Farmington Artist Creates Distinctive Crystalline Porcelain Pottery

Anne Melvin has a mirror opposite her pottery wheel, not because she's vain but so she can better watch the outline of each porcelain vessel as it forms.

When a piece comes off the wheel to dry, Melvin scans the lines and proportions in the matte-white clay. If it's not just right, she breaks it up with a hammer.

After a vase or pot is glazed and fired in the kiln, Melvin scrutinizes the now-glistening curves, along with the colors and crystal blossoms that are her signature.

Even then, when a finished piece is sitting pretty on a shelf, Melvin sometimes sees just the slightest problem. She says her husband, Paul, tells her she takes the self-criticism too far, that she should just be quiet about whispery flaws no one else will see.