This is article is part of a series that the Revelstoke Review is doing this market season. The Review will highlight the vendors that make the Farmers’ Market special.
Tucked beneath a plain white canopy, Sherry Cheriton has one of the best, or rather, the breast stands at the farmers’ market.
Cheriton runs Sheramic, which creates mugs, cups, small bowls and vases out of pottery with an anatomic touch. All Sheramic’s pieces have a bum, some have breasts, and others have penises. They’re all one of a kind, and Cheriton explained how she started creating them.
“It was kind of like an accident,” said Cheriton with a laugh.
She explained how she stumbled upon the design while she was learning how to make pottery in Canmore, to cut back on her habit of buying it. While working on a small vase that she’d spun, she decided to experiment adding more texture. The smooth surface of the vase felt inorganic, so Cheriton tried to change it up.
She decided to try adding small bumps to give the vase a different look. Naturally, she started at the bottom.
“I made two bumps, and I was like, ‘It’s a butt,’ like I can’t unsee it,” she laughed.
At the time, she found it funny, so she continued adding more touches to the vase.
The vase was pear shaped, so she added some rolls along the back to ‘make it more realistic,’ which Cheriton singled out as something that makes her work unique.
“I know there’s a lot of other boob mugs out there in the world. But none of them really have these, the back rolls, like mine do, or the love handles. So that’s kind of like my little special touch,” said Cheriton.
From the moment Cheriton finished her vase, and before it had even made it to the kiln, people expressed an interest in buying it. Not wanting to part with the piece that she liked so much, she took it home with her, instead. She refers to the piece as her ‘first lady’.
It’s been more than six years since Cheriton’s first lady, and she’s continued to make and sell more pottery à la nude from her home studio.
Now, Cheriton still has her tried and true pieces, which have the bodily shape that people have come to expect of her work. She’s also expanded to have male figures, and themed pieces. The themes vary from mushrooms to snakes to flowers, but the bodies that the themed additions are draped over stay naked.
As she spoke about the mugs, market goers walked slowly by the table, laughing, giggling, and pointing as they passed.
Cheriton said that reaction is typical, and she’s always happy to see it.
“Sometimes they’ll come up with their friends and be like ‘that’s you and that’s me’ and people kind of try to relate to them a little bit,” she said.
Exchanges like the one she described are why Cheriton enjoys the market so much.
She gets to watch her customers react to her work. As a local, she gets to see her friends come by, which fosters even more interaction. Cheriton credited the community for the reception of her work. The laid-back feel of the town coupled with the plentiful coffee options make for a good fit with her product.She plans on continuing to make individual pieces, and she hopes that more themes come to her.
Sheramic is at the LFI Farmers Market bi-weekly, but Cheriton’s work can also be purchased online.