Meditative mediums

OSAKIS — When the opportunity came in 2010 for Shauna Loxtercamp and her family to rebuild on her husband’s family homestead southeast of Osakis, she saw inspiration on the horizon. Even though the woods were overgrown and the landscaping needed to be reworked, the family was dedicated to restoring the property’s quaint charm. Through that restoration, Loxtercamp said she formed a new passion to create using both ceramic and floral mediums.

Tending to the property became a meditative hobby for Loxtercamp. She said she fondly remembers the challenge of planting in the clay soil, trying to turn the hillside drive into a path of blooms to greet guests who visited the family’s new home. This core memory, she said, played a big role in her latest home-inspired pottery collection to debut later this summer.

Loxtercamp makes custom pottery pieces and maintains multiple roles within the artistic scene near her hometown in Todd County. Every Friday night, she can be found leading open ceramics as the activities manager at the 510 Art Lab in Sauk Centre.

“I really enjoy hosting drop-in studio nights,” Loxtercamp said. “I’m constantly coming into contact with other artists, … makers and people that really like the arts.”

The 510 Art Lab is a member-run makerspace that started in 2019 and offers a variety of workshops supporting many different forms of art and creation in its downtown Sauk Centre location. The site offers a gallery shop and continues to evolve and grow through fundraising events, community support and grants.

During open ceramics, artists can design pre-made, bisque-fired pottery pieces. This means that the pieces have been fired once in the kiln so that they are durable enough to be handled but remain unglazed. Loxtercamp oversees the glazing process and assists as attendees bring their design ideas to life.

In 2024, Loxtercamp was awarded an independent artist grant through the Five Wings Art Council. The council was established in 1977 and is one of 11 designated Regional Arts Councils in the state of Minnesota, providing grants and services to nonprofit arts organizations and individual artists.

“The (grant process) was really straightforward,” Loxtercamp said. “It has enabled me to further learn about pottery, and it really helped me grow.”

As a grantee, Loxtercamp was able to purchase her own pottery wheel and receive one-on-one pottery lessons with Josh Johnson, a potter based out of Glenwood at the time. While working with Johnson, Loxtercamp learned of an opening for a resident artist. Central Square Arts and Cultural Center in Glenwood was transitioning to take over Johnson’s pottery space and would need an artist with knowledge of teaching pottery and firing the kiln who was willing to fill the role. Loxtercamp gladly accepted the position and now hosts open studio nights, pottery lessons and different pottery-based workshops for children and adults.

Loxtercamp’s pottery journey began to unfold in 2020 when she started going to 510 Art Lab for pottery classes. High school had given Loxtercamp a brief introduction, but hand-building sessions taught by Nikki Moritz and Roger Reinardy are what kindled her creativity again. Loxtercamp said the 510 Art Lab has continued to be a great source of inspiration for her. She sold her pottery at the 510 Art Lab as one of 12 featured artists selling in the gallery for close to a year. Loxtercamp has since taken a break from that aspect to explore other aspirations, but she said she loves the opportunity to remain involved with the nonprofit organization.

“Together, we are able to brainstorm ideas we feel would be beneficial to bring to the art lab,” Loxtercamp said. “For example, we are currently exploring what an expanded community space could look like for Sauk Centre artists.”

Loxtercamp’s involvement in farmers markets and the Sauk Centre Festival of the Arts held each year provides her and other artists ways to be profitable while also advocating for more creative outlets, she said.

While growing up, Loxtercamp and her family would spend time together traveling to North Carolina to visit friends during the summertime. One of Loxtercamp’s friends had a mom who owned her own pottery studio. Loxtercamp said she remembers being so inspired by the art of making pottery, starting from nothing and turning it into beautiful, sculpted pieces that were displayed in the studio.

“That’s something that really stuck with me,” Loxtercamp said. “I didn’t think, ‘Hey I’m going to be a potter someday,’ but it definitely inspired me to be creative.”

For Loxtercamp, the pottery all happens in sessions, she said.

“During my busy season, … fall and winter, … I probably spend 5-10 hours a week down in my pottery studio,” Loxtercamp said.

After throwing clay on the wheel, the resulting projects are placed on drying racks, Loxtercamp said. That can take 3-4 days, depending on what the item is and the humidity levels. Often, Loxtercamp will spend an entire day just recycling her clay, which means taking care of her overflow bucket where she keeps clay leftovers. She uses a drill attachment to mix the recycled clay together before spreading it out on a table, letting the water evaporate for another 5-6 days. From there, she re-wedges it down to ensure constant consistency and remove any bubbles. Then, she separates it into portions and sorts it into buckets ready to use for the next session. Clay cannot go down the drain, so cleaning is a big part of the entire process, she said.

“I typically take a bucket of clay and divide it into 3-5 balls; … I’ll spend a couple hours throwing multiple projects,” Loxtercamp said. “Then, I let them dry. Sometimes, you have to come back to trim or put the handles on.”

Loxtercamp will then spend time picking out glaze colors before bringing her projects to Central Square Arts and Cultural Center, where she fires her pieces in the kiln. Loxtercamp has pre-made sample tiles, so picking out colors is not such a daunting task. Glazing can be a little intimidating, she said. A lot of potters she has talked to say glazing is the hardest part because it is the last permanent step, and there is no changing it after that.

“(Wheel throwing) looks a lot easier than it is,” Loxtercamp said. “There were countless times where I just made a huge mess and didn’t have much to show for it. But each time you do it, you gain something from it and realize your progress.”

Using reclaimed clay is one way Loxtercamp said she can keep her hobbies sustainable, and she enjoys using what she has, even if it means a little more work.

That mentality is the same thinking she also applies to her hobby of using flowers to create floral expressions. Using things from around her own property and learning to express herself through floral art is one of Loxtercamp’s main aspirations. She has grown to love working with cut flowers and native grasses, and she said she hopes to combine her love of ceramics and flowers into a niche market once she finds an outlet to support it.

“It can be kind of a tricky market,” Loxtercamp said. “A lot of things are either farmers markets or art.”

Loxtercamp makes ceramic masks and a variety of vessels, including flower frogs, vases, and shallow bowls used for ikebana, the Japanese tradition of floral arrangement that focuses on minimalism, harmony, and asymmetrical balance using blooms, branches and leaves. As she continues to develop her techniques in both ceramics and floral creations, Loxtercamp looks ahead to her next steps.

“My ultimate goal would be to design my own vessels (and) grow my own flowers, combining the market,” Loxtercamp said. “(I would) like to go to markets and other events and sell vases and flowers together as one art piece.”