Cappadocia: A New Collaboration...With You!
23 July 2022
Leah and I are collaborating on a new project. It includes donut-shaped decanters, a 4th-century mother of monasticism, and international travel. Is your curiosity piqued? Then allow me to connect some dots.
In Spring 2020, I was preparing pottery for a show during pandemic lockdown. I knew I needed a pitcher for one of the displays, but I was bored with the standard shapes. A quick google search challenged me to make a pouring vessel with a hollow center, and thus was born my unquenchable desire to make decanters in the style of the Ancient Near East. There are families today with ceramic expertise in these gorgeous, traditional forms that span generations too numerous to count. They have made towns like Avanos, Türkiye (formerly Turkey) world-famous for their ceramic craftsmanship.
In Spring 2017, Leah’s imagination was captured by Macrina, a woman who lived during the rise of the Byzantine Empire in what is modern-day Türkiye. Older sister to church fathers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, she taught theologians and kept the poor alive in famine. Her monastic community gave women an alternative to marriage. Someone obviously needed to write a novel about her.
Five years later, Leah has finished a full draft of The Sun in Slender Glass. She’s revising it now. And while she’s immersed herself for years in the texts of this period, she hasn’t been to the place where it happened. She has to see the fruit vines trained up flame-shaped poplar trees; hear the Black Sea from the Turkish coast; smell the sweetness of the fall grape harvest; and feel the red clay in the riverbanks of Cappadocia.
Perhaps you begin to see where Leah’s and my enthusiasms overlap. We’re planning an art and writing research trip to the Cappadocian (kah-pah-doh-key-an) region of Türkiye this October, and would like to bring you along for the adventure.
Leah will chronicle our preparations for the trip, posting a story every two weeks, and more frequently during the fourteen days we are in Türkiye (October 2-15). You could listen in on everything from our language attempts to our forays into the Turkish and ancient Roman culinary scenes — perhaps even a sneak peek at Leah’s novel.
Meanwhile, I’ll be working on pottery ordered by you! That’s right — if you’ve loved what you’ve read so far, then consider buying pottery in advance. Any purchase of Cappadocia Trip pottery (we’re calling them Cappadocian Commissions) will come with access to a secret website portal where Leah will post her chronicles in real time.
See the SHOP for more details on each commission.
After we return Stateside on October 15th, I will begin making work that reflects the motifs and forms I studied while in Avanos. Any orders that come in by July 30th will be ready for you to pick-up in time for Christmas (December 15th). Orders made after July 30th I’ll still be glad to make, but pick-up will be sometime in January.
Think about it, but not too long! July 30th is just around the corner, and I will close Cappadocian Commissions when the budgeted costs for the trip are covered.
Any questions? Email me and/or come to the in-house sale.
Cheers! Becca and Leah
A decanter Becca made for a gallery show last year.
A snapshot of the writer’s desk.
A map of Türkiye, and the places we hope to visit on our research trip (October 2-15, 2022).