rent.
We’d been talking for years about moving east (I’ve always loved Philly), for the culture, the density, to be close to friends and family that we never got to see. My husband had just started his own business, a consulting and urban design firm not tethered by geography, and I was stoked to be in a region thick with arts traditions, organizations, events, and a bustling clay scene. So we took the plunge and left our home of nearly two decades. We are supported and so grateful for the family we already have here (Brian grew up just “down the street”), who have cheered us on and helped out in so many ways. It instantly felt like home.
Check out my latest email newsletter for a few more pics and stories from our move and renovation.
