Erich and Janice Steinhagen began their artistic collaboration shortly after they met in college. Together they mounted their senior thesis exhibit, “Earth and Sky,” featuring Erich’s stoneware pottery and sculpture and Janice’s tapestries, woven fabric  and batik, at Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, PA, in April 1979. A few months after their marriage in 1981, they opened Gallery 33 on Captain’s Walk in New London, CT.  There they exhibited their own work and that of others while maintaining a working studio space for clay and weaving.

Following their move to Griswold, CT and the arrival of their three children, they found themselves immersed in other interests. An invitation to demonstrate pottery at the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, CT in 1995 launched them into the world of historic reenactment and found them a niche in the creation of reproduction 18^th-century redware.

Since then, the Steinhagens have traveled up and down New England and the East Coast, setting up shop under their white canvas tent, selling their work to the public, and introducing delighted children and adults to the magic of the potter’s wheel and the elemental thrill of “playing in mud”.