Becky Zee – Memphis Flyer

If you think winter is coming, Jon Snow, you’re wrong. It’s here. You are going to need a dragon, or whatever crazy creature that artist Becky Zee has imagined into existence from her Pots with Personality studio. I hear she’s got a new one named Gordo that might be ready for the 2020 WinterArts holiday artists market.

This curated show and sale highlights some of the finest artists, makers, and craftspeople in our region.

Artists like Michael Talbot, who will be showcasing his Shaker Boxes, work tirelessly at their craft in preparation for the show. The boxes are made of thin, curved wood sheets and fitted with tops. The antique painted poplar wood boxes will be sold individually and in stacks.

Facebook/WinterArts

All I want for Christmas is Gordo the dragon.

“After being cut in a strip, the wood goes in for a 14-minute steam bath. Then it is wrapped to the drying form. Santa’s shop is really a mess during this busy time,” says Talbot.

Look for fiber wearable art, too. Vickie Vipperman is part of a movement called “slow cloth” that promotes sustainable practices and values high quality over large quantity. She weaves and dyes from her home studio using mostly silk, cotton, bamboo, and hemp yarns. Like many of the artists at the market, due to the custom aspects of her work, she only sells at shows like WinterArts.

Find these and many other exceptional and unique handcrafted works in glass, metal, wood, fiber, and clay, plus jewelry and more.

WinterArts, Shops of Saddle Creek, 7509 Poplar in former Sur La Table location, starts Saturday, Nov. 28, and continues through Friday, Dec. 25, free entry.

Local ceramics artist Becky Zee hosts a virtual Crittermaking at-home ceramics class through the first of Arrow Creative’s Creatively Quarantined online series this Friday, April 3rd.

“It’s new for me, and it’s new for them,” she says.

While the world of online classes is new to Zee, as it is for many others, one thing she knows very well is the art of ceramics, having worked with the medium since she was 5 years old. Through her artistic career, she has become a full-time ceramics artist, specializing in crafting critters out of clay. And she’s here to show the public that they can do it, too, using a basic pottery method called “pinch pot” construction.

Crittermaking with Becky Zee

“It’s the very first thing that you’re taught whenever you take a ceramics class,” says Zee.

She says this class is appropriate for all ages and all levels. What’s more, anyone who doesn’t already have materials can have a kit containing clay, sculpting tools, acrylics paints, and a paintbrush delivered to their door by Arrow Creative.

In times like these when we must be creative in how we spend our extra free time, Zee says this class could serve as a great outlet.

“As anybody can tell you right now, we’re all under a lot of stress, and I think arts and entertainment help to alleviate that stress,” says Zee. “The only thing you can control right now is just to maintain a positive attitude. So Arrow is helping people to get rid of that stress and just have a little bit of fun.”

Creatively Quarantined: Crittermaking with Becky Zee, arrowcreative.org, Friday, April 3rd, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., $65 class fee (includes ceramics kit), $20 for each additional kit.