Lunaform, an Amazing Pottery Studio in Maine
This summer, I’ve been really enjoying Skylands, my home on Mount Desert Island in Maine. I’ve had very pleasant company, enjoyed delicious farm-fresh meals, and have had many interesting outings. One day, I visited the fabulous Lunaform, a pottery studio in West Sullivan, Maine. Lunaform is the brainchild of two very talented men, Phid Lawless and Dan Farrenkopf. They create extraordinary garden planters and urns, many of them reminiscent of vessels found in ancient Greek and Roman gardens. Phid and Dan also find inspiration in classic American garden objects. The pieces are all hand turned on wheels, in concrete, and completely steel reinforced and there is a wide variety of natural color and textural finishes to choose from. I really love this busy studio and I especially love what it produces.
1 The entrance to Lunaform is through a gate marked by a single giant urn on an iron stand. Both are indicative of the work that the potters at Lunaform excel in.
2 In the woods stands a magnificent red jar. Each shape of jar and pot at Lunaform has a name. This one is XL Milano and is 66-inches tall.
3 I love the shape and size of this monumental pot, called Dozzina, standing 50.5-inches tall.
4 This footed planter is very reminiscent of the work of Frank LLoyd Wright and would look great at any one of his buildings.
5 Upon entering the pottery, we were greeted by this lovely French bulldog. She was unhappy that her blog friends, Francesca and Sharkey, were not with me.
6 The pottery is a treasure trove of ideas, designs, techniques, and sizes and shapes of pots, planters, urns, jars, fountains, etc. This is an upside down birdbath under construction.
7 This is an urn in the making. The metal shape indicates the outside of the jar's shape. More concrete will be added to the exterior surface.
8 A hand-forged iron stand will hold an urn upright.
9 This is a wooden mold onto which an urn is formed from concrete and reinforced with steel rods.
10 Another wooden mold
11 A bowl in the making - Lunaform has devised clever and unusual methods for constructing frost-proof garden planters for home, civic, and commercial use.
12 Again, upside down, an urn in the making
13 The studio feels very Japanese to me. The large open porches, overlooking the woods, are filled with fine examples of the potters' work.
14 Beautiful woodwork and porches offer a serene backdrop for the decidedly classical shapes of the pottery.
15 Leftover concrete is formed into giant balls, which are rolled out into the woodland as relics.
16 Another Frank LLoyd Wright style design
17 These pieces are raw cement forms awaiting their painted coats.
18 Aging pots are everywhere. Most of the work is specially ordered by decorators, landscape designers, and architects.
19 Ucello is a classic and elegant birdbath with a bronze bath mounted atop a cement base.
20 Collana - a wonderful urn
21 Baby Jude was fascinated by the size and numbers of pots everywhere. Perugia, a monumental jar, was especially intriguing.
22 Dan Farrenkopf, one of the owners, works hard on new designs, finishes, and conceptual work.
23 Laura and Jude examined every pot!
24 I did not know which to choose.
25 Another lovely birdbath - I don't think enough gardeners realize how important a birdbath is to the bird population. It affords a place to cool off, bathe, and drink. Of course, the water should be changed daily.
26 Finished pots awaiting delivery
27 Components, metal and cement, of future objects
28 More unfinished pots
29 Another XL Milano, a very large and impressive urn
30 These bowls are a special commission for a home in Palm Beach, Florida.
31 Another view
32 The Thuya bowl is what I chose for my new garden in Bedford. I bought four of them with saucers for the terrace.
33 Elegant shapes abound at Lunaform.
34 The dark slate finish is especially modern.
35 These pieces were all going to the same job.
36 The two owners, Dan and Phid, demonstrated the special harness with which they lift the pots for shipment.
37 The harness has very strong buckles.
38 A copper patina is very attractive on this urn called Faceted Luna.
39 This is a Tibetan Prayer Wheel.
40 A set of copper Ebro urns
41 Dan attended the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, focusing on environmental studies, painting, garden design, sculpture, and architecture. He designed, built, and maintained several gardens on Mt. Dessert before co-founding the Lunaform studio with Phid.
42 Phid, a student of architecture and product design, moved to Maine in 1976 with his wife and began designing and building solar homes. After starting a successful sporting goods business with his brother and their wives, Phid met up with Dan and founded Lunaform in 1992.
43 The studio is light, airy, and serene - a great place to work!
44 A better look at my purchase, the Thuya bowl, named after an original pot found in the Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor.
45 One of the several finishing sinks
46 There are many colors used to finish the pots and customization is possible.
47 This is the gray I chose - perfect for Bedford!
48 A paint roller is used to roughen the concrete coating, giving texture and depth to the jar.
49 The hallmark of Lunaform is embossed on each pot.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
Martha, the pots are beautiful. I can't wait to see them in your new garden. Are you referring to the new boxwood garden?
Picture #29 would make a great picture for enlarging and framing.
Jude looks so tiny beside the big pot.
I got a kick out of the gentlemen's names. One is Lawless and the other has a misspelled Cop in it...------kop-
Maybe I've been awake too long.
I KNOW you had fun at their place of business...how could you not have?
