From the California Woods to the Studio

Written by Jaime Franco
Detail of hand-foraged pine needles stitched onto a glazed ceramic rim

Detail of hand-foraged pine needles stitched onto a glazed ceramic rim

Welcome to The Woven Vessel

If you have been a part of my community here at Jaime Franco Art, you already know how much love goes into combining my hand built ceramics with foraged California pine needles. You’ve browsed the shop, seen the finished bowls, and followed along with snapshots of my journey.

But I’ve always wanted a space to tell the deeper stories that don't fit into a quick social media caption or a simple product description.

That is exactly why I am starting this column. Studio Notes is a brand-new addition to the website, dedicated entirely to documenting the raw, tactile journey of my art under the title The Woven Vessel. Moving forward, this is where I will take you on my local foraging hikes, dive into the technical challenges of stitching pine needles, and give you first-look previews of new collections before they drop in the shop.

Three hand-thrown ceramic bowls with intricate pine needle coiling woven onto the rims, displayed together on a studio surface, featuring the artist's historic first-ever completed mixed-media vessel.

A trio of mixed-media ceramic vessels featuring hand-woven pine needle rims. On the far left sits the historic, very first bowl that sparked the entire evolution of The Woven Vessel series.

The Vessel Blueprint: Origin & Elements

  • Foraging Site: Foothill trails, Southern California

  • Clay Medium: stoneware clay

  • Glaze Finish: cobalt wash with clear glaze over

  • Natural Fiber: Hand-foraged native pine Needles

  • Binding Element: Natural waxed thread

  • Studio Method: Hand built, fired to Cone 5, and hand-coiled over 12 hours

Thank you for continuing to support my work and sharing in this creative journey.





Jaime Franco

Based in Riverside, California, Jaime Franco is a multimedia sculptor and ceramicist whose work explores the deep harmony between natural landscapes, slow craft, and physical space. Her artistic journey began in high school ceramics, later evolving through dedicated studio arts and sculpture studies at Los Angeles Mission College and California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where she earned her B.A.

Under her namesake brand, Jaime Franco, her work is born from a deep, personal connection to the California wild. Her signature collection and online journal, The Woven Vessel, details the process that begins on local foothill trails, where she hand-forages fallen long-needle pine needles. Back in the studio, these organic elements are intricately woven and stitched onto hand-built stoneware clay forms over cycles of hours, fire, and quiet reflection.

Through this unique marriage of ceramics and traditional fiber craft, Jaime creates heirloom-quality works designed to bring a grounding, tranquil sense of the natural world directly into the home. When she isn’t stitching at her workbench, she can be found exploring the mountain trails or documenting her raw creative process in her online column, found under Studio Notes.

https://Jaimefranco.art