The Story of Sea Shell Pottery On November 1,1983, with a gentle breeze blowing up the bay, Mikael went out scalloping for the first time with his good friend Tom. Together the men worked, dropping the drag over the side of the boat and hauling up the catch. Mikael remembers how beautiful the scallop shells and sea weed looked each time the catch was dumped out on the culling board. That image made an indelible imprint on him. By late afternoon when each man had his limit of two bushels, they headed back to shore. When they got home, Tom spent a few minutes showing Mikael how to open the shells. He made it look effortless, but Mikael soon found out shucking scallops wasn't easy. By now the sun had gone down, and a cold wind was blowing out of the North. Mikael was tired after his long day, and his two bushels were beginning to look like two mountains. He worked with determination, one scallop at a time until he finished about midnight. He saved some of the shells, and put them in his studio, intuitively he knew that his experience that day would somehow be incorporated into a new line of work. Within a year Mikael began making plaster molds of the shells in the studio. From these he formed "clay shells" and began applying them to a few of his ceramic pieces. After many prototypes and test firings, he finally created the combination that is now his trademark, Sea Shell Pottery. Over the years Mikael has spent countless hours researching and improving his original idea. He has become well known for his distinctive line of serving platters with decorative handles and currently produces over fifty different pieces of functional pottery. Mikael continues to draw his inspiration from the natural landscape of Cape Cod and dedicates himself to producing pottery to be treasured by people who appreciate the beauty of objects that are still made, one at a time, by hand. |
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