Third Craft Pottery

A couple weeks ago, my good friend, Heather, spent some time with me in the studio 🤍

Heather is actually one of the very first people I met when I moved to Boston over 20 years ago, and we’ve been close friends ever since. She’s always had such a natural talent behind the camera, and it’s been amazing to watch her continue to thrive. She captured some really special moments in the studio.

I’m so happy she’s back in Boston—it means more time to create together and just hang out!

📸

I’ve been reflecting back on my trip to Detroit and Dearborn last week after much needed rest. I am grateful for the experience, for all the people I met, and for everyone who came out to see our exhibit Palestine: Grief & Connection Through Clay. I wish I could relive it all over again, but I am hopeful we will be doing it again soon!

1- Airbnb morning view out the window
2- Mural in Detroit’s Eastern Market neighborhood
3- proudly displaying “Palestine Will Be Free” sign behind the counter.
4- Sweets for days at the best middle eastern super market I’ve ever seen, behind the Arab American National Museum
5- Celebrating birthday with cake
6- Juggler entertaining drivers off the side of the road
7- next to our collaborative piece “Meet at the Table”
8- Palipotters posing during install day with Mark (the museum curator) in the background
9- Boston friends at the opening reception .rowe.collection
10- Gena and I at the opening reception in front of the kites
11- Pam and I in front of her gorgeous tatreez pillows
12 & 13 - closeups of the collaborative piece
14- Palipotters next to the collaborative piece
15- Me with the kites
16- Hand with shadow
17- Reaching hand

The kite holds a significant place in my childhood memories of growing up in occupied Palestine during the First Intifada. My uncles taught my siblings and me how to build and fly them, offering moments of joy amid curfews, school closures, and the persistent uncertainty of military incursions. In such conditions, the simple act of flying a kite became a quiet expression of resilience.

Decades later, the kite continues to serve as a symbol of hope for Palestinian children. In 2011, children in Gaza collectively flew over 12,000 kites, setting a Guinness World Record and affirming a shared spirit of perseverance in the face of ongoing hardship.

In this piece, a hand reaches toward a kite string, yet does not fully grasp it. This gesture reflects a sense of longing—an incomplete connection that speaks to the enduring aspiration for freedom and self-determination.

This work is further inspired by the poem If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer:

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I musAANMhope

On view at the Arab American National Museum through May 31.

♥️🤍💚🖤

Palestine: Grief and Connection through Clay

Opening is THIS Wednesday, March 25. Reception is Thursday, March 26 6-9pm.

See you there!

Things I’m working on lately:

1- these bowls were actually thrown last year and I glazed them early this year. I haven’t had time to make much functional work this year due to my focus being on my exhibition piece.

2- these arms were slip casted using an aligne mold. I learned lots from it but ultimately some of the shape and texture/details were lost because the material was nonporous and wasn’t drying, so I am currently doing surgery on them. The one on the left is almost there. The one on the right needs a little help 😂. One (or maybe both?) of these will be used for the exhibition.

3- Moka pretending to be human. Sharing because she’s cute and the algo needs it.

The kite is out of the kiln!!

I ran over to the studio last night with my heart pounding and thinking of all the things that could’ve gone wrong. “Was it too risky to glaze the sides all the way down?” “Will the glazes run over each other?” “Will it crack?”.

I’m relieved that it came out just as I had imagined. For those who may not know, I started on this project before Christmas and seeing it come together is a relief. Next step is to figure out the assembly and finishing up the rest of the components.

Coming to ? Then I’ll see you there! Make sure to attend our reception. If you can’t be there that week, the exhibit will be up through May 31st!

Palestine: Grief and Connection Through Clay
Arab American National Museum
Dearborn,MI
March 25-May 31 (reception March 26)

Participating Artists:

madera.ceramics majdaceramics srouji.ceramics

My grid has been quiet but if you’ve been following, you probably know that I’ve been working on a sculpture for . I will be exhibiting alongside 7 other Palestinian potters at the in Dearborn the week of March 23-27. Our exhibit will stay open for 2 months after that if you can’t make it during the week of the conference. Stay tuned for the finished product! ♥️

This year was full of a lot of loss but left me with a lot of hope. I am hopeful for a better year ahead filled with lots of clay, experimenting, growth, patience, and healing.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me and for all your support. It’s the connections through Palestine over the last two years that have been the most meaningful to me. In the next few months, I will be working on a special project, perhaps the most meaningful one since I first dabbled in clay 4.5 years ago. You may have already seen a few sneak peeks in my stories already, but stay tuned for more!

Slowly winding down as the holidays approach. I will be visiting family in Memphis later this month and catching a few breaths before getting back to the grind in the new year. Let me know in the comments what your plans are!

(This bowl may be the only one of these I will ever do. It was an experiment, and a very, very tedious one 😂)

♥️

What an amazing Day 1 at the Holiday Market! These were scooped up today, but I’m hoping to have some new work for tomorrow (fingers crossed the kiln gods will be good to me!!)

See you then, at 45 Danforth St , JP 12-5!