TOMATO FACTORY
ANTIQUES & DESIGN CENTER
2 Somerset Street Hopewell, NJ 08525 609-466-9833
Monday-Saturday 10am - 5pm ; Sunday 11am - 5pm
By Jean Stratton, TOWN TOPICS
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Talent, imagination, skill, and experience all come together when artisan John Shedd works on his creations.
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At his Hopewell studio, which he built in 2018, he starts the process: planning, designing, carefully taking it step by step, until ultimately bringing it to fruition as it is heated in the kiln.
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Many of the finished items are then displayed at The Tomato Factory Antiques & Design Center, 2 Somerset Street in Hopewell, where he has had a gallery since 2017. Others have been commissioned and then presented to the recipient, whether an individual or organization.
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As he comments, “While a great deal of my work now is commissioned, the bulk of the work is speculative or made for the trade. There is a little more freedom in making things that aren’t ordered.”
DEALER: John Shedd Designs
AREAS OF SPECIALTY:
John Shedd, the ceramic artist behind John Shedd Designs (originally founded as Clayphernlia Gallery in 1979), earned his BFA in Ceramics from Rockford College and an MFA in Ceramics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1977.
For over four decades, he maintained his gallery and studio in a beautifully repurposed, 200-year-old mill in Rocky Hill, NJ, where he had an enduring devotion to exploring glazes and ceramic surface decoration. His pieces, often crafted from high-temperature porcelain suited for everyday use, are both functional and richly sculptural. In 2017, he moved his gallery operations to the Tomato Factory Antiques & Design Center in Hopewell, NJ, where he also built a new studio—allowing him to continue executing both commissioned and speculative work with greater creative freedom.
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CONTACT:
609.466-9833