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | August 17th, 2012 at 12:38 am
I'm soooo glad you found Lunaform...not far from my home. I visited their studio some years ago and it was such a lovely and informative tour. I LOVE the classic designs of their pots, urns, etc., too. You never know what wonders you're going to discover in the woods here in Maine, do you? Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Burndett Andres | August 17th, 2012 at 6:44 am
The pictures of these beautiful pots and urns surrounded by the woods of Maine looks so serene Martha. I don't know how you were able to choose for your new garden at Bedford! I too love the Dozzina pot, the shape and size, so perfect, but I also like the pieces with the dark slate finish. Can't wait to see your Thuya bowls in the garden, and of course the grey color you picked is perfect. Thank you for taking us on a tour of Lunaform Pottery Studio. Phid and Dan, you are creating beautiful pieces of art, and I hope if I'm ever in your kneck of the woods to be able to see these treasures in person! Love the pictures of Jude, Martha!
Posted by: Cindy F | August 17th, 2012 at 7:46 am
Hi Martha,
Before I comment on the pottery I must say I could not believe that was baby Jude. I cannot believe how much she has grown. Wow. I bet Truman is growing by leaps and bounds as well.
The pottery is gorgeous. I love all the pictures.
Thank you for sharing
Karen
Posted by: Karen Tracy | August 17th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Martha,
How fascinating Lunaform is. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | August 17th, 2012 at 9:24 am
Hi Martha, How fun that you have been able to spend some vacation time at Skylands with darling, little Jude and her family, your sister Laura in photo#23, F,S,&GK and your horses! I'm sure you had a delightful time up there in Maine! How great that you, Baby Jude, and Laura visited Lunaform, an Amazing Pottery Studio in West Sullivan, Maine! The photos and the website about Lunaform are fantastic and I love seeing all of them, especially #21 and 23! Phid and Dan certainly are talented men who produce absolutely beautiful pottery items and being able to visit their pottery studio is wonderful! How wonderful it would be to have some of those beautiful pottery items-I love the great variety of different colors and I'll bet they would last forever! I love that you take us to new places up there in Maine and other areas and it's so much fun to learn something new every time you share the photos and information with us! Thanks Martha for being so generous! Hope you and your family have another great day and a delightful weekend in Maine! Off to see The Daily Wag with "A Donkey Update" Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | August 17th, 2012 at 9:40 am
Lunaform makes beautiful things and I am glad to know about them, but they can't accurately be called a "pottery." They work in concrete.
I'd love to see an actual Maine pottery studio featured; if not my own, there are literally thousands of others.
Thanks for your support of Maine arts!
Posted by: Lori Watts | August 17th, 2012 at 11:01 am
This is my aunt and uncle's business! So proud to see them on your site. And that French Bulldog happens to be my cousin. Love all the work they do and they fit in quite perfectly on your blog
Posted by: Wendy Scola | August 17th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Hi Martha,
Phid and Dan are so talented and make excellent looking pots and urns. Not that I could afford to buy any but if I could, I think I would choose the dark slate finish or the copper patina. It was good to read they are made frost-proof because I was wondering how the one at the gate could hold up in the cold weather in Maine. By the way, I like that little walkway in picture #14 – that would look so cute over the rocks I have left in my garden. Those giant balls in picture #15 are really neat looking too. I’ve been puttering around with paint on an old bowling ball, (a sun face), that I planned to put in the yard but now I might paint it to look like a boulder. Thanks for introducing us to the fabulous studio of Lunaform.
Trish
P.S. To Jan, that is not Laura Plimpton in picture #23 unless she suddenly got shorter and dyed her hair dark! It is most likely Jude’s nanny (?) Laura, Alexis’s helper and the same one who went on the hike at Hadlock Brook Loop in Acadia, the 8/3 blog.
Posted by: Trish | August 17th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Collecting art pottery is my joy and spose it was your McCoy that got me so interested. Jason showed us his collection that he made this past winter
while Lois was here this week to celebrate his birthday. Summer has been same for me with food, fun, family here from around the country. Now young ones are getting into back to school and looking forward to learning about LIVING. Ready mix concrete company has been sold again in Bakken Boom but there was not one of them talented enough to use leftovers making giant balls.
Posted by: ann | August 17th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Love the Ucello birdbath!
Posted by: Terri | August 17th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
It's great to see a COA graduate doing so well. My daughter attended COA; their graduates are always up to something interesting.
Posted by: Melanie d'Avis | August 17th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
My favourites are the turquoise urn and the giant balls! I think they should sell them, I'd buy a few for the cottage!
I've been wanting to take a pottery class for ages.
Posted by: Andrea | August 18th, 2012 at 11:10 am
Beautiful work and studio space thank you for showing us.
Dale
Posted by: Dale Coykendall | August 18th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Thank You, Martha, for another wonderfully, entertaining story.
Posted by: Carolyn Boyce | August 18th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
I love the bird bath, and have really been looking for a nice one for our garden this summer. The birds have been loving our garden...we have the "scarecrow" sprinkler set up and I believe they have learned how to set it off for a little drink!
Thanks for this tour...lovely to see how these large pieces are made! The cast off balls create a lovely sculpture.
Please visit my blog Martha
I think you will enjoy our garden.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Monica
Prince Snow Farm
Posted by: Nantucket Daffodil | August 18th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
Wonderful pots and urns...your choices will look charming at Bedford. Lucky you, lucky garden!
Posted by: sherey | August 19th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
I love your posts where you highlight some amazing small business people doing wonderful work. I can just imagine their delight in being featured on the Martha Stewart blog. These are lovely, lovely pots and it was a delight to see them! All made in America - yea!
Posted by: Karen | August 20th, 2012 at 1:12 am