Elaine Johanson
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elainejohanson.bsky.social
Elaine Johanson
@elainejohanson.bsky.social
86 followers 77 following 12 posts
Writer, ceramicist, photographer. Work published in The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Beloit Poetry Journal. Ceramics at poetstudio.co, poetry book at elmtwigpress.com.

Currently trying to eat my weight in tiny oranges.
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elainejohanson.bsky.social
I’ve been hard at work in the studio and at the wood kiln at Chester Springs Studio, chasing all this form and color. And now these pieces (and more!) all up for the holidays in my webshop at poetstudio.co!
A collection of blue, white, brown, and green ceramic vases sit on a wooden countertop. Some of the glazes are matte, others are striated, and one vase has brown flowers painted onto a cream background. The vases range in shape from small and squat to slim-necked and tall!
December 2, 2025 at 4:38 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
Another feed cleanse photo with locally-grown dahlias and a woodfired ceramic vase.

#ceramics #woodfiredceramics #bouquet
Peach, fuchsia, pink, and white dahlias erupt from an opal-colored ceramic vase.
January 28, 2025 at 10:16 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
Feed cleanse photo amidst all the headlines.
A tan and light gray ceramic vase holds several dahlias. Around it are more small colored vases holding dahlias!
January 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
Finding solace in this meditation by Thich Nhat Hahn on this coldest day.
Clementines – one peeled, one whole, and several in a bowl – on a wooden countertop in the sunlight. Orange Meditation, by Thich Nhat Hahn Take the time to eat an orange in mindfulness. If you eat an orange in forgetfulness, caught in your anxiety and sorrow, the orange is not really there. But if you bring your mind and body together to produce true presence, you can see that the orange is a miracle. Peel the orange. Smell the fruit. See the orange blossoms in the orange, and the rain and the sun that have gone through the orange blossoms. The orange tree has taken several months to bring this wonder to you. Put a section in your mouth, close your mouth mindfully, and with mindfulness feel the juice coming out of the orange. Taste the sweetness. Do you have the time to do so? If you think you don't have time to eat an orange like this, what are you using that time for? Are you using your time to worry, or using your time to live?
January 20, 2025 at 10:47 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
Dreaming of warm days as the cold snap rushes in.
A screenshot of a poem titled "Three Days in Cassis," by Elaine Johanson. Mornings, while you slept, I would walk down the steep hill and visit each shop, filling my bag with olives, cheese, fish wrapped in paper, warm bread; and walk up the hot blue morning to you, waking. Together, we would split the fruit, fry the shimmering fish, leave the cheese to warm; and as the sky behind the huge sliding windows went white with heat, we would begin: bread into butter, white flesh flaking from flexing bones, scooping into bowls heaped with olives and oiled almonds, biting strawberries from their stems, figs from their straw tether, scraping weeping melon from the green rind, learning anew how to be hungry, how to feast, filling our hands and mouths, besides ourselves, beside each other, with each other, again. Cover painting from the Summer 2023 issue of "The Southern Review," showing a girl in a yellow dress, leaning back as she turns away from the viewer. Her hair is tied up with sparkly yellow and red ties. She's either watching her shadow, or dancing, or both!
January 19, 2025 at 3:21 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
I covered this slim little bud vase in an oribe glaze before sticking it in the wood kiln. Oribe is one of my favorite glazes because the copper oxide in it can take on so many tones and textures, like this piece, which looks like it's been left out in the rain.
A sea green bud vase with a slim neck stands in the sunlight against a shadowed wall. The oribe glaze is mostly shiny with a belt of lighter, matte green through the middle.
December 21, 2024 at 2:29 AM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
For reference!
A perfectly triangular slice of decadent chocolate cake with thick, ganache icing on a pale green plate.
December 11, 2024 at 4:44 PM
elainejohanson.bsky.social
It's been a while since I posted for the first time.
December 5, 2024 at 4:45 PM