I'm Kelsey Schissel, a ceramic artist living and working in West Asheville, North Carolina. I own and operate Plays in Mud Pottery Studio, Gallery, and Teaching Center, and I've been making pots for over two decades! I am a second-generation maker and proud member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, one of the oldest craft organizations in America. My work has always been rooted in that traditional craft ethic: making pieces one at a time, with care and intention.

     In 2016, my husband Pete got a new job at a company in downtown Asheville. Their logo was an owl. So naturally, I did what any potter would do. I made him a handful of tiny ceramic owls and asked if he wanted to hide them around the office and prank his co-workers.

He did.

      It took them a couple of months to figure out Pete was behind it. By then I was completely in love with these little guys. They are, frankly, ridiculously cute!

     I made about 50 and took them to the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where I was demonstrating and selling pottery as part of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. At the end of the day I took a few outside and tucked them into a tree. Standing there looking at them I thought, you are going on adventures. That evening I went home and bought the domain name.

The Adventuring Owls were born.

     Since then I have made thousands and thousands of these little guys by hand in my Asheville studio. They have traveled to the Great Wall of China, the Dead Sea, Stonehenge, the Changing of the Guard in London, and to national parks, mountain summits, and flower gardens all over the United States.

Collect your owl and take them on your own adventures!