About
You already know how the owls got their start. A new job, a handful of tiny ceramic owls, and a prank that took two months to unravel. But here is the rest of the story.
The Creater
Hi, I'm Kelsey, and I have been a working potter in Asheville since 2009. In 2012 I was accepted into the Southern Highland Craft Guild, in 2021 I opened Plays in Mud Pottery Studio, Gallery and Teaching Center on Haywood Rd, in the heart of West Asheville. Currently my work is carried in over 50 galleries across the country. I teach regular classes at the studio and visit our National Parks as often as possible.
Visit my studio at Plays in Mud Pottery
See what makes the Southern Highland Craft Guild so Special.
The Book
After ten years of making these little guys I finally sat down to write the book they deserved. The Adventuring Owls Go Backcountry Camping Through Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the first in a series of six books, each set in a national park I have personally visited.
To bring the book to life I needed an illustrator who understood what makes the owls special. I found Monika Marzec the way most great things happen these days. I was searching Instagram late one night looking for children's book illustrators and when I saw her work it made my heart happy and my soul dance. Rich, beautiful, full of life. I found her website, realized she shared the same values about getting kids outside and into nature, and sent her an email.
She said yes. It has been a wonderful fit ever since.
Made in West Asheville
Every single Adventuring Owl is made by hand in West Asheville, North Carolina. Hand formed, hand painted, and glazed one at a time in my studio. No molds. No shortcuts. No two exactly alike.
Asheville has a reputation for being a little weird and we wear that proudly. West Asheville, lovingly known as Best Asheville, has its own particular flavor of strange and wonderful. It is exactly the right place for a parliament of tiny ceramic owls to call home.
Each owl starts as a small ball of clay and becomes something with a name, a color, a passport region, and a personality all its own. Thousands of them have left this studio and ended up on mountain summits, in ancient forests, at the Great Wall of China, at Stonehenge, and tucked into the hands of adventurers all over the world.
Handmade. Fairly Made
Every single Adventuring Owl is made by hand in West Asheville, North Carolina. Hand formed, hand painted, and glazed one at a time. No molds. No shortcuts. No two exactly alike.
And every person who helps make them is paid a fair living wage for Asheville. Not minimum wage. A living wage. Because good work deserves fair pay and the people who make these little guys matter as much as the owls themselves.
We will never outsource production to another city, another state, or another country. The owls are proudly made in West Asheville and that is not going to change.
Our philosophy is simple. Work hard and be nice. It applies to how we make the owls, how we treat the people who make them, and how we show up for the adventurers who take them home.
