D. Lasser Ceramics in Londonderry, Vermont

Blues like the deep sea, greens like the shallows. Dinner plates done in explosively imaginative designs you’d almost hate to hide with food. Vases prettier than the flowers they’re made for.

The pottery at D. Lasser Ceramics in Londonderry, Vermont, ranges from functional to purely decorative, from a full line of tableware to outdoor sculptural ceramics and even glazed garden orbs that make glass glazing balls look staid and old-fashioned. And through it all, color with a generous dollop of whimsy reigns.

“My personality is playful,” says founder Daniel Lasser, “and my personality is all over these things. You’re going to get a playful product.”

Every piece sold at D. Lasser Ceramics is made on the premises. The showroom fronts a workspace dominated by two enormous kilns, one for firing and the other for glazing, and displays of finished work spill out across the lawns. Situated on a gently rolling hillside, it’s an impossible place to miss on a drive along Route 100.

It’s surprising to learn that Lasser, 63, has been making ceramics for more than 50 years—but he got a grade school start. “When I was 11, an art teacher brought in a wheel one day so the class could try it out,” he recalls. “I never looked back. From then on, I knew just what I wanted to be.” He’s proud to show two cups he made back when he was that boy, and both look as if they’d find buyers in no time at all. 

Lasser studied ceramics at Alfred University, home of the New York State College of Ceramics, and he went into the business soon after graduating. Although he’s a veteran of the trade show circuit and formerly sold at several outlets, he’s sold his work exclusively at the Londonderry location and via his own website for the past 20 years. “I used to make things with a commercial purpose, repeating designs that were geared to sales,” he says. “But I wasn’t really in it; it was just copying. I went back to being myself.”

For Lasser, that means being focused on all the possibilities of color and on the pigments that potters use to achieve them. “My work is defined by an exploration with color,” he says. “It’s all about the chemistry, exploring what the colors can do. It’s like playing in your backyard—with a purpose.”

D. Lasser Ceramics isn’t a one-man shop. “There are usually four or five [artisans] working here, sometimes more,” he explains, “but they’re not necessarily trained in ceramics.” Lasser does the training, and all of the shop’s artisans work from his designs and color schemes.

The shop’s bestsellers are mugs and dinnerware. Pottery meant for outdoors might be second, including purpose-made large sculptural pieces—maybe even a fountain—sure to add a vibrant touch to patios or garden borders and backdrops. Decorative platters 24 inches across, too large for any but a baronial dining room, are perfect for wall mounting in a sunroom or along a piazza.

Lasser’s customers are as playful as he is. “People mix and match,” he says. “We seldom see them buying whole dinner sets with each place setting in the same pattern and colors—they buy different patterns, in different colors, and mix them up.” It’s easy to imagine a Lasser-enhanced dinner party, with guests taking seats where the table settings most intrigue them. 

It’s just as easy to suppose there are households bursting with enough Lasser ceramics to host dinners for dozens. “We meet people in the shop who tell us they’ve been buying our work for years,” Lasser says. “We’ve been here long enough that by now we have second-generation customers.”

On any given Saturday or Sunday at D. Lasser Ceramics, the number of browsers and buyers usually runs to a hundred or more. And if they miss the weekend, there’s almost every other day in the year: The business closes on just three holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, all days when countless feasts might boast a certain special splash of D. Lasser flair.

Looking back on his love affair with clay and color that dates to that day in grade school, Lasser sums up what has mattered most in his career: “My favorite thing here is sitting at the wheel. I’m a potter by nature.” lasserceramics.com