Potter Kaitlan Murphy builds a tiny home for her dreams

Kaitlan Murphy’s a DIY kind of person, but she’s asking for a little help now.

I sit with Kaitlan and her fluffy mixed breed Arlo in front of a wood stove she installed. We’re in a living room she completely renovated herself as the tea steeps in a teapot she made in a rustic kitchen she also … built herself. (An antique porcelain sink fits into a fir countertop; a custom tile backsplash arcs behind; shelves hang from braided rope.)

Revelstoke potter Kaitlan Murphy’s mugs from her mountain series. Photo: Agathe Bernard

In the next room, her pottery studio fills the old kitchen of her Third Street West Edwardian. Broken wares fill the garbage can, salvaged wolf and coyote skulls sit next to objets on the windowsill, and magazine clippings featuring design pattern inspiration lines the walls and cabinets.

Just outside the back window, her woodshed sports a DIY addition. She’s added an Hobbit-esque shake roof extension to the woodshed – that holds the wood she gathers herself.

After she pours tea into two teacups she created, she explains her story.

Kaitlan Murphy’s feather series works are available via her Kickstarter campaign. Photo: Keri Knapp

Kaitlan, who is a carpenter, made her own tiny house on a trailer, which serves as the mobile retail home for Jumping Creek Pottery, her summer pottery stand. She makes all the works inside

She’s proficient with a hammer and the potter’s wheel, but she’d like to do more of the latter.

Originally from New Denver, she’s travelled to apprentice and learn the craft of pottery. She studied under Ernie Watkins, Robin Hopper, Judi Dyelle and Neil McBriar.

“I’m better at pottery than I am at carpentry,” she offers. “I love building things, but I wake up excited about pottery.”

In order to make the switch from the hammer to the wheel sustainable, she’s hatched a plan.

Last summer she operated Jumping Creek Pottery next to ‘D’ Dutchman Dairy in Sicamous. It was a smash hit. Hordes of customers swooped down and sold her out. She found herself hoping customers wouldn’t buy things so she could make it to the end of the day with some stock left.

That led to 16-hour days trying to keep up with demand, and she faced limitations with her current studio setup.

Despite the great foot traffic in Sicamous, she thinks she could do better here.

“Guys with speedboats don’t buy pottery,” she tells me. Revelstoke’s summer crowd is a little more earthenware.

Coffee mugs from Kaitlan Murphy’s mountain series. The patterns echo the rhythms of the alpine landscape. Photo: Keri Knapp

In order to be closer to the dream of living and working here in Revelstoke, she’s planning to locate Jumping Creek Pottery on a downtown lot, and she’s working on plans for that now.

To ramp up production for the new studio, she’s taken to a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to upgrade her kiln, get proper electrical service to her home and buy 6,000 pounds of clay to build up summer stock.

She’s targeting $25,000 before March 11 and had $4,245 in pledges as of day four.

Inside the Jumping Creek Pottery tiny home sales studio. Photo: Kaitlan Murphy

In exchange for your pledge, you receive pottery from Kaitlan. You can choose what works you want according to a price schedule. When you’re done, you can pick them up in town or have them shipped.

She tells me a bit more about the inspiration for her 2015 lines.

Kaitlan Murphy with her 2015 pattern series mugs. Photo: Agathe Bernard

“Patterns make up our speech, our dance, or songs,” she tells me of her pattern series.

She’s got a feather series, and the mountain series, which is inspired by the lines and shadows of the winter alpine landscape.

If you’re interested in supporting Kaitlan, click through to her Kickstarter campaign here, and don’t forget to share this story.