By Sarah Stebbins
Photos by Hannah Hoggatt
From our December 2024 issue
Softset Ceramics
Portlander Mimi Olins’s creamy, free-form stoneware is a perfect foil for menu items at the city’s swanky Twelve restaurant and James Beard Award–winning Zu Bakery (owned by her husband, Barak) — and for the deep green of a Christmas tree. Clay ornament. From $18.
Katharine Watson
Flowers are Katharine Watson’s muse, cropping up on ceramics, textiles, artwork, and stationery she creates in her Portland studio. Each piece starts with a drawing she transfers to a hand-carved linoleum block, which she then prints onto a surface. Ceramic ornament. $20.
Sasha Lennon Pottery
During the holidays, Maine is Carrabassett Valley ceramicist Sasha Lennon’s canvas, hosting within its borders pointillistic wreaths, holly sprigs, and miniature skiers in years past and, now, a spruce-spiked island. Stoneware ornament. $15.
Baskets by Dot
Growing up on a Rumford dairy farm with parents who weathered the Great Depression, Vassalboro’s Dot Hutchins learned to be frugal. Today, she weaves tiny reeds left over from her basket projects into ornaments and says, “My parents would be happy!” $12.
Thirdlee & Co.
Michelle Provençal works like an elf year-round, crafting marine-inspired, felted-wool ornaments, plus custom wreaths and tree-toppers, in her Waldoboro studio. Her lobster buoys feature driftwood twigs and the palettes of the hand-painted floats dotting the coast. $42.
Wishbone Clay
New Harbor’s Stephanie Haynes is endlessly inspired by the oyster shells she uses to make plaster molds for her ornaments. “They are like giant fingerprints, each one different.” Rendered in porcelain, the final impressions capture the translucency of wave-worn treasures. $45 for 3.
Jess Jeffries Creative
Maine College of Art & Design grad Jess Beer Jeffries’s colorful abstract paintings — inspired by the mountains, river, and forest outside her Carrabassett Valley studio — elevate the ’ol Christmas ball. $52. Ornaments sell out quickly; follow @jessjeffriescreative on Instagram for the release date.